Paper short abstract:

This communication focuses on criminal cases in Algeria and Sudan. Sometimes homicide considered a priori as intentional leads to reconciliation. This leads us to a question: How acts are translated and interpreted as intentional (or not) in the judicial and legal process?

Paper long abstract:

This communication will focus on criminal cases, I encouter in Algeria and Sudan, that was settled with reconciliation and blood money practices. When I did research, I found really central the issue of intentionality. This point has been however little discussed by anthropologists interested in reconciliation and blood money. In theory, and in Islamic normativities, an act considered as unintentional leads to reconciliation and to blood money compensation. It presupposes more easily the granting of forgiveness. And during my research, blood money was easily accepted in case of homicide by accident. But, this is not always the case and we observe sometimes the opposite: homicide considered a priori as intentional leads to reconciliation when homicide considered a priori as accidental does not lead to reconciliation.

This reality and contradiction lead us to assert the notion of intentionality: how acts are defined, translated and interpreted as intentional (or not) in the judicial and legal process?