"protected" from what I gather, implies virginity in the context of her family. Once a woman loses her virginity, she doesn't need to be protected by her family anymore, but only by her husband. This is why in the past in the Roman Empire women who lost their virginity before getting married ended up having to work in brothels to make a living and survive, as no men would want them since they cannot be 100% sure that the baby will be theres. The desire for legitimate babies goes back to the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago, it's one of the reasons for land exclusion laws and private property laws. (Notice in most modern authoritarian countries it's nearly illegal to get a paternity test, unless it's court ordered by a feminist government which is unlikely to happen. People from France, where it's nearly entirely illegal, use Spain for paternity tests. It's a big business).retrofuturist wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2019 8:52 am Greetings budo,
I wonder if that is also why (to best of my recollection, at least) why "sexual activity with anyone other than your wife" is not listed under the definition of the lay precept for sexual misconduct, which instead reads...
Metta,AN 10.167 wrote:He engages in sensual misconduct. He gets sexually involved with those who are protected by their mothers, their fathers, their brothers, their sisters, their relatives, or their Dhamma; those with husbands, those who entail punishments, or even those crowned with flowers by another man. This is how one is made impure in three ways by bodily action.
Paul.
As for protected by the Dhamma, if she is celibate, then she is protected by the Dhamma, so manipulating her into breaking her precept is bad merit.
-MN 41“He is given over to misconduct in sexual desires: he has intercourse with such (women) as are protected by the mother, father, (mother and father), brother, sister, relatives, as have a husband, as entail a penalty, and also with those that are garlanded in token of betrothal.”
Since if a woman were to get pregnant while still being dependent on her parents, that would be encumber the family further. So there needs to be a "handing off" of a woman to a new household, hence arranged marriages, dowries, etc..
Basically, being protected means 1) virginity is protected by parents or 2) if she has a husband, she's protected by him, so that if she has a baby, he can provide for the family, and the baby is protected.