Can An Insect Speak The Case of The Honeybee Dance Language

Can an Insect Speak?
The Case of the Honeybee Dance Language Author(s): Eileen Crist Reviewed work(s): Source: Social Studies of Science, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Feb., 2004), pp. 7-43 Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3182953 . Accessed: 16/01/2013 14:18
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ABSTRACT In this paper I investigatethe scientificunderstandingof the honeybee dance language. I elucidate the implicitand explicit reasons why the honeybees' communication systemhas been referredto as a 'language', and examine the ways this designation has entangled the themes of animal mind and humanI end with an investigationof a scientific animal continuity. controversy surrounding was a battle over the honeybee dance language. I argue that this controversy assumptions regarding insect capacities, and a willingnessor unwillingnessto abandon those assumptions in the face of a phenomenon that undermined them. Keywords animal mind,formof life,honeybee, human-animal continuity, language
Can an Insect Speak? The Case of the HoneybeeDance Language

Eileen Crist
Bees notonly telltheir comrades, bymeansofa peculiar sortofdance, thatthey havefound a feeding also indicate place,butthey itsdirection and distance, to fly This kindof thusenabling beginners to it directly. in principle from messageis no different information conveyed by a In thelatter human case we wouldcertainly suchbehavior being. regard as a conscious and intentional act and can hardly howanyone imagine in a court oflawthat couldprove ithad taken . placeunconsciously Nor is there anyproof that bees areunconscious. 1973:94) (Jung, The honeybee' dance language is consideredthe most complex symbolic systemdecoded, to date, in the animal world.Accordingto ethologistsKarl von Frischand MartinLindauer,'the languageof thebees is on a higherlevel than the means of communication among birds and mamwith the mals exceptionofman' (1996 [1956]: 540). Almost50 yearslater, behavioralscientist thatthedance languageis 'second JamesGould affirms to communicate information' onlyto human languagein its ability (2002: 41). The honeybee dance has been called 'one of the seven wonders of animal behavior' and is considered among the greatest discoveries of behavioral science (Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 69). Von Frisch referred to the language of honeybees as 'one of the most remarkable of theircomplex social organization'(1950: 75). He was awarmysteries ded the Nobel Prize in 1973 in largepart forthisdiscovery.2 Narratingto a laypersonhow honeybees share information about resourcesforthe hive provokesamazement. There is a counterpart to this
Social StudiesofScience34/1(February2004) 7-43 ? SSS and SAGE Publications(London, Thousand Oaks CA, New Delhi) ISSN 0306-3127 DOI: 10.1177/0306312704040611 www.sagepublications.com
Social Studies of Science 34/1
reactionin the scientific literature: beyondextending and refining knowledge about when the bees dance, how the dance encodes information, what resources are danced about, and the like, there has been a deep about how to understandit. Inevitably, perplexity 'the language of the honeybees'raises abstrusequestionsthatbehavioralscientists have often soughtto sidestep:whether man is theonlyspecieswithlanguage;whether 'language' can be definedin a waythatallows forthe possibility thatnonhuman animalsmay possess it; the plausibility of the distinction between 'intentionalaction' and 'non-intentional behavior' to demarcatehuman and animal life;the validity of regarding as 'lower formsof invertebrates life';and thenatureof cognition and awarenessin the animalworld.These topics come under the rubricsof human-animalcontinuity and animal mind. In the presentpaper, I investigate how human-animalcontinuity and animal mind have been engaged and implicatedin the scientific underof the dance language.I do so by focusing standing on how scientists have describedand interpreted the dance as a naturallanguage,and the ways these descriptions and interpretations have been problematized againsta - expectations ofpreviousexpectations background thatdid not includean insectwithlanguage. First,I elucidate the standardsinvokedin the scientific literature to to the dance as language.I show thatthe supportthe sustainedreference use of the concept'language' is neither nor merely facetious conventional. On the basis of criteriaintuitively and deliberately abstracted,scientists have represented the honeybeedance as a bona fide linguistic system.I discuss how the dance is understoodas rule-governed; both structurally stable and contextually statesof affairs flexible;symbolicin representing distantin space and time; and performative, whetherdescribed as announcement, into utterances that order,report,and so on, or translated and the like. announce,order,report, I thenturnto the deeper questionsevokedby the surprising discovery thathoneybeesuse symbols. The employment of the dance as a symbolic code has foregrounded questions about cognitionand awareness, and enabled the use of mental concepts (like remembering, or interpreting, in the scientific literature to describewhat the honeybees understanding) are doing. The implicationof mind has both made the dance language problematicwithinbehavioralscience, and contributed to strengthening the case thatmental capacitiesmay be more generously distributed than we are inclined,or inculcated,to believe (Wenner&Wells, 1990; Griffin, 2001 [1992]; Gould, 2002). The plausibility of attributing language to an insect was called into question,and a scientific controversy eruptedbetweenthe mid-1960s and mid-1970s. I discussthiscontroversy in thelastpartofthepaper. For most scientistsin the honeybee behavioral communitythe controversy was closed in favorof the efficacy of the dance's symbolism to guide bees to resources.But those who contestedthe 'dance language' remainedadamant in theirposition. I argue that the controversy was not about the
Crist: Can an insect speak? FIGURE1 The Round and Waggle Dance
Source: Reprintedby permissionof the publisherfromThe Wisdom of theHive: The Social Physiology of Honey Bee Coloniesby Thomas D. Seeley, p. 37. Cambridge, MA: Harvard ? 1995 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. University Press, Copyright
adequacy of empiricalevidence forthe dance - which turnedout to be involved.It was a of scientists 'beyondreasonabledoubt' forthe majority insectcapacities,and a willbattleabout receivedassumptionsregarding to abandon those assumptionsin the face of a ingnessor unwillingness undermined them. phenomenonthatprofoundly
A Description of the Dance

to When Karl von Frischannouncedthathoneybees use a symbolic system communicate the location of food and other materialshis claim was to say the Such a discovery was unanticipated greetedwith incredulity.3 least.What came to be knownas the 'honeybeedance language' was soon confirmed 1976 [1950]). After von by otherbehavioralscientists (Griffin, Frisch's original work, many more facets about the dance have been that Overall they testify garnered from observationsand experiments. thatenables themto communication honeybeesuse a sophisticated system about the locationand natureof resources. shareinformation whatcolorshoneybees Von Frischdiscovered thedance whilestudying can perceive.He observedthatafter placing sugar solutionon an experimentaltable - to see ifthe bees could be trainedto respondto colors- a one honeybee long timemight elapse beforetheyfoundthefood. But after found the solution,bees soon began swarmingaround the feeder.4He inferred that some communication was transpiring in the hive thatfuncbee to tionedas a means of recruitment. Von Frischthenmarkedthe first findthe sugarsolutionand observedher actionsback at the hive. He saw her perform a curiousmovement thathe called the 'round dance': the bee moves in a circle,and once the circle is completedshe loops around to describeit in the oppositedirection, whenceshe turnsto retracethe same in thesefirst experiments the circle,and so on (Figure 1). For convenience,
