Discovering cultural universals

We all know the story "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." Well, so do the kids in my host family. I just had to laugh tonight as we were waiting for dinner the boy in charge of herding kept telling the octogenarian of a grandmother there was a hyena in the pen (of course there wasn't). She'd get up wielding a stick and run into the pen only to come back out again and scold him for his trickery. This went on for an hour. Finally the older nephew living with us told the boy-herder to stop scaring him with stories of vicious hyenas. He was also giving the boy a tough time about his size, calling him "kilowatt". Everyone has to have someone to pick on...the kid picks on the helpless grandmother; older children use younger as whipping-boys. And I think that is why more than once I witness small children beating up on animals.