Julie,

> I disagree.
>
> Squeemishness as we understand it would have little benefit
> in a H/G society.

I was not arguing that squeemishness would be of benefit to anyone (although
I would not dismiss that idea, either). My thought was simply that the male
psyche is perhaps genetically endowed with a greater tolerance for scenes of
animal death and gore.

A squeemish paleolithic female might manage to survive, but a male born with
an aversion to the bloody death of animals would do very poorly in a HG
society. Such men would be less able to provide food and so would have
little to offer by way of a primitive partnership between man and woman. I
think it is safe therefore to assume that natural selection has left us with
a male psyche that tolerates or perhaps even revels subconsciously in the
sight of blood and dying animals.

It may be true as you say that females were exposed also in some measure as
they were involved in the preparation of food. However the difference
between male and female in this respect would be relative rather than
absolute.

Of course all this assumes our minds are not actually blank slates at birth.

-gts