Well, harking back to cave days - perhaps boys all have a firebug stage because fire was so essential to survival for early mankind.
And women were the gatherers of the hunter/gatherer arrangement. So, no longer needing figs & berries we gather clothing and other shopping type stuff? Doesn't sound as important as fire skills. But women are very visual about how they look so always buying new looks is fun. Accumulating has the same thrill for a gatherer that hunting skills have for a hunter.
BTW - I had that explained as the reason why men don't like to ask directions. One of the primary hunting skills was finding and tracking the game. So if a guy couldn't find the way ... he'd die. It is an admission of weakness to ask rather than find. So I was told anyways.
