From: LouisFors <LouisFors@aol.com>
Message-ID: <fcf1d64a.353b4a2e@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 09:14:21 EDT
To: emweb@fmgmt.mgmt.utoronto.ca
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Subject: Re: Little girls
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In a message dated 98-04-20 00:31:46 EDT, Mike wrote:

> 	Now that you mention it, I have seen very young boys scream, but 
>  it seems to me that it was when they were playing in mixed company and 
>  were more "mimicking" the girls. I don't recall ever seeing a group of 
>  JUST boys screaming, nor do I remember ever screaming when I was playing 
>  with "the guys." I do recall a faint feeling that it was a girl thing to 
>  do and that if you didn't want to be a "sissy," you better not scream.
>  	What do you know about ED's childhood play or exposure to literature?
>  
Mike:

On the question of ED's childhood play or exposure to literature I don't know
nothing.

On the matter of very young boys screaming in the company of girls, yes, I
have seen that.  My three grandsons attend a Montessori pre-school, and,
during their outdoor play hours, where the play is coed, everybody screams
(excluding the teachers who only wish they could scream).  But I have also
seen those same three grandsons playing among themselves, or in the company of
one or two other boys, and they scream.  

I don't know all that much about voice production, and, therefore, don't quite
know the formal distinction between a yell and a scream.  I suspect the
difference has a lot to do with where the voice is "placed" in the vocal
system and the amount of conscious control exercised by the screamer or
yeller.  But even if I can't define it, I know it when I hear it. (Like
pornography, right?)  I think the screams occur most frequently when they are
in pursuit of one another, something to do with the thrill of the hunt.  I
wonder what evolutionary psychologists would say about it.  Do you know?

Louis