The institution of inheritance causally produced woman’s subordination to man’s property

Evidence

Once woman is dethroned by the advent of private property, her fate is linked to it for centuries: in large part, her history is intertwined with the history of inheritance. The fundamental importance of this institution becomes clear if we keep in mind that the owner alienated his existence in property; it was more important to him than life itself; it goes beyond the strict limits of a mortal lifetime, it lives on after the body is gone, an earthly and tangible incarnation of the immortal soul; but this continued survival can occur only if property remains in the owner’s hands: it can remain his after death only if it belongs to individuals who are extensions of himself and recognized, who are his own. Cultivating paternal lands and worshipping the father’s spirit are one and the same obligation for the heir: to ensure the survival of ancestors on earth and in the underworld. Man will not, therefore, agree to share his property or his children with woman. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 182

Categorization

• XREF: Links to the reader’s ADDENDUM articles on sacrifice and on trees-as-infrastructure — property as a vehicle of immortality parallels sacral kingship and inheritance structures elsewhere in the library. — connects to: Property inheritance structures shape the Oedipus complex’s strength. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 339; Sedentary agriculture gives motherhood sacred status because property demands heirs — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 161; The advent of private property converted woman from sacred being into owned property — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 167 (+16 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Beauvoir’s core causal claim that inheritance-as-immortality-extension is the origin of patriarchy’s grip on woman — dense, paradigm-founding.

Broader Connections

• The epiklerate reduced female heirs to procreative tools preserving patrilineal property #exemplifies (0.95) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 189
• In feudalism woman functioned as property transmitting land to men #corroborates (0.92) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 207
• Female chastity norms arise from inheritance, not from natural morality #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 182