Keith Benson wrote:

> this is a discussion forum, so there is no reason we cannot discuss it,
and at the end of the day, either learn something

Eileen Crist summarized it in the journal "Social Studies of Science"... on
one side, how behavioral scientists have conceptualized the honeybee dance
as a linguistic system. On the other side, she explained how the dance upset
deep-seated assumptions about the "great chain of being," with man and other
higher mammals at the apex and invertebrates in the basement. Author Crist
said her analysis suggests that "if one really does not believe that a small
honeybee has language capability, then apparently no evidence may ever
suffice to prove its existence."

excerpt:

> 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.


Can an insect speak?
http://sss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/1/7

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---