10
sugar solution was placed close to the hive; von Frisch concluded that honeybeesperform the round dance forfood sourcesnear the hive. when the Von Frisch soon identified the 'waggle dance' performed resourceis at some distancefromthe hive.The waggledance resemblesa figureeight.The dancer makes a shortrun on the verticalcomb. After it, completing the'wagglerun', she loops around,comes back and retraces thenloops around in the opposite direction returning to trace the waggle run again,and so on (Figure 1). She often re-inscribes the exactsame run. therunmaybe repeatedat But as she is also moving about to some extent, a slightly displacedspot; in anycase, all wagglerunsof the samedance are The 'round' dance giveswayto nearlyidenticalin lengthand orientation.5 the 'waggle' dance after thebee has completeda circleand beginsto circle theotherway:at thatpoint,thereis a brief lateralvibration thatlastslonger and longeras, in experimental situations, the food source is moved farther Von Frisch regardedthe two dances as and farther away fromthe hive.6 discrete types, but this view has been revised and they are presently consideredthe same dance (Kirchneret al., 1988; Seeley, 1995: 96).7 On in theimpetusof tradition, the distinction betweenthetwo dances persists accounts. manytextbook Dances are overwhelmingly about flower patches.When a honeybee discoversa rich patch, she returnsand seeks out her hive-matesin a specific location near the hive entrance called the 'dance floor'. She the dance on the verticalcomb in the darkhive surrounded by performs The dancerpauses forantennalcontactwith numerouspotentialrecruits. and to transfer some of thenectarshe has harvested to them her followers, nature of the dance is (Dreller & Kirchner,1993). The communicative withoutan audience (von apparentin that dances are never performed 2001 [1992]). While the dance is Frisch, 1967a; Seeley, 1995; Griffin, it is also used forpollen, mostlyused to indicatethe location of flowers, when the comb needs waterwhen the hive is overheating, waxymaterials repair,and new livingquarterswhen part of the colony must relocate 2001 [1992]: 203-04). (Griffin, need in thehive,or Dances are performed onlywherethereis pressing for food sources that are especiallyrich. When sources are abundant, honeybeesrelyon theirsense of smell to locate them.There is an inverse of source odors and the use of dances; betweenthe intensity relationship the stronger the surrounding scents,and thus the scentsbroughtinto the hive, the less the dance is needed (and used) to communicatewhere thatdances are executed resourcescan be found.Recentevidencesuggests more frequently duringthe fallthan in the spring- forduringthe latter season both food sources and presumablyodors are more abundant (J. Gould, personal communication).Cognitive ethologistDonald Griffin as forodors and using information of searching sums up the significance follows: 'Odors are used to findfood sourcesnear thehiveor whenclose to a distantgoal, but the symbolicdances are used to reach the general of distantgoals' (2001 [1992]: 203). vicinity
Crist: Can an insect speak?
11
Honeybee researchersagree that honeybees use both dancing and odors to identify the locationof resources(Seeley, 1991; Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]); which of the two will be relied on more, and how their circumrespectiveimportance is weighted,depend on environmental of odor was also noted by the stancesand/or hive needs.8The importance discovererof the dance, and underscoredby the fact that recruitsare assisted by the dancer and otherforagers markingthe site with a scent organ called the 'Nasonov gland' (von Frisch, 1950: 60-66). 'In doing this', von Frisch surmised,'they apparently apply to the food source a to otherbees. It seems to carrythe meaning scentwhichis veryattractive "Come here; thisway!"' (1950: 66). The dance is a code that conveysthe direction, distance,and desirof the flower The straight run ability patch,or otherresource,discovered. of the dance on the perpendicular honeycombcreatesan angle withthe vertical of gravity thatis equal to the angle the bee has flown, withrespect to the sun, fromthe hive to the feedingplace (von Frisch, 1967a: 137).9 The dance is a template- a 'geometricalsymbolism', in Griffin's words thatthe recruits can flyto (2001 [1992]: 195) - thatchartsthe direction the discoveredsource. Distance to the site is communicatedby the speed of the dance. In thedance slowsdown as thesugarsolutionis moved experimental settings, farther away (Butler,1954: 205). Distance is possiblyalso codifiedin the lengthof the wagglerun, whichbecomes longerthe farther the source is from thehive (Seeley, 1995: 39). According to Griffin, 'the detailednature of distance communication has been difficult to determine'.Given that both the rate of circlingand the lengthof the waggle run correlatewith distanceinformation, 'it is not possible fromcurrently availabledata to be certainwhichproperty... is actuallyperceivedby otherbees and used to determinethe distance theywill fly' (Griffin, 2001 [1992]: 197-98; see also Michelsen et al., 1989). Furthercomplicating mattersis the finding thatit is not distanceper se thebees indicate,but rather the effort needed to arrive at thedance location;thedance slowsdownwhenthesiteis uphill or thewindis contrary to therequiredflight route(Lindauer, 1971 [1961]: In addition to directionand distance,the dance communicatesthe of a resource(Lindauer, 1971 [1961]: 34; Butler,1954: 203). desirability Researchershave long maintainedthat desirability is expressed in the dance's 'liveliness' or 'enthusiasm': the richer the source, the livelier the dance. Accordingto Griffin, 'vigoror intensity... is easilyrecognized by experienced observers' (2001 [1992]: 198). Martin Lindauer, von Frisch'smostwell-known studentand colleague,observedthatdesirability is also communicatedby dances for living quarters,when part of the colonyendeavorsto relocate:
A dance foran inferior dwelling place is performed quite sluggishly. This but so striking is, indeed, a subjective characteristic, thatanylaymancan a sluggishfroma livelydance. Moreover,it can be estabdifferentiate lishedthata sluggish dance alwayshas fewer bees as dance followers than
88-89).10
12
which dance, A lively a few seconds. up after a lively one,anditis broken even minutes, can lastmany to announce, qualified dwelling has a highly become manymorenewcomers hours,and it is obviousthatthereby (1971 [1961]: duration. thanby a danceof short and informed alerted 48) Like Recent studiesemphasizedance durationas the sign of desirability. Lindauer beforehim, Seeley observesthatthe longerthe dance lasts the alacrity harvesting in greater reaches,resulting morebees the information impression (Seeley, 1995: 92). But Seeley also agreesabout the subjective of 'highlyenergetic'dances for desirable sources, and close analyses of that theprecisemechanicsof movement videotapeddances have identified 2001 produce the impressionof liveliness (Seeley, 1995: 92; Griffin, [1992]: 198). In the late 1950s, AdrianWennerdiscoveredthatsounds accompany perceivedby the waggledances (Wenner,1962). The sounds are probably 2001 [1992]: (Griffin, vibrations substrate as and airwave honeybees " bees, mechanical with and experiments 199-201). Both observations, suggestthat sounds are crucial, for workerscannot be recruitedwhen dances are silent(Michelsen et al., 1989; Dreller & Kirchner,1993: 321; Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 112). Researcherssuspectthatthe sounds of the site,but theirprecise about the desirability may conveysomething 2001 [1992]: 201). role or meaningremainsunknown(Griffin,
Why Call it Language?

