"The Lottery", by Shirley Jackson.

This story is basically about an old tradition practiced in the village-the 'lottery'. Firstly, the definition...this lottery in the story is a ritual held yearly, every 27th of June. The head of each family (the oldest able man in the family) living in the village draws a slip of paper. The family that draws a special slip of paper with a black dot on it is the 'winner'. Then, members from this family, along …

…of the lottery) "speak to each person approaching"? Anyway, I think I can quite safely agree with this statement, that the story is more about man's conservative nature than real human cruelty. Concerning the lottery inside the story, maybe it was founded on human cruelty, but has now evolved to become a tradiion carried on out of, maybe, respect for their ancestors, and their [the older people who are also in charge] own traditionalist nature.