ANIMAL SOCIETIES — SNODGRASS 441 



the hive. At the end of the season the superfluous drones are driven 

 out or killed, according to the law of bee society. 



The bees keep the hive scrupulously clean, but against bacterial 

 diseases that infect the larvae they have developed no defense of their 

 own. For disease eradication, therefore, they are dependent on the 

 beekeeper who now treats the hive with some of the "wonder drugs" 

 of human medical science. Here we score one over the bees. 



While emphasis has been given to the fact that peace and order 

 prevail among the members of the bee colony, we must not neglect 

 to add that the bees do not extend their moral code to their neighbors. 

 They have no compunction about raiding and robbing another hive. 

 In this we see a close parallel with the international behavior of the 

 human species. 



HUMAN SOCIETY 



Of all the vertebrate animals, modern man is the only species that 

 lives in organized societies in which the members are interdependent 

 on one another. Prairie dogs may live in large communities com- 

 parable to human towns, but the members are independent individuals. 

 There is, however, the palm-chat, a bird of Haiti, described by Wet- 

 more and Swales (1931), that builds huge communal nests in which 

 a number of pairs have separate nesting rooms. The inhabitants may 

 be likened to the dwellers of an apartment house that they themselves 

 have built, but it is not known that they have any other relations with 

 one another. 



Human society has some parallelisms with insect societies, but 

 fundamentally the two are entirely different. The caste system, for 

 example, has prevailed in human societies, but human castes are de- 

 termined by social levels, and are not differentiated structurally ac- 

 cording to the work they have to do. We are at least gregarious, few 

 care to live alone, and most people want to be members of some group 

 within the society, a political party, a church, a club, a labor miion, 

 or a gang. However, we are bomid together by economic necessity, 

 not by brotherly love. We are not adapted to social living by any 

 instinct, as are the social insects. Whatever remnant of an instinct 

 we do have is that of the solitary animal that looks out for his own 

 welfare, even if this involves robbing and fighting members of his own 

 species. Such actions are not crime with the solitary animal; they 

 lead to the survival of the fittest. The primitive instinct of every 

 child is "me first." 



We pretend that as adults we regulate our actions by reason, and so 

 we may. Reason can dictate that the only way for members of a com- 

 munity to live together is for each one to follow the Golden Rule ; on 

 the other hand, it can suggest that advantages may be had by ignoring 

 it. Reason therefore can lead to quite opposite kinds of beliavior. 



