Journal
SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE
Volume 34, Issue 1, Pages 7-43Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0306312704040611
Keywords
animal mind; form of life; honeybee; human-animal continuity; language
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In this paper I investigate the scientific understanding of the honeybee dance language. I elucidate the implicit and explicit reasons why the honeybees' communication system has been referred to as a 'language', and examine the ways this designation has entangled the themes of animal mind and human-animal continuity. I end with an investigation of a scientific controversy surrounding the honeybee dance language. I argue that this controversy was a battle over assumptions regarding insect capacities, and a willingness or unwillingness to abandon those assumptions in the face of a phenomenon that undermined them.
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