Sedentary agriculture gives motherhood sacred status because property demands heirs
Evidence
This prestige is explained essentially by the new importance that children assume in a civilization based on working the land; by settling a territory, men begin to appropriate it. Property appears in a collective form; it demands posterity from its owners; motherhood becomes a sacred function. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 161
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to classic materialist-feminist analyses of property and kinship, and to Engels’ Origin of the Family, which Beauvoir engages with. — connects to: Motherhood is framed as a sacred obligation rather than a natural need; The institution of inheritance causally produced woman’s subordination to man’s property — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 182; In feudalism woman functioned as property transmitting land to men — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 207 (+5 more)
- DEFINE: Establishes how ‘motherhood becomes a sacred function’ arises from the property regime, a causal mechanism central to the book.
Broader Connections
- Motherhood is framed as a sacred obligation rather than a natural need
#corroborates(0.90) - The institution of inheritance causally produced woman’s subordination to man’s property
#expands(0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 182 - In feudalism woman functioned as property transmitting land to men
#exemplifies(0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 207 - The advent of private property converted woman from sacred being into owned property
#expands(0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 167 - The epiklerate reduced female heirs to procreative tools preserving patrilineal property
#exemplifies(0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 189 - Society coopts the mother’s influence by sanctifying her as guardian of morality
#corroborates(0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 369 - Rape of enslaved women became economically rational once children inherited the mother’s status
#complicates(0.75) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 178 - Religion and social status can be sources of power rivaling property
#contradicts(0.75) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 846