> Crowding is only part of the problem in big cities.  Some local
> experiences have shown that the experience of "neighborhoods" and being
> part of a small enough social unit to personally know the people who
> might otherwise be your victims makes a big difference in the amount of
> violent crime.  Many street criminals have no sensation of the other
> person's pain in response to the crime.
>
> Patty

Ok, in other words (as I see it) we are just as well-adapted to social groups
of a particular size (that is, small enough to know everyone in them) as we are
to paleo food.  These are the things I'm looking into.  I talked to a fairly
famous anthropologist (as anthropologists go) who works at ASU. His thesis was
on the place of religion in human life.  According to his ideas, religion
survived and survives because it helped humans survive.  In other words, it was
selected (now that's a twist to the 'ol monkey trials, eh?).  Furthermore, he
claims that humans are adapted to be monagamous (spelling?).  Men's attraction
to YOUNGER women (16-22 or so), which he claims is nearly universal, as
opposed to women who are at their peak of fertility, implies that they (the
human males) are interested in maximizing the fertile life of a woman -- marry a
younger woman and be with her for the rest of her life (or more likely, the
rest of their life).  The males in other species (those that don't mate for
life) are attracted to the females of their species who are at their most
fertile age.  Of course, we have to talk about paleolithic fertility, not the
12 year olds who are entering puberty in the modern day in America.  Food for
thought, so to speak.  And we have to include rather complex human mating
behavior, and powerful influence of socialization on human behavior.  But this
anthropologist was talking about traits that were very, very common (basically
universal) across cultures, so I suppose the occasional "outlyer" may exist,
but not be the norm.  I'm going to see if I can't arrange to talk to him some
more -- this is fascinating.  Maybe I'll actually take his classes :)  I wish I
had a more complete picture of the human animal (yes, I know, snap a picture of
a mirror).  If I were an alien zoologist  -  once I figure out what the damn
things eat, now I want to know how they act, when not in captivity.

Erik