The question of language in the animal world is trickyin requiring of comparisonwithhuman language.The problemis thatifthe yardstick human language is too strictthen language may be excluded, fromthe features outset, fromother species. On the other hand, if the defining abstractedfromhuman language are too general,there is a danger of the notion of language, such that all sorts of signals (for attenuating example, alarm calls or matingcalls) could count as linguistic.So the question becomes whethercriteriacan be abstractedthat are general enoughto include otherspecies,yetrobustenoughto exclude all manner from of gestures becoming'language'. has honeybee communication the Since early days of its discovery, not without often than more skeptical been called the 'dance language', qualms. Occasionally,'language' is scare-quotedto indicatereservations Yet in contrast to to insectcommunication. about itsverbatim applicability is of emthe purelyfigurative usage of 'dance', the concept 'language' betweenthe dance language vein. Robust affinities ployedin a moreliteral fromintuited in and human language are expressed severalways,ranging the to deliberatecomparisons.In the next sections,I identify similarities in the scienis as wayshoneybeecommunication conceptualized language stable and simultaneously it is describedas rule-governed, tific literature: idiom. a and performative a symbolicsystem, dynamic,
13
The Dance as a Stableand DynamicRule-Set in thatfairly reliablerules The dance is graspedas a rule-governed activity, can be formulatedfor how, when, and why dances are performed.I and pragreconstruct the rule-setfromknowledgeabout the structural of the dance sharedby the honeybeescientific commumatic regularities describedin behavioraland generalbiologytextbooks. nityand routinely
The rule-set of the dance

* In dancing,followthe standardtemplatethat conveysdirection, distance, and desirability inSome individualvariability the code is fairly notwithstanding, variantand precise (? 20-30? fordirection)in communicating the coordinatesof the resource. Dance the mosturgently requiredresource The dance is a systemfor dealing with colony needs. Resource priorities are not preset,but contingent on such needs. For example, if pollen supplies (a protein source) fall beneath a certain minimum in the hive, dances will recruit followersto pollen sources. Everything being equal, dance fornectar The carbohydrate nectarthathoneybeesconvert intohoneyis their most important food item. If nothingelse is required,dances will inform about flower ordinarily patches.'2 Everything being equal, dance forthe closestsource When the same qualityfoodis offered at twodifferent the distances, honeybees visitingthe nearer location are more likelyto dance (Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 96). If the discoveredresourceis rich and reliable,onlythen dance about it Dances are not executed indiscriminately, but only for rich resourcesthatare best exploitedswiftly and by greatnumbersofbees. Dances may not be used at all, if resourcescan be located strictly the throughsmell. Only afterrepeated visits have demonstrated of a source will a recruitdance forit (Gould & Gould, reliability 1995 [1988]: 95). If thereis urgent need in the hive,thendance even forresourcesthat are not rich 'Prudence disappears duringtimes of extremedearth' (Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 95). The rule to dance onlyforrich,reliable sourcesis suspendedifthereis direneed in the hive.What is called - how richa sourceneeds to be forthebees to the 'dance threshold' dance about it - is not fixed, but shifts accordingto colonyneeds or environmental parameters (Seeley, 1995: 102-07). Dance at the designatedplace in the hive There is a specific locationin thehivefortheperformance ofdances referred to as the 'dance floor'.
14
Never dance alone The dance is not a mechanical reactionupon discoveryof a resource. Honeybees dance only withina communicative context, interrupting to engage in physicalcontactand food exchangewith theirfollowers. That a rule-setforthe dance can be extrapolated is integral to its understandingas language. As Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote about attributing language to a newlyencounteredtribe: there should be 'a regularconnexion [sic] between what they say, the sounds they make, and their actions' (1968 [1953]: section207). If the honeybeesare consideredas a non-humantribethatevincescommunicative behavior,fortheircommunicationto count as linguistic it must exhibitregularity in structure and use. But whileregularity is a necessary it is insufficient feature, by itself for communication to be robustly comparable with language - a degree of is also required.Both orderand complexity complexity have been identifiedas keydimensions of human language (Bennett,1976). One aspect of thecomplexity ofthedance rule-set residesin itsintricacy: ifit consistedin justone or tworules,thenreference to it as a 'language'maynothave been sustained. The dance also exhibits in its versatile complexity employment, whichI discuss later. Human beings followgrammatical and pragmaticrules of languageuse with a high degree of reliability and withoutdeliberation.'3 'When I in a widely cited aphorism,'I do not obey a rule', wroteWittgenstein choose. I obey the rule blindly' (1968 [1953]: section 219, emphasis in original). PhilosophersG.P. Baker and P.M.S. Hacker argue that this to the primacyof action - not to passage was intendedto call attention expose human mindlessness:blind compliance with rules is not 'the but the blindnessof certitude. blindnessof ignorance, I knowexactly what to do' (1984: 84, emphasis in original). Observance of rules in human interactionimplicates communicativecompetence - a fairlyeffortless capacityto followshared rules - withoutany reflective knowledgeabout themrequired. of a rule-set forthe dance language Thus, the extrapolation does not implythat the honeybeesare deliberately following rules, only thattheycan be seen to abide by themand use themcompetently. The dance is portrayed as a templatethatis used by the honeybeesin a variety of ways.While its formis structurally in applicationthe invariant, dance is responsiveto environmental conditionsand hive requirements. The direction, markers are immutable, but the distance,and desirability sources sought and danced about are not rigidlyfixed.Like order and thetwinfeatures ofstability and dynamism have been identified complexity, of human language; forexample,a relatively as core features fixedsyntax of an indefinite numberof new sentences.Stability enables the generation of speech. Conversation and dynamism are also evidentin the pragmatics accommodatesan open-endedrangeofsocial situations, but also embodies invariantstructural featuresunconstrainedby particulars(see Coulter, & Heritage,1984). In a ground-breaking 1983; Heritage,1984; Atkinson
Crist: Can an insect speak? FIGURE2 The Code at a Glance
15
00~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0
Source: Reprinted ofthepublisher by permission from Bees:Their Chemical and Vision, Senses, Language by Karl von Frisch. Cornell, NY: Cornell University Press, Copyright C) 1950, 1971 Cornell University.
