Doing couple through bodies at the administration

The effects of civil marriage in Switzerland

Abstract

What can the analysis of the administrative management of marriage and its legal effects reveal about the conjugal bond? Analysing the work of civil registrars in Switzerland, this article discusses three findings. Firstly, it shows that the screening of so-called “convenience unions” submits “mixed” couples to an increased control: the fact that marriage allows for facilitated naturalization sheds light on the expected, though invisible in the daily life, effects of the conjugal bond. Drawing on new studies of kinship, it secondly allows considering what substances circulate between spouses – love and sexual substances. Doing couple does not follow the mere order of law but also the order of nature: the conjugal bond reveals the malleable nature of women. Their embodied intercourse with foreigners might change their national belongings, making their reliability as citizens problematic.