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From: robert@fear.UUCP (Robert Plamondon)
Newsgroups: net.singles,net.women
Subject: Re: Re: Why male dominance?
Message-ID: <357@fear.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Mar-86 13:49:25 EST
Article-I.D.: fear.357
Posted: Mon Mar 17 13:49:25 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Mar-86 01:06:59 EST
References: <1270@decwrl.DEC.COM> <1290@homxb.UUCP> <179@ubc-cs.UUCP> <2c7e4342.7005@apollo.uucp>
Organization: Weitek Corp. Sunnyvale Ca.
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Xref: watmath net.singles:11025 net.women:9778
Summary: Look further back

In article <1235@mtx5a.UUCP> mat@mtx5a.UUCP (m.terribile) writes:
> 
> If a culture is to survive when pressured by adjacent cultures, it must
> respond, and respond with aggression.  This aggression may take the form of
> open warfare of or more subtle hostility, but it nonetheless represents
> means of coercion.
> ...

Look all the way back to the social organization of upper primates,
such as gorillas.  Gorillas suffer from high infant mortality just as
primitive human cultures do, and if a mother dies, her child will
almost certainly die as well.  In such a situation, it's clear that
you'd rather have the males doing the life-threatening work (such as
driving off big cats), since you lose only one group member if a male
dies, but at least two if a mother dies.

In human cultures, the same situations applied. If the women didn't
have lots of kids, the population would dwindle. If the women took up
dangerous professions, such as soldiering or seafaring, it would put
their kids at risk, or increase the chances that they wouldn't have
kids, and the population would dwindle.

While the root reason for all this is that men were ultimately more
expendable, it also worked out that the men who went trading,
raiding, or soldiering became more powerful than the people who
stayed at home.
-- 

	Robert Plamondon
	UUCP: {turtlevax, cae780}!weitek!robert
	FidoNet: 143/12 robert plamondon

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