paper, ethnomethodologists and Gail Harvey Sacks, Emanuel Schegloff, demonstrated thatthe rules of turn-taking in conversation Jefferson constitute a 'formalapparatuswhichitself is context-free, in such waysthatit can, in local instances of its operation,be sensitiveto and exhibitits to variousparameters sensitivity of social reality in a local context'(Sacks et al., 1974: 699-700). Behavioralscientists do not explicitly describethe dance as 'contextfree'and 'context-sensitive', it along these yettheir representations portray lines. Its form is always recognizablythe same, but it accommodates different purposes, shifting circumstances, urgentneeds, and unprecedentedevents;whilestructurally identicalevery time,it is also contextually flexible.The scientificunderstandingof the dance can be succinctly Sacks et al. (1974): 'The honeybeedance encapsulatedby paraphrasing language is a formalapparatuswhich itselfis context-free, in such ways thatit can, in local instancesof its operation, be sensitive to and exhibit its context-free dimension of the dance is rendered,for example, by von Frisch:'The bees orientthe straight portionof the dance at the same angle to the forceof gravity as the angle theyhave flown withrespectto the sun fromhive to feedingplace' (1950: 77). It can also be duringthe flight delivered pictorially (see Figure 2). The context-sensitive dimensionhas emergedin a variety of findings aftermore than 50 years of research.The empiricalfindings about the dance can be classified undertwoheadings:responsiveness to local context (as dances trackvaried and changingenvironmental parameters)and to
sensitivityto various parameters of social realityin a local context'.The
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social reality(as dances change accordingto colony needs and communicative feedback). I summarize certain findingsthat demonstratethe sensitivity of the dance to factors external and internal to the hive. of the dance to local context: Sensitivity * Dances gauge shifts of resourceavailability Dances are effective in monitoring changesin qualityand quantity of availableresources.Changes in flower patchescan occur swiftly, sometimeswithinhours; pollen peaks last 2-3 days. Dances can track these changes, enabling the colony to keep pace with a dynamic, competitive,and often ephemeral environment(see Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 88; Seeley, 1995: 54ff.,88).14 Dances are gauges of news There is anothersense in which the dances reportnews. If two feeders equidistant are made available- one withpoor qualityfood, the otherwithrich - most dances will, of course, be forthe rich source.If thepoor stationis changedto thesame qualityfood as the richone, bees experiencing thechangedance moreoften thanthose alreadyaccustomedto therichsource.The dances fortherespective sites thus gauge the relative change of one resourcein comparison to the otherratherthan reflecting theirabsolute status.'Bees are optimists',Gould & Gould note, 'exaggerating positive turns in fortune ...' (1995 [1988]: 96). Dances are sensitive to weather There is circumstantial in the executionof dances. If a flexibility stormis approaching,bees foraging at distantsites stop dancing about those sites,while bees foraging near the hive conrelatively tinueto do so (Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 96). The audience of the dance takesthe lay of the land into account If a bee trained to feedfrom an experimental in a boat,in the station middle of the lake, subsequently dances thislocation,she is apparunable to recruit bees (Gould & Gould, 1984). (I discuss this ently in detaillater.) experiment
of the dance to social reality: Sensitivity * * Dances are alwaysaddressed withempty hivesrevealthatbees neverdance without Experiments an audience. Dances are sensitive to information receivedfrom fellow workers Dancers modify their behaviorin responseto communication about what is required in the hive. A dancer whose resource is not as desirableor necessaryas anotherdancer'swill stop dancingforit; dancers'listento the"applause" oftheunloaders' (Gould & Gould, water 1995 [1988]: 99). For example,when the hiveis overheating to is requiredto cool it down. Bees carrying nectarfindit difficult it to worker transfer to bees carrying water. Water bees, in contrast
17
'are relievedof theirburdenswithgreatgreed' (Lindauer, carriers the hive,and 1971 [1961]: 24). The wateris depositedthroughout fanningby workerbees creates a circulationof air that cools the herself mustrun about hive.After the hivehas cooled, the collector attitude', the hive to unload the water she carries.'This rejecting concluded Lindauer,'containsthe message"Waterneeds fulfilled", and the water collectingwill thus stop' (Lindauer, 1971 [1961]: 24).15 Dances are used to share,and compare,information This applies to the most innovativeuse of the dance - during swarmingwhen part of the colony must relocate due to overThis is a first-time situation thatno bee has everexpericrowding. and enced, yet the dance is put into operationas an explorative tool about relocationsites (Griffin, 2001 [1992]: communicative 204). Several 'scouts' travelconsiderabledistances to investigate potentiallivingquarters,and thenreturnand dance, on top of the swarm, the location and quality of the cavitiesvisited. Dancers that attendeach other'sdances. If the cavity learnedabout is better she may switchto dancingfor the one a scout previously reported, the superiorone, or (in most cases) stop dancing about the less desirablesite (Seeley & Buhrman,1999: 29-30). Behavioralsciento this switchas a 'conversion' (Butler, 1954: tistshave referred winnowing procedure 165). By means of a gradualand systematic which researchers characterize as the bees' 'reachingconsensus' fewer and fewer cavitiesare danced foruntilall dances are about the single best cavityto which the swarm relocates (Lindauer, 1971 2001 [1992]).16 [1961]; Seeley & Buhrman,1999; Griffin, and animal Keeping in focushow the themesof human-animalcontinuity in the honeybeeliterature, mind are foregrounded it is important to note an emergentquality of the dance as a structurally stable and flexibly The dances are deployedto meet various colony needs; applied system. environmental to comconditions;responsive changedto monitor shifting munication and switched on thebasis ofsuperior informawithhivemates; tion fromotherdancers.As a whole,thesefeatures suggestthatthe dance is a tool used by thebees, rather thana behavioral emitted. pattern rigidly This implicationis acknowledged in the literature.For example, the authors of the textbookLinguistics note that honeybees do not dance thatthis'indicatesthatthe dance is not withoutan audience, and remark an automaticresponseconditioned to the hivewitha by the return merely rich supply of food' (Akmajian et al., 1987: 14). In his Animal Minds, Griffin devotesa largesectionto the honeybeedance in whichhe emphasizes its multi-purpose uses, and the fact that dancing is not executed the enterprising mechanically(2001 [1992]: 190-211). He highlights ofthe dance system fornew quarters, whenit is employed in a deployment situation. The same code indicatesthelocationand 'totally unprecedented
18
qualityof something as different fromfood or wateras one can imagine' (2001 [1992]: 205). The enterprising, dynamicapplicationof the dance meets Griffin's conceptionof 'versatility', which he argues is a plausible criterion of mindful actionin the animalworld. Turn-of-the-20th-century naturalist, Maurice Maeterlinck,raised a question afterdescribing the queen's excitement duringswarming: 'Does this prodigiousemotionissue fromher, or is she its victim?'(1901: 79). Paraphrasing Maeterlinck, the same questionmightbe posed about dancing: 'Does thisprodigiousdirection-giving system issue fromthe bees, or are theyits victims?'In otherwords,do honeybeesmean what theysay? Whilethisquestionmaynot be answerable in scientific or otherconsensual contexts, the honeybees'versatile and flexible employment of theirdance suggests thatit is a reasonablequestionto pose."7This alone is intriguing, and, as I discuss shortly, also vexingforsome. I have discussedhow the factsabout dancingcan be reconstructed in terms of a rule-set,which is both context-free (a fixed template) and context-sensitive (responsiveto external conditions,internaldemands, and communicative feedback).I now turnto morerobuststandardsof the dance-as-languageinvoked in the scientific literature: its symbolic and dimensions. While the symbolicand performative performative aspects are inextricably connected, these dimensionsmerit separate discussion for in distinctways. Scientistsexplicitly they are represented point out the ofthedance as a linguistic feature ofhoneybeecommunication. symbolism The performative forceof the dance, on the otherhand, emergesimplicitly - forexample,whenit is in casual references to the actionsit accomplishes said to 'announce' or 'report'a discovered resource.
