Man And His Ancestor: A Study In Evolution — John Shaqi
Man And His Ancestor: A Study In EvolutionMorris, Charles
Science
Man And His Ancestor: A Study In Evolution
Morris, Charles
Human beings -- Origin
The non-communal social animals, on the contrary, are not thus
restricted. Their intelligence is of a generalized character, and is
capable of developing in new channels. None are tied down to special
duties, each possesses the full powers of all, and they are thus more
open to a continued growth of the intellect than the communal forms. To
this class belongs the ape. Its intelligence is general, not special;
broadly capable of development, not narrowed and bound in by the
limitation of certain fixed and special duties.
The suggestions above offered point to three grades of community among
animals, which may be designated the communal, the social, and the
solitary. Among these there are, of course, many stages of transition
from one to the other. The specially communal, including the ants, bees,
termites, and beavers, are those in which there is almost a total loss
of individuality, each member working for the good of the community as a
unit, not for its personal advantage. The result consists in organized
industries, division and specialization of duties, a common home, food
stock, etc. At a lower level in animal life, that of the hydroid polyps,
communism has become so complete that the community has grown into an
actual individual, the members not being free, but acting as organs of
an aggregate mass, in which each performs some special duty for the good
of the community.
The social animals differ from the communal in that the individuality of
the members is fully preserved. There is some measure of work for the
group, some degree of mutual aid, some evidence of leadership and
subordination, but these are confined to a few exigencies of life, while
in most of the details of existence each member of the group acts for
itself. The solitary animals are those which do not form groups larger
than that of the family, and into whose life the principle of mutual
aid, outside the immediate family relations, does not enter. Each acts
for itself alone, and intercourse between the individuals of the species
is greatly restricted.
The advantages of social habits among animals are evident. There is
excellent reason to believe that all animals, and especially such
advanced forms as the vertebrates and the higher arthropods, have some
power of mental development, some facility in devising new methods of
action to meet new situations. Though their reasoning power may be
small, it is not quite lacking, and many examples of the exercise of the
faculty of thought could be cited if necessary.
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