The Beneficiary : Acknowledgement of Citizenship and Citizens' Voice in Kabylia's Village Life

The article attempts to answer questions around the notion of "entitled person" or "beneficiary", a term frequently used in the legal literature of colonial ethnology. The analysis is based on public events that took place in a village of Kabylie Soummam, from 1993 to the present day, which enable us to study the social reconfigurations within the group. The contribution seeks to demonstrate how this social dynamic calls upon multiple registers of legitimization which find their roots in history. The observation of a series of public actions lead by individuals and families with regard to what they conceive as the proper way to enact their rights informs us on the idea that its acknowledgment is never definitely aquired, as it is reevaluated according to the balance of power in the village.