The Dance as Symbolic

The factthatthedance symbolically in theworld represents statesofaffairs is regardedas its most spectacularfeature. On thisbasis alone, the dance has been appraisedas linguistic behavior. Prominent in honeybeebehaviorand ecologyhave underresearchers scored that the bees use a symbolicsystemto representand transmit knowledgeabout the world.With characteristic eccentricity, J.B.S. Halwithfourvariables, dane describedthe dance as 'a propositional function translated as follows. "There is a sourceoffood smelling ofA, requiring an B to reachit,in direction effort C, of economicvalue D" ' (1952: 62). Von Frisch and Lindauer maintained that'the dances of the bees . . . transmit the knowledge of significant facts' (1996 [1956]: 540). After summarizing of the dance, Lindauer noted that'there the communicative achievements is no formof communication in the animal kingdomcomparableto the dance of the bees. Throughsimplesymbolicsigns,the bees communicate richin content to each othera factualmaterial whentheyannouncea good food source or suitable dwellingplace' (1971 [1961: 59). E.O. Wilson wrotethatwhatdistinguishes thewaggledance 'is thatit is a truly symbolic a that the messagehas been given' message guides complexresponseafter
19
(1971: 262). Jamesand Carol Gould observethat'the dance communication system is called a languagebecause it satisfies all the intuitive criteria that have been posited fora true language.The dance refers to subjects in timeand space' (1995 [1988]: 59-60). AndThomas Seeleynotes distant that'a waggledance is truly a symbolic message,one whichis separatedin time and space from both the actions on which it is based and the behaviorsit will guide' (1995: 36). The firstcompelling indication of the representational nature of the dance was thatexperimenters use the could, without priorknowledge, information it encoded to findthe indicatedlocation. Integralto the discoveryof the dance language was breaking itscode,thereby expandingits circleof sharedmeaningto includehumaneavesdroppers. Decipheringthe code supportedthe view that the recruitedbees themselves understand and act on the encoded information; it was counter-intuitive to regardits representational natureas an accidentalfeature.'8Von Frischclaimedthat, using a stop-watch, he could discern'how far a dancingbee has flown', fromwhichhe deduced that'the bees in the hive can also understand the meaningof the dancer'srateof turning and can perceivethe distancethey mustflyto reach the food' (1950: 73-74; emphasisadded). Accordingto Lindauer, the dance came to be regardedas a native code afterit was decipheredby scientists, who could arriveat the danced location even beforethe bees. He used thisas an argument to dispel skepticism:
Some people who hear about the dance of the bees forthe first timemay be skepticalabout the possibility of the bees being able to communicate, by means of symbols, such exact information the locationof a concerning small spot somewhere in the outdoors.However,thereis no betterproof forthe correctness of the interpretation of the dance of thebees, as it has been givenby Professor von Frisch than the experiment just described. The nestingplace was completelyunknownto us beforehand, for the scoutingbees had chosen it themselves. We wereable onlyto observethe dancingbees in the swarmand to decide from theirbehaviorthe location of whattheyhad found.We did not followthe swarmas it movedinto its new dwelling;we were there at the futurenestingplace hours before its arrival.(1971 [1961]: 38-39; see also Michener,1974: 133)
behavioral Contemporary sciencetakesit as a factthatdances inform fairly reliably about the external world.The reliability of the dance's symbolism has led to an intriguing in behavioralscience: the dances are development used by scientists as a means ofstudying whereand how honeybeesforage. Seeley explains:
How could we acquire an overviewof the colony's foraging operation? The technique of directly a colony's thousands of foragers tracking to theirworksiteswould certainly not succeed. One cannot even trackone bee as she fliesawayfromthehive,let alone thousands.So we turnto an indirect, but powerful techniquepioneeredby one of Karl von Frisch's students:let the bees inform us wheretheyare going by means of their recruitment dances. (1995: 48)
The symbolism of the dance is no longeronlya subjectmatter of scientific inquiry,but has been incorporatedinto scientific methodologyas 'an
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about honeybee technique'forgleaninginformation indirect but powerful foragingpatterns.The dance can be regarded as a 'technique' in the Latourian sense as well: a mode of operationthatorganizes'data' into a of the surrounding meaningful overviewabout the state and productivity - an overview can understand thatboth honeybeesand scientists environs and utilize(see Latour, 1999: 209-10). The dance is a source of informaand has now also become one for the scientists tion for the foragers, theirforaging behavior.The bees have thus been incorporated studying in the generation actors,partners process as full-fledged into the scientific but are spoken forby scientists of scientific knowledge, who are not simply granteda reliable,independentvoice to speak to scientists(c.f. Callon, 1989; Callon & Latour, 1992).
