In reply to:

>
> Date:    Thu, 16 Apr 1998 19:37:30 -0400
> From:    Dean Esmay <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: gender differences
>
> In reading Dr. Heidecker's note, I find myself confused.  The implication
> appears to be that hunting done by men is largely unnecessary and that they
> could bring in more food by gathering and chasing small game close at hand.
> If this is so, why would men bother hunting?  Would it not conflict with
> Optimal Foraging Theory to have men regularly devoting large amounts of
> time and energy, and taking significant risks, to chase after unreliable,
> not-particularly-valuable food sources?

I would submit an hypothesis, which is that not everything is done for
Optimal Foraging reasons, either now or in the past.  Hunting large
beasts may have been done for primarily ritual and religious reasons,
rather than for food.

I note three things of interest:

1. Some of the oldest symbols to which we have access are the runic
symbols, and one, the Aurochs (Ur-Ox) denotes the young man who has
taken part in the successful hunt of a ferocious beast - the Aurochs.
This marks his passage from boyhood to manhood and was a gender specific
rite.  [N.B. A secondary note - we presently lack such an established
rite in our society, save when war visits our country. This lack may
have important psychological and social consequences.]

2. The religion of Mithras and, before it Zoroaster, which was first
associated with the middle east in the area of modern Iran, are
connected with bull-slaying.  Whatever the cosmological significance of
the myth may be, the social significance seems to have been again to
lay stress on male heroism.

3.  No issue is guaranteed to arouse more social upheaval in the United
Kindom than that of hunting, especially fox-hunting.  Deaths occur at
hunts, once only among the hunters, now also among the anti-hunting
activists.Repeated attempts to ban hunting have failed despite
governments of many political colourations.  It is difficult not to
accept that hunting still has a powerful significance for this country at
least.

I propose that hunting is of gender-specific, ritual importance, and
that is the reason for its pursuit through the ages.

Dick Bird
Department of Psychology
University of Northumbria
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8ST

(0) 191 227 4521