[78-L] Subject: Re: Collecting vs. 'Investing'

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Margaret Still" <mgstill at bellsouth.net>
> From: "Margaret Still" <mgstill at bellsouth.net>
>> Though there aren't too many women with the record collecting drive, I
>> don't think the impulse is different in men and women.
> Steven C. Barr wrote:
> Interestingly enough...I wonder if "the female of the species" in fact has
> the same innate urge to "collect"...regardless of WHAT is being
> collected...than does the male? NO sexism intended here...but keep in mind
> that I am NOT entirely sure that the "collect" urge/lifestyle is fully
> understood by those whose assigned task is "figuring out" us humans...?!
> Having spoken to MANY "collectors" (not only of 78's!), I would estimate
> that about 99% of them, regardless of what was being collected, were 
> male.!
> Steven C. Barr wrote:
> The actual question here is "What drives certain humans to "collect"
> as many as possible examples of a selected artifact?!...and HOW deeply is
> this drive "built in" to the average Homo Sapiens mind?!
> Obviously, there is effectively SFA in/about the "collecting" drive that
> assists...or CAN assist (or could have?!) the survival of the human under
> consideration! BUT...back in ancient days...DID our proto-human ancestors
> try to collect selected objects?!
> If so...WHY?!
> There seem to be many female collectors of Martha Stewart-type items, and
> there are many female book and art collectors, so the "drive" is there.
> Perhaps women tend to collect more things that can be displayed in the 
> home
> that, to them, make the home prettier, and maybe to others, makes the home
> look a little crazy. You see plenty of these collections at estate sales.
> And don't forget Imelda Marcos' shoes, bought in every color available, 
> and
> often in sets of two sizes.
> Early humans collected feathers and gems and the skulls of their enemies.
> The question remains: why so few women RECORD collectors? They are there,
> and they act in a similar way to the men when foraging for records. I may
> have slightly abnormal wiring, being left-handed and having been good at
> math in school, but, though the other women collectors I've observed and
> read the words of here may all be somewhat abnormal, they aren't abnormal 
> in
> some similar way.
>
Thanxes muchly for the VERY interesting reply!

A few thoughts..."early humans" indeed collected feathers and "gems" (with
the intent of adorning themselves therewith)...but they didn't exactly
collect the skulls of their enemies (they MIGHT put them on pikes at the
edges of their encampments?!)...?! I'm thinking of some unknown (to me)
point in time when some remote ancestor of mine/ours suddenly looked
at a bunch of wotevers...and decided "I need examples of ALL of these"
and proceeded to spend his time/life/money/effort in trying to acquire
exactly that...?!

It seems to me that once the survival of each group of humans was
assured...members of the group set out to complete their "collections"
...right?

So, at some point, humans (or possibly earlier proto-humans) started
to try and collect examples of each and every sort of various objects...?!
I wonder exactly when that occured...and WHY?!

...stevenc