The Dance as Performative

black-boxed dance is fully dependability of therecruitment The referential in its instrumental 'reading'dances is a means for'determinuse, whereby food' (Seeley, 1995: 49). The are gathering ing wherea colony'sforagers activity, indicatorof foraging dance as a symbolictemplate,trustworthy ofcontingencies tracker are takenas givensin thismethodoand expedient contentinto a the dance's informational Integrating logical prescription. is a markof how real scientific database, withoutdemurralor skepticism, natureis considered.And it is not simplythe dance's its representational referential quality that is consideredindisputable,but also that what it is acted upon bythebees. The dance is seen as followed through represents by action that matches its message; in an irreducibleway, observers understandit as promptingaction on the part of attendingbees. To scientists J.L.Austin,behavioral languagephilosopher paraphraseordinary withdancing'. take it thathoneybees'do things Austin analysed In his classic work How to Do ThingsWithWords, betweenlanguageand action,whereby force'as theinterface 'performative of an action' (1975 [1962]: 'the issuingof the utterance is the performing are command6). Familiarexamplesof actionsaccomplishedlinguistically promising, ing, warning,announcing,advising,apologizing,threatening, Austinmade a landmark and the like.Withhis analysisof performatives, his concharacterized contribution to the studyof language. He himself the ingrainedassumptionabout language thatto tribution as questioning is 'alwaysand simply to statesomething'(1975 [1962]: 12, say something emphasisin original). the dance is The most spontaneousand ubiquitousformof depicting in terms of the actions it accomplishes: the dance is described as an it is said to a summons,a recall to action, or a recruitment; invitation, or guide. For example,von Frischwrotethatthe dance announce,report, is an 'invitation whichnot onlyrecallstheformer collecting groupto action the working but also recruits party' (1967a: new membersto strengthen that maintained he idiom on the elsewhere, again performative 4). Relying
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the dancer 'announced its discovery at home' and that'it is clear thatthe dance insidethehivereports the existence offood' (1950: 69, 72). He also to flowers describedthe dancer as 'guiding'recruits (1950: 83). Lindauer to the dance as a 'recruiting also used performatives, referring system'and 'soliciting'; he maintained that the dancer 'announces her discovery', and described followersas 'obeying summons' (1971 [1961]: 33, 23). Throughouthis workWisdom oftheHive, Seeley employsthe performative dance'. Performative description'recruitment concepts express the inferencethatthereis a meaningful semanticlink,and continuity of action, between the executed dance and the subsequent harvestat the danced location. call the dance an Austinian While scientists do not explicitly performative, theyroutinely deploy a vocabularyof announcing,reporting, sumand guiding.In one moning,recruiting, soliciting, inviting, commanding, guise or another,this vocabularyessentially conveysthat the dance tells whereresourcesare to be found.Its performative forcecan thusbe nested underthe conceptualauspices of 'telling'. The oblique reference to telling, in theperformative interred mode, surfaces openlywhenscientists translate the dance's message. Translationsare imaginative or 'renderiterations, ings', of the dance message in the formof human statements. While used as metaphoricalturns-of-phrase, in they are also realistically functional the meaningof the dance. conveying Von Frisch had a predilectionfor quoting what the bees say with therounddance dancing:'The messagebrought by a bee as she performed seemed to be a verysimpleone, one thatcarriedthemeaning"Fly out and seek in the neighborhood of the hive!"' (1950: 57).19 Noting thatdances are performed forrich sources, he wrote that 'they also carrythe basic meaning "There is plentyof food and sweetness"' (1950: 65). He describedthebees' marking thelocationwiththeir Nasonov glandsas saying 'Come here; this way!' (1950: 66). Foragers attendinga 'round' dance, accordingto Lindauer,'receivethe message: "Fly out fromthe hive; right in the neighborhood is food to be fetched"' (1971 [1961]: 33). The device of rendering the dance in a human voice is profoundly - if of the dance are not literal paradoxical.On the one hand, translations only because its message is compatible with a varietyof performative utterances:as announcingor reporting; ordering, beseeching,or recruitor direction-giving. The meaningofthedance as a ing; describing, guiding, utterancecannot be univocally performative pinpointedin human words. This indeterminacy of animal signs, more generally, of translations has promptedtheirregardas a mere contrivance; such translations have been dismissedas nothing but a 'dramaticidiom' (see Bennett,1987: 200). On the otherhand, however translations ofthe dance maybe, tongue-in-cheek functionas they are also dead serious in two ways. First, translations realistic vehicles for clarifying the meaning and functionof the dance. Second, translations simplymake explicitperformatives that are already Austin clarifiesperformatives as ubiquitous in the honeybee literature.
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utterancesthat can be renderedas 'a verb in the firstperson singular presentindicativeactive' (1975 [1962]: 67). The directparallel with the dance is its translatability into Austin'sgrammatical form.This translatabilityunderscores indeed in a dramaticfashion its intuitive understandingas a performative. The paradox is thatwhiletranslations cannot conveyliteralmeaning, at the same time they present the meaning of the dance starklyand the dance as speech divulgesits simultaneous concisely. Rendering proxito and distancefrom our linguistic formof life:by revealing its sense mity its indefiniteness throughtranslation, of sense in the medium of human languageis simultaneously exposed.Anyperformative renders thebaseline - pointing in theworld ofthe dance as doingsomething to a stateof affairs and eliciting action.Yet the dance cannot be renderedisomorphically to human language,so its meaningremainsirredeemably unsettled:opaqueness lingersin the wake of its conversioninto words. This feelingof is less about the intrinsic imprecision, however, natureof the dance, and farmoreabout our partiality to thebeliefthatmeaningis onlycrystal clear in words. Maurice Merleau-Ponty challenged thebias (or pride) oflogocentrismwhen he stated: 'We have the feelingthat our language expresses But it is not because it expresses thatit is ours; it is because totally. totally it is ours thatwe believeit expressestotally'(1982 [1964]: 89-90). Austinnoted a class of'primary' or 'primitive' performatives thathave neitherexplicitnor precisemeaning;forexample,'Shut the door' can be an orderor an entreaty. Now in humaninteraction whether 'Shut thedoor' is one or the otheris, more oftenthannot, obvious without the utterance havingto be overtly prefacedwith'I orderyou' or 'I beg you'. As Austin elucidated: can be usedfor evenat Therearea great many devices that making clear, whatact it is we are performing whenwe saysometheprimitive level, - thetoneofvoice,cadence, - and aboveall we can rely thing gesture in which ofthecircumstances, thecontext theutterance uponthenature is issued.(1966 [1961]:231) In everyday are mostly whatAustincalled 'primary'or life,performatives or affect ofrelations, 'primitive'. Againsta background context, expression, implicitmeanings become activelypresent,visiblyengaged, and realisticallyconsequential.Language entrainsan indefinite range of addenda, or a little and effects, whichcan be deliberate, implications, unintentional, referred to the tacit facets of of both. Social theoristHarold Garfinkel interaction as 'unspokenbut understoodet cetera clause[s]', or linguistic & Sacks, 1970: 342).2? 'glossingpractices'(1989 [1967]: 73ff.;Garfinkel The sensibility to language as a living phenomenonthat alwaysmarshals semblanceis a central the resourcesthatwordlessly expand itsperfunctory ethnoreason that ordinary-language philosophers,phenomenologists, and others on attention to a 'phenomenology have insisted methodologists,
