Hunting and Staring

WE ALL KNOW HOW MUCH WE HATE being stared at. Is there any culture in which staring, looking at somebody for more than a split second, is considered courteous? Isn't it true that pretty mcuh anywhere in the world, if you look at somebody for more than a few seconds, you're risking your life, or at the very least a black eye? All I know is, here in the good ole U.S. of A., I have, for nigh onto fifty years, been very careful about who I look at, and how long I keep looking. You never want to get caught staring at somebody, if you don't want to elicit a negative response from the staree. All those longing, emotion laden looks at girls, always careful to cut it off the very moment her face begins to turn toward me. In most cases, they won't consider it flattering, they'll consider it threatening, but, you never know. People who are attracted to each other tend to stare mutually, as if by some unspoken but well understood amendment to the standard human agreement. Likewise, people who engage in friendly conversation reach the same unspoken agreement; friendly mutual eye contact, like a handshake, is a pledge to hunt no further. We all like to stare at other people, but none of us likes to be stared at. That is because we are hunters, and we like hunting, but we do not like being the hunted. It is not considered courteous, in almost all human cultures, to hunt other people. If only we could find a way to look at people, without fear of violence, even though we haven't known them our entire lives.