Maginot, Éva <br/><br/>
Writing the void 

 -  2022.<br/>							 
<br/><br/> 85 
<br/><br/> For centuries, French anonymous childbirth (“accouchement sous X”) has allowed any woman to give birth in a public hospital without never revealing her identity (to the professionals, to the state or to the child). However, since the end of the 20th century, this possibility has been tempered by new provisions facilitating (partial) access for children to certain information when they reach their majority – if they desire so. Yet, how is this information produced? And what does it reveal about the way kinship is institutionally organised? Recorded in documents written by trained professionals and archived by specialised services, this information is nonetheless the subject of singular treatment whom analysis shed light upon the social construction of kinship. Based on an ethnographic fieldwork conducted amongst trained professionals, this paper analyses the material and discursive fabrication of biographical narratives and shows how the way “origins” are treated reflects an institutional ordering of feelings, ties, and subjectivities – forcing a relationship at the heart of the apparatus that aims at suppressing it.