On Fri, 3 Mar 2000, gordon wrote:

> Not only was she raised on a farm, but the male members of her family were
> also avid hunters. As a child she was constantly exposed to scenes which
> offended her young girlish sensibilities.
>
> It's interesting that females are probably more prone to suffering this
> particular brand of neuroticism than males. I suspect there may be more to
> it than cultural conditioning. There may be some genetic basis to it,
> assuming we are correct in thinking that males historically handled most of
> the H in H/G and assuming the field of evolutionary psychology is valid.

I disagree.

Squeemishness as we understand it would have little benefit
in a H/G society.  While the majority of the big game hunting
was conducted by men, women were certainly involved in the
preparations of the meat (and likely witnesses to the butchering)
and probably "gathered" many small animals themselves.  I
should also point out that we women are monthly witnesses
to a certain amount of bloody goop - not to mention the various
solids and fluids that greet the world along with a baby.

I suspect that your friend is a victim of conditioning - also
called "culture".  Unfortunately, current culture is very against
hunting and that message is aimed rather more strongly at girls
than boys.  I could rant at length about the relentless yet
subtle ways that "proper" female behavior is drilled into
girls.

I find it interesting that many people cannot see the pressures
to conform and how it molds behavior.  This girlish squeemishness
is a perfect example.  When I was in school, the most popular
girls were also the ones who regularly squealed or went "ick" and
anything, well, "icky".  However, when a boy shoved a big weird
bug in my face, well, I was just fascinated by such an interesting
creature.  Needless to say, I was not very popular :)  But what
is this display all about?  I would call it primarily a
dominance display on behalf of the boy with the expected submissive
response on behalf of the girl. After all, the proper paleo response is
to eat the bug, whether you're male or female.

(BTW, while "anecdote" is not the singular form of "data", the
most squeemish person I know is my dad.  I, on the other hand,
don't have a squeemish bone in my body.  As proof I offer
not only my hunting experiences but the fact that I can eat
dinner while watching "Dead Alive" - generally billed as the
goriest most disgusting horror movie around.  I highly
recommend it :)

>
> On the subject of evolutionary psychology, I understand a new book was
> published recently titled "Born to Rape". The authors present a theory that
> rape is a genetic adaptation. According to their controversial theory, it
> should be no surprise that rape is a common crime in modern society because
> our primitive ancestors were often brutish rapists who were likely to have
> fathered many children.

I doubt it's so simple.

When a zebra stallion takes over a herd from another
stallion, he will rape the pregnant mares.  This causes
them to miscarry and thus come back into heat.  But
this is not the normal behavior of a zebra stallion.
It is the behavior under a very specific set of
circumstances.  Crowded rats rape and murder each
other.  Again, behavior that shows up under certain
circumstances.  You can find many other example in
other species as well.  Crowding, limited resources,
societal changes all modify "normal" behavior and
bring about other sets of behaviors that as
thinking animals we find repugnant (I hope.)

Instead of saying we have so many rapists because
ancient rapists fathered so many children (totally
unproven), I think it's more reasonable to say that
something in our culture is triggering these
off-nominal behaviors, like, gee, overcrowding
maybe?

Julie