If we far far enough back, humans and leopards must have a common ancestor. Therefore, it makes sense that we have some DNA in common with leopards and other big cats like pumas and cheetahs. It seems to me that we have some common behavior patterns. First of all male leopards and females have different lifestyles or tendencies, and, I would argue, that male and female humans have different lifestyles or tendencies. A male leopard shows up when a female is ready to mate. After that’s done, he goes back to patrolling his territory. He takes no part in raising his offspring either in protecting them from predators or in providing food.
The female leopard bears her cubs, and then keeps them safe and secure and breast feeds them. At some point she needs to go out hunting to replenish her breast milk and keep herself alive. So she needs to hide her cubs while she is out hunting because they will be killed and eaten if another predator finds them while she’s away. So she needs to hide them in a secure place. The female leopard must provide security and food for her cubs. The male leopard does neither. He is only interested in patrolling his territory to keep other leopards out. He might also be interested in expanding his territory and taking over the territory of other leopards.
These behaviors are analogous to human behaviors in the sense that human females are most concerned about having and raising their babies. Human males, although somewhat helpful in these regards have different concerns. Human male DNA is similar to that of male leopards. They are concerned about maximizing their territory whether that is in terms of land or other assets like money. All the “great” conquerors throughout history have been concerned about expanding their territory. Alexander the Great, for instance was concerned about maximizing the territory he controlled. Cyrus the Great created the Persian Empire by conquering adjacent tribes. Ghengus Khan and his descendants conquered the largest land empire in history and thought they had a mandate from heaven to do it. Genghis Khan claimed to have a mandate from heaven to conquer the entire world. The general policy of the Mongols was that everyone was part of their empire. If you didn’t pay tribute to them immediately, you clearly were a traitorous rebel and by divine right ought to be killed.
And then there was Julius Caesar. Veni, vidi, vici. I came. I saw. I conquered. Roman men were interested in acquiring “dignitas” or status, and the best way to do this was to be successful in war. War is essentially a male activity. In more recent history Napoleon was clearly interested in conquering the world. He almost did it, but he didn’t take into account Russian winters and impossibly long supply lines. Hitler was also interested in conquering the world and suffered the same fate at the hands of the Russians as Napoleon.
And so I would argue that human males and females are inherently interested in different things in accordance with their DNA similarly to leopards and other big cats. Really masculine males are interested in war and the acquisition of territory which in modern terms is equivalent to the acquisition of assets. They are insatiable in this regard. Too much is never enough. Billionaires are only interested in acquiring additional billions. There are some exceptions of course. Some wealthy men are also somewhat concerned about the fates of women and children. In general though they will conduct wars over territory even when the main victims are women and children.
My thesis is that males, similar to male leopards, are mainly concerned about their territory or material assets, while females are concerned about their own and their children’s welfare similar to female leopards. We may have inherited some of the same DNA from our distant ancestors. If you go back far enough the big cats and humans have a common ancestor. DNA is transmitted down through the generations and through the different evolutionary branches. Make sense?
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