Man And His Ancestor: A Study In EvolutionMorris, Charles
Science
Man And His Ancestor: A Study In Evolution
Morris, Charles
Human beings -- Origin
From these examples, and what is elsewhere known of animal intelligence,
one broad conclusion may be drawn, that all the strikingly intelligent
animals are strongly social in their habits, and that no decided display
of intelligence is to be found among solitary species. This conclusion
becomes almost a demonstration in the case of the ants and bees. The
ants, for instance, comprise hundreds of species, spread over most of
the world, mainly social, but occasionally solitary. The social species,
while varying greatly in habit, all display powers of intelligence, and
these so diversified as to indicate many separate lines of evolution.
The solitary ants, on the contrary, manifest no special intelligence,
and do not rise above the general insect level. The same may be said of
the bees. The hive bee, the most communal in habit, shows the highest
traits of intelligent activity. The bees which form smaller groups and
the social wasps stand at a lower level, and the solitary bees and wasps
sink to the ordinary insect plane. We arrive at like conclusions from
observation of the social termites, or white ants, some species of
which are remarkable for their intelligent coöperation and division of
duties.
Examples similar in kind may be drawn from the vertebrates. Among the
birds there are none more quick-witted than the social crows, none with
less display of intelligence than the solitary carnivorous species.
Birds are rather gregarious than social. There are few species whose
association is above that of mere aggregation in flight. Those more
distinctively social usually have special habits which indicate
intelligence--as in the often cited instances of their seemingly trying
and executing delinquents. Among the carnivorous mammals the social dog
or wolf tribe displays the intelligent habit of mutual aid. The horses,
oxen, deer, and other gregarious hoofed animals have a degree of
division of duties, but their intelligence is of a lower grade than that
of the dogs and the elephants. On the whole, it may be affirmed that the
social habit is frequently accompanied by instances of special
intelligence to which we find no counterpart among the solitary forms,
and that the highest manifestations of intelligence in the lower animals
are found in those forms which possess communal habits, as the ants,
bees, termites, and beavers.
One important characteristic of the communal animals is that they become
mentally specialized. They round up their powers, build barriers of
habit over which they cannot pass, perform the same acts with such
interminable iteration that what began as intellect sinks back into
instinct. Each individual has fixed duties and is confined within a
limited circle of acts, whose scope it cannot pass, or only to the
minutest extent.
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