Pre-agricultural societies attributed to women a mystical power over fertility and crops

Evidence

For the Bhantas of India, or in Uganda, a sterile woman is considered dangerous for gardens. In Nicobar, it is believed that the harvest will be better if it is brought in by a pregnant woman. In Borneo, seeds are chosen and preserved by women. “One seems to feel in women a natural affinity with the seeds that are said by the women to be in a state of pregnancy. Sometimes women will spend the night in the rice fields during its growth period” (Hose and MacDougall). — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 173

Categorization

• QUESTION: Beauvoir reads these fertility-linked woman myths as a first-stage mystical Other status, but how much of Frazer’s reporting is itself a colonial projection onto these societies?
• XREF: connects to: Pre-scientific theories of conception mirrored patriarchal social myths — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 81; Early agriculture’s low stakes kept women’s economic power intact and unthreatened; Prehistoric art centered female fertility first, then shifted to phallic imagery — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 178 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Agricultural societies assigned women farming because fertility seemed magical, not technical #qualifies (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 162
• Women’s present situation results from ancient traditions surviving in new economic conditions #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 297