When soldiers die, nations build memorials honoring the dead. The soldier's death--and memorials erected in the name of the his death--prove the existence of the nation-state and demonstrate the depth of devotion to the nation-state. 

Warfare brings about death in the name of a sacred ideal, which often is denied by pretending warfare represents a form of "male aggression" and constitutes a "survival mechanism." 

Soldiers, sadly, are often duped into believing that participating in battle represents a manifestation of "masculinity" (theorists write about "male aggression)." 

The opposite is true: soldiers are compelled to submit to the nation-state and its leaders. Joining the military, they vow "obedience unto death."

The field of "evolutionary psychology" evolved as a collective denial of reality, pretending that warfare is undertaken in the name of "survival." The opposite is true: Tens-of-millions of men have died in wars and did not pass their genes along. 

 The objective of warfare is not survival of an  individual organism (a human being), but survival or affirmation of an abstract idea, the nation-state or religious ideal worshipped by a  group.

The impulse to preserve or defend the sacred ideal is so powerful that human beings forfeit their lives in the name of this ideal (and don't pass their genes along).

HAMAS has a more accurate understanding of the dynamics of cultural violence: "We love death the way you love life."

Death functions in the name of confirming devotion to a sacred ideal (thereby validating this ideal). In the name of devotion to the ideal, human beings forfeit their individual lives (and don't pass their genes along).