>
> On Jul 4, 2009, at 7:08 PM, Chris Doss wrote:
>
>> Stoning adulterers is not done out of some individualist capitalist
>> impulse.
>
> It's not done to retain power?
Not the power of capitalists as such, no. Nor do the stoners stone because they gain something from the particular death of the stoned (at least in the ideal instance.) It stands to patriarchy as punishing the thief does to property; a selfless act that preserves the social contract.
Of course this might have some terrorizing function that helps keep the current stateholders in such a position, but I don't see what capitalists would gain from executing adulterers specifically.