23
of speech', 'alongside an objectivescience of language' (Merleau-Ponty, 1969: 216). Philosophers J.L.Austinand JohnSearle have shownthatperformative action is not simplya matterof the action of one person automatically the utterance of another.For an utterance following to have the intended effect certainpreconditions mustbe fulfilled: shouldhave theperformative a point; an audience for it should be present;and it must be properly These prerequisites are in place withtheperformance acknowledged. ofthe dance. It certainly has a point - tracking resourcesand keepingthe hive properlystocked; dances are not performed withoutan audience; and attendinghoneybees acknowledgedances as active participantsand by - if the indicatedlocations.If these conditionswere not operative visiting dancingoccurredin the absence of otherbees, or ifits messagewere only randomlyheeded - its potentialregard as linguisticbehaviorwould be much attenuated;it would seem betterdescribed as a reflexresponse, rather than a communicative act. The success of performatives also hingeson a background of common are powerful linmeanings,knowledge,and expectations;performatives guisticconventions onlyagainstthe backdropof an intersubjective way of life.Societyis thus implicatedin the strong sense of a covenantof shared For example, if orders are to be followedcertain rank understandings. relationsmust be presupposed; announcements make sense if they bear are made foractionsthatare not expectedto transpire news; promises as a matterof course; a report is given about an actual state of affairs; advice offeredusually presumes that the advisor has more knowledgeand/or thanthe advisee. So besides thebasic prerequisites, experience a variety of - and ranging conditionsuniquely adequate to different performatives fromnebulouslyassumed to crisplydefined- must be secure for their felicitous accomplishment (see Austin,1966 [1961]: 123-52; Searle, 1965: 147). Such groundwork elementsconstitute the'et ceteraclause' ofspeech acts. Performatives, then,are exquisiteshorthandof intersubjective transparency.The renderingof the dance as a performative has profound consequences along those lines. The moment the dance is seen as anit can no longer be witnessed as nouncement,report,or recruitment, spasmodic movement:it becomes a potential sign of honeybee interA shared world of meaningand knowledge- whatWittgensubjectivity. steinfamously called a 'formof life'- is insinuatedin the backgroundof the dance as performative action. An ingenious scientificexperimentspeaks to this dimension of a shared backgroundfor the success of a performative. EthologistJames Gould riggeda set-upwherea honeybeedanced fora richsource of food 'purported'to be foundin themiddleofa lake.After placingfoodin a boat at the danced locationhe observedthatno recruits arrived. Thinkingthat to flyoverwater,he controlled maybethe bees were reluctant the experiment by placing food all the way across the lake on the opposite shore. When thislocationwas danced in thehive,the bees flewacross the lake to
24
theseresults, but suggest that getto thefood.The authorsdo not interpret they are unexplainable in mechanisticterms (Gould & Gould, 1984: 281). for,at face value, it oughtto count as a This experiment is intriguing case thatinvalidates the informative and enjoiningefficacy of the dance. And yetit createsexactlythe opposite impression: it bolstersthe regardof the dance as linguistic behavior,for in resonance with language-use,it intimatesan interpretive and interactive contextin the receptionof the linkbetweentheprovidedcoordinates thana deterministic message,rather and subsequentvisitto the location.The experiment insinuatesthat the bees are not automatically caused to visita location,but act more in line with interpreting the dance's message. In short,if the dance causes the thatensues, thenthe bees fail to arriveat the boat site; but ifthe foraging dance is meaningful forthe bees, thentheirfailure to arrive at the boat site is a success. of thisresultas a failure of the dance's What blocksthe interpretation is the perception act.The unstated, of the dance as a performative efficacy is thatdancingabout food in the middle but open to view,understanding of a lake misfires, existential conditionsto follow because the appropriate up thedance's messagedo not hold. A 'report'about a resourceis liable to failsto be crediblein landscape; ifthereport comparisonagainsta familiar thenit is simply The existential theface ofsuch a comparison, disregarded. forthe success of the particular speech act are not in place. prerequisites For the Goulds thereis somethingastonishing about the bees ignoring of this dances about food in the middle of a lake. Given the implications within such a responseis not surprising: thereasonablebounds of finding, is the potentialimputationof disbelief to the attending its interpretation to the possibility of honeybee bees. Yet amazementis not simplycorollary of a formof life mind. It is also an apropos response to the possibility a formof lifethatmaysharecertain'et comparablewithhuman existence, cetera clauses' withus. The suspicionof some level of commensurability to acknowledge. even as it is too awkward surfaces, Pushingthe applicationof Austin'sanalysis,it mightbe argued that, it is compatiblewith,the dance may be giventhe range of performatives or 'primicalled an 'implicit', 'primary', regardedas whatAustinvariously The dance as a communicativeact regardingthe tive' performative.21 location and quality of a commodityhas the observable upshotof the bees visiting the danced location. FollowingShirleyStrumand attending Bruno Latour,the honeybeesmaybe regardedas livingin a 'performative but society'in whichtheyare not passivepawns of a fixedsocial structure, what and renegotiating negotiating by means of theirdancingare 'actively theirsocietyis and whatit willbe' (1987: 789).22 content per se, nor its At the same time, neitherits informative whether the forceof can revealto a human perspective phenomenology, thatno the dance is an order,or an entreaty, or,forthatmatter, something If honeybeesdo speak, it is also the case human word exactlytranslates.
25
thatwe do not fully understand them:the et ceteraclauses oftheir dancing are, forthe mostpart,an obscure affair.
