Nieft / Secola very eloquently said:
> The other thing is that there is likely a fairly evolved sex difference
as regards killing/hunting. Nothing can be assumed from Tierra's
episode, of course, but in most recent hunter-gatherers it is the males who hunt
> (though there are significant exceptions).
I suspect there may be something to this.  I otherwise can't explain
why *all* the people I've ever met who were into hunting were men.

> There is some talk that the
> repressive mechanism evolved in, say, hunting cats

What is meant by "repressive mechanism"?

> How a lion can take down a young
> wounded antelope and then play with the kittens at home is an
>interesting phenomena, and perhaps evolved as a "niche mental subroutine".

The idea that, in humans, males specialize in this "subroutine" is not
preposterous to me. But also, if I'm not mistaken, human males are also far more likely to
be more vicious toward children, even their own.  So the evolution is
imperfect to date.

Cheers,
Martha