"The Lottery"

What a story! I can't say that I felt a warm fuzzy feeling after reading "The Lottery," but I certainly felt something.
First of all, by the end of page 1, I predicted the ending. To clarify, I predicted that this "lottery" was a form of controlling the village's population, so I assumed that certain unlucky people were about to either be exiled from the village or killed. How did I predict this ending? I'm really not sure. I've never read this story before, but I guess I've read things like it or discussed the idea behind it before. I've also found that short story writers seem to have a habit of beginning a story quaintly but ending it with a shocking conclusion. Usually, the reader is meant to be deeply affected by the message this ending holds, and I would have to say that no one can really walk away from "The Lottery" without at least mixed emotions.
I am sure that further research would spell out the message of "The Lottery" as author Shirley Jackson intended it, but I'd like to remain bewildered at least until class, when I'm sure we will be given the answer. I guess I have a few theories: 1) Could this story be about cultures like the Chinese who control their populations, and how this is a barbaric and unholy practice? 2) Could Jackson be intending to send the message that although many traditions should be upheld, as a society, we must mature in our understanding of the world and cultures around us? Therefore, if a tradition begins to seem immoral or outdated, shouldn't we scrap it and create new traditions more fitting with the times? 3) Could this story simply symbolize the coldness and ability to kill that every human heart is capable of holding within it?
I'm not sure what exactly Shirley Jackson is trying to get across in her chilling piece, but I do know that the foreshadowing of the children playing with rocks before the lottery nauseated me when I realized that these were the very rocks they would soon use to stone their friend and mother to death with. I also find it ironic that Mrs. Hutchinson appears so calm about the lottery and only protests when her own life is in jeopardy. And of course, the fact that the entire town, along with her own husband and children, treat her stoning as a normal and acceptable ritual is the icing on the cake that made this story, for me, just as terrifying as "The Cask of Amontillado." I have to say that there is definitely a lot to be learned from "The Lottery," but I'm not sure I would ever voluntarily read it again.