Symbolism-cum-Performance: The Dance as a Complete Act

For purposes of clarity I have consideredthe symbolicand performative dimensionsseparately. In conveying the meaningof the dance, however, behavioralscientists do not separateits symboliccontentfromits performativenature.Fused as one, the symbolicand performative facetsconstitute the dance as a complete a stateof affairs act,forby describing in the world the dance promptsrecruitsto harvestit. The single concept in the literature thatexpressesthe fullscope of the dance as both symboland actionis itsrecurrent as a 'message': a messagehas informative description contentand implicates thatit will,or should,be followed through. Symbol and action are roped togetherin compact statements that deliverthe gist of the dance. For example,von Frisch, afternotingthat bees attending the dance 'clean themselves, load up withhoney,hastento the hive entrance, and fly to the feeding place', summedits meaningthus: 'The dance was the sign that there is something to befetched' (1 967a: 29, emphasisadded). 'There is' corresponds to the symbolic representation of a resource,while'to be fetched'corresponds to the performative function of harvesting it. Regarding how the collectionof waterforcoolingthehive is instigated and stopped, Lindauer maintainedthat'it is reallya mutual communication wherebythe begging bee gives both distinctinformation about the social demands and a strictorderto continue or to cease collecting water'(1971 [1961]: 30; emphasisin original).Seeley'swording that in dancing the bees 'share knowledge'and 'share information' also bundles together its symbolicand performative nature(1995: 85, 88). and performance Symbolism are inseparablein livedlanguage.Philosopherswho focus on language-usehave regularly made thispoint. Baker and Hacker,forexample,writethat'whatgivessignstheir life, whatmakes themsymbols, is the role we give them,the use we make of them,in our daily linguistictransactions'(1984: 134). In his analysis of linguistic Bennett(1976) contendsthatcentraluses of language behavior, Jonathan are to informand to enjoin. While admittingthese are not its sole he submits thata languagecould be imaginedto be used forno operations, otherpurposethanto inform and enjoin;therefore, he reasons,thesemust be essential constituents. Behavioral scientistsconceptualize the dance along theselines- thusoffering not an imaginedbut an actual system that fulfills Bennett'sfunctions of language: it informs about a rich resource and enjoinsforagers to go to it. In the configuration of the dance as informative and enjoining,the events of the scout's discovery, her dancing about it, and the recruits' subsequentharvest become meaningfully and seamlessly connectedin the cognitive-perceptual standpointof the observer. J.B.S. Haldane captured
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thisdiachronicfacetin describing dances as 'at once histories and prophesies' (1952: 73). The dance extendstemporally and spatially beyondthe momentand place of itsperformance, assembling the dancer'spast detectionof theresource, herpresent reenactment ofitslocation,and thefuture concertedharvest. As the honeybees'informing-enjoining tool, the dance both arranges and reveals their world as one of spatial expansion and temporal extension. The colony emergesas nested in a familiar abode knownand supervised,presupposed and retraced,with every explorationand exploitation.The hive's surroundings take on the primordialstatus of a dwelling-place. The understanding of the dance as a complete act thus ushersa phenomenological world(cf. panorama of a meaningful, designed in the scientific Crist, 1996). This is not overtly articulated literature, but surfacesas the backgroundagainstwhichthe factsabout the dance hang As I discuss shortly, together. the temporal-spatial continuumencapsulated in theunderstanding of the dance as both symbolic and performative in an alternative was obliterated what account,whichaimed to reconfigure honeybeesdo, not as concertedand meaningful action,but as movements and by,a fieldof stimuli. orchestrated within,
Upsetting Order: The Bees as an 'Evolutionary Freak'

use of the concept'language' in thehoneybeeliterature By now,scientists' is also sustained by conventionalforce - on the impetus of repetition stemmingfrom long-termusage within a research tradition.But the conventional side aspect ofthelabel is onlyone side ofthecoin.The realist of the term'dance language' emergesfromits non-trivial affinities with featuresof human language. I have argued that both general standards (rule-governed, complex,flexible)and robustones (symbolic,performative) can be discerned that apply to human and honeybee natural lanthemnon-isomorphically of the guages rendering cognate.The reiteration label 'honeybeelanguage' is therefore not simplyconventional: it is used withvague but literalintent. This almost-seriousidea of an insect with language has had an in behavioralscience. For example, the application of effect unsettling dancing on the swarm as a means of comparingpotentialnestingsites advertised at an agreement about thebest one, by dancers,and of arriving has provokedthe amazementof scientists. Butlerexclaimed: that theseare someofthemostastonishing haveyetbeen Surely things ofbee behavior? one discovered in thewhole realm How can beeswhich, reachwhatamounts to an supposes, possessno powersof reasoning, on one ofseveral sites? agreement possible nesting (1954: 166) BehavioralecologistJohnKrebs also expressedperplexity about honeybee language: forthe The chimpand bee examples are always quoted as evidence of animallanguage: one can understand, but bees complexity chimps
Crist: Can
an insectspeak?
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seemto be an anomaly. are an evolutionary Either or we are they freak, for morescientists ofvonFrisch's awaiting genius. (1977: 792) Butler'sastonishment at the use of the dance forachieving consensus,and Krebs' demurral to regardbees as linguistic beings,seem connectedto the implicationof mind. It is reasonable to admit chimpanzeeshave mental capacities given their evolutionaryproximity to humans; about bees, 'one supposes theypossess no powers of reasoning'.Strumand however, Latour also discerncomplexity in primate life- actively structured through social skills,negotiations, alliances, and rivalries- but regard eusocial insectsat a primitive levelwherein'the actors' own bodies are irreversibly moulded [via genotype]' (1987: 795).23 The intellectual and lay urge to as 'primitive' invertebrates classify whose organisms, pre-wired machinery somehow does all the acting,is culturally ingrainedand deeplyhabitual. Thus, in his classic paper 'What Is It Like To Be A Bat?' Thomas Nagel announced that'I have chosen bats instead of wasps ... because if one travels too fardown thephylogenetic shed their tree,people gradually faith The reticenceto admit honeybees in the community of languageusers, that Krebs and otherslike linguistsEmile Benveniste(1952) and Bennett(1987) have voiced,stemsfrom themindfulness thatlanguage-use implies.Indeed, conceptsof memory, attention, recognition, understanding,interpretation, and knowledge, agreement, decision-making, as well as questions about cognitionand awareness,have surfacedregularly in the honeybee literature.Early researchers Von Frisch and Lindauer used mentallanguage generously theirwritings throughout on honeybeecommunication. behavioral scientist Gould raisesthequestionContemporary without a definitive giving response- ofwhether honeybeeshave cognitive 'abilities beyond the basics of instinctand conditioning'(2002: 41). whose recentwork centerson the question of animal conscious Griffin, awareness, arguesthaton thegroundsof comparablehumanbehavior, it is not unreasonableto conclude thathoneybeesmaybe 'consciously thinking and feelingsomethingapproximating the information theyare communicating'(2001 [1992]: 210). Mind and language are internally connected, for as Hayden White offered, language can be regardedas an 'instrument of mediation between consciousnessand the worldthatconsciousnessinhabits'(1976: 29; emphasis in original). The second definitionof language in the Oxford Dictionary reads 'words and the methods of combiningthem for the expressionof thought'.According to the influential social psychologist George HerbertMead - who was convincedthatonlyman has languagelanguage is the sine qua non of mind (Mead, 1962 [1934]). So while baseline descriptions of the dance, and a diversity of factsassociatedwith to fulfill it, can be configured certain intuitive and formalstandards of linguisticbehavior, a demurralto recognize the dance as a bona fide language may stem fromthe entailments this recognition would involvethat there is experience there at all' (1981 [1974]: 393).24
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Social StudiesofScience34/1
namely, thatthedance maythenbe a tool that'mediatesconsciousness',or 'expressesthought'. Beforelookingat a controversy withinbiologyin which these issues to clarify whywhat surfacedexplicitly, I propose a conceptualframework thebees do appears disconcerting. can be extracted from a This framework pointmade byJohnSearle in his analysisof speech acts:
For an instanceoflinguistