In primitive hordes male superiority was lived but not institutionalized

Evidence

We have just seen that women’s fate is very harsh in primitive hordes; in female animals the reproductive function is limited naturally, and when it occurs, the particular animal is more or less released from other toil; only domestic females are sometimes exploited to the point of exhaustion of their forces as reproducers and in their individual capacities by a demanding master. This was undoubtedly the case of woman at a time when the struggle against a hostile world demanded the full employment of community resources; added to the fatigues of incessant and unregulated procreation were those of hard domestic duties. Nevertheless, some historians maintain that precisely at that time, male superiority was the least marked; which means that this superiority is lived in an immediate form, not yet posited and willed; no one tries to compensate for the cruel disadvantages that handicap woman; but neither does anyone try to break her down, as will later happen in paternalistic regimes. No institution actually ratifies the inequality of the sexes; in fact, there are no institutions: no property, no inheritance, no legal system. Religion is neutral; the totems that are worshipped are asexual. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 160

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes ‘lived’ inequality (immediate, unposited) from ‘posited and willed’ inequality — an early articulation of Beauvoir’s situational analysis of how oppression becomes explicit.
• XREF: connects to: Male superiority is instilled through adult attitudes, not spontaneously felt — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 681; Frontier necessity raised women’s value but did not overturn male command of society — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 280; Patriarchy triumphed through men’s biological privilege, not accident or revolution — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 166 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Male superiority is instilled through adult attitudes, not spontaneously felt #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 681
• Frontier necessity raised women’s value but did not overturn male command of society #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 280
• Early domination stemmed from personal superiority absent pre-existing social organization #corroborates (0.80) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 7189
• Patriarchy triumphed through men’s biological privilege, not accident or revolution #qualifies (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 166
• Citizenship functioned historically as an instrument of male domination #expands (0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 831