Patriarchal marriage domesticated feminine cosmic power into lawful order

Evidence

Feminine magic was profoundly domesticated in the patriarchal family. Woman gave society the opportunity to integrate cosmic forces into it. In his work Mitra-Varuna, Dumézil points out that in India as in Rome, virile power asserts itself in two ways: in Varuna and Romulus, and in the Gan-dharvas and the Luperci, it is aggression, abduction, disorder, and hubris; thus, woman is the being to be ravished and violated; if the ravished Sabine women are sterile, they are whipped with goatskin straps, compensating for violence with more violence. But on the contrary, Mitra, Numa, the Brahman women, and the Flamen wives represent reasonable law and order in the city: so the woman is bound to her husband by a ritualistic marriage, and she collaborates with him to ensure his domination over all female forces of nature; in Rome, the flamen dialis resigns from his position if his wife dies. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 367

Categorization

• DEFINE: Beauvoir pairs virile forces with aggression/abduction/order with law — a bipolar cosmogony where woman is the object of violence or the guarantor of order.
• XREF: Connects to Eliade’s sacred/profane bipolarity and Lévi-Strauss’s structuralist reading of mythic classification. — connects to: Patriarchy mythologized its triumph as a violent cosmic conquest over feminine chaos. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 169; Christian doctrine institutionalized women’s subordination despite early egalitarian impulses — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 204; Nineteenth-century reactionary thought made the patriarchal family a microcosm of divine order — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 253 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Marriage annexes women to the husband’s universe #corroborates (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1109
• Marriage confirms masculine existence but constitutes feminine existence itself #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1108
• Marriage makes woman contingent while man mediates her to the universe #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1196
• Patriarchal marriage serves collective interests, not individual love or happiness #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1132
• Women’s reverence for masculine law stems from powerlessness rather than judgment #expands (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1743
• Women use divine authority to justify power they cannot claim as persons #expands (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1766