Help: Python dumping core

[Mark Conway Wirt]

I'm working on a python script, and the interpreter keeps dumping
core.  I can't get much information from the core file, as 
python (and the module it calls: wxPython) where not compiled with
debugging symbols included.  All I have is really the stack trace:

#0  0x281a7b7d in _atomic_lock () from /usr/lib/libc_r.so.4
#1  0x281a6033 in _spinlock_debug () from /usr/lib/libc_r.so.4
#2  0x281a9520 in pthread_mutex_lock () from /usr/lib/libc_r.so.4
#3  0x2869be52 in wxMutex::Lock () from /usr/X11R6/lib/libwx_gtk.so
#4  0x28528da5 in wxEvtHandler::ProcessPendingEvents ()
   from /usr/X11R6/lib/libwx_gtk.so
#5  0x284fe831 in wxAppBase::ProcessPendingEvents ()
   from /usr/X11R6/lib/libwx_gtk.so
#6  0x284af1bb in wxApp::OnIdle () from /usr/X11R6/lib/libwx_gtk.so
#7  0x28529044 in wxEvtHandler::SearchEventTable ()
   from /usr/X11R6/lib/libwx_gtk.so
etc.

If I'm reading the trace correctly, it looks like the problem is somewhere
in wxMutex::Lock.  I have a few questions:

  1) Such a core dump points to a problem at a lower level than the
     particular script I'm working on, correct?  It seems to me that
     even if I have a mistake in the python code, python itself shouldn't
     dump core.

  2) Short or recompiling wxWindows (and perhaps wxPython and perhaps
     python itself...) with debugging symbols, is there anything I can do
     track the problem?  If my code is doing something stupid to cause
     the crash, how can I trace the problem if, by dumping core, python
     won't give me a stack trace?

I'm at a bit of a loss.  The reason that I like using tools like python is
to avoid lower-level debugging like this :-)

Thanks in advance!

--Mark