TY - BOOK
T1 - Common goals: Kachile - concepts, tools & strategies for a post-conflict environment
AU - Richter, Ulf
PY - 2011/1/1
Y1 - 2011/1/1
N2 - It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind. Voltaire (1694-1778), Philosophical Dictionary The Insect Societies Most insect species appear to complete their life cycles without the need for any signicant interaction with other members of their species except during the act of mating. Other species however, practice group life with varying degrees of dependence on interaction with conspecics2. e most extreme of such dependence is seen in the so called eusocial species that spend all or most of their lives in colonies. ese include some bees and wasps and all ants and termites. We oen refer to these social insect species as insect societies. Indeed, as we will see below, the insect societies rival if not surpass human societies in the complexity of their social organization and integration, division of labor, communication and even their caste systems. A matter of great interest, but probably of little relevance to our present discussion is that (with the exception of the termites) the insect societies are “feminine monarchies”. I borrow the phrase rst used by the cleric Charles Butler in 1634 to describe the honeybee society; their colonies consist of queens and female workers while the males play no domestic role - they merely mate and die. e most striking feature of insect societies is reproductive division of labor - only one or a small number of individuals reproduce (the queens) while the rest remain sterile (the workers) and perform all the tasks associated with nest building and maintenance, foraging and brood care. In addition to reproductive division of labor between the queens and the workers, there is oen further division of non-reproductive labor among the workers. It is this division of labor, rst between the queen caste and worker caste and then between the dierent worker sub-castes that appear to be the secret of the unparalleled ecological success and dominance of social insects as compared to non-social species, insect or otherwise (Wilson, 1971; Wilson, 1990; Hölldobler and Wilson, 2009).
AB - It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind. Voltaire (1694-1778), Philosophical Dictionary The Insect Societies Most insect species appear to complete their life cycles without the need for any signicant interaction with other members of their species except during the act of mating. Other species however, practice group life with varying degrees of dependence on interaction with conspecics2. e most extreme of such dependence is seen in the so called eusocial species that spend all or most of their lives in colonies. ese include some bees and wasps and all ants and termites. We oen refer to these social insect species as insect societies. Indeed, as we will see below, the insect societies rival if not surpass human societies in the complexity of their social organization and integration, division of labor, communication and even their caste systems. A matter of great interest, but probably of little relevance to our present discussion is that (with the exception of the termites) the insect societies are “feminine monarchies”. I borrow the phrase rst used by the cleric Charles Butler in 1634 to describe the honeybee society; their colonies consist of queens and female workers while the males play no domestic role - they merely mate and die. e most striking feature of insect societies is reproductive division of labor - only one or a small number of individuals reproduce (the queens) while the rest remain sterile (the workers) and perform all the tasks associated with nest building and maintenance, foraging and brood care. In addition to reproductive division of labor between the queens and the workers, there is oen further division of non-reproductive labor among the workers. It is this division of labor, rst between the queen caste and worker caste and then between the dierent worker sub-castes that appear to be the secret of the unparalleled ecological success and dominance of social insects as compared to non-social species, insect or otherwise (Wilson, 1971; Wilson, 1990; Hölldobler and Wilson, 2009).
M3 - Libro
BT - Common goals: Kachile - concepts, tools & strategies for a post-conflict environment
ER -