The Universal KinshipMoore, J. Howard (John Howard)
Philosophy
The Universal Kinship
Moore, J. Howard (John Howard)
Evolution; Human beings; Sociology
will, on closer and more rational examination, be found to be
nothing but the pedagogical effects of early environment. Professor
Poulton, of Oxford, who has made many experiments on just-born
birds, says that young chicks learn to fear the hawk and to
interpret the oral warnings of the mother. Cats teach their young to
play with their prey in that cruel manner so characteristic of all
the Felidae, as I have myself observed more than once. A mother cat
will carry a live mouse into the presence of her kittens and lie
down and play with it, tossing it playfully into the air, poking it
with her paw when it does not move, and arresting it when it starts
to run away, the kittens all the time looking on, but never once
attempting to take the mouse. After awhile the mother hands the
captive over to the kittens, who go through the same performance one
after another. After they have practised on it until the unfortunate
creature is almost dead, the old cat will probably walk over to
where the mouse is and eat it up. The whole thing is a _school_. The
mouse is obviously not intended as food for the young, but to be
used simply to impart instruction to them.
‘In popular writings and lectures some or all of the following
activities of ant-life are commonly ascribed to instinct: The
recognition of members of the same nest; powers of communication;
keeping aphides for the sake of their sweet secretions; collection
of aphid eggs in October, hatching them out in the nest, and taking
them in the spring to the daisies on which they feed, for pasture;
slave-making and slave-keeping, which, in some cases, is so ancient
a habit that the enslavers are unable even to feed themselves;
keeping insects as beasts of burden—_e.g._ a kind of plant-bug to
carry leaves; keeping beetles, etc., as domestic pets; habits of
personal cleanliness—one ant giving another a brush-up, and being,
brushed up in return; habits of play and recreation; habits of
burying their dead; the storage of grain and nipping the budding
rootlet to prevent further germination; the habit of Texan ants of
preparing a clearing around their nest, and, six months later,
harvesting the ant-rice—a kind of grass of which they are
particularly fond—even seeking and sowing the grain which shall
yield the harvest; the collection by other ants of grass to manure
the soil, on which there grows a species of fungus upon which they
feed; the military organisation of the ecitons of Central America;
and so forth. But to class all of these activities of the ant as
illustrations of instinct is a survival of an old-fashioned method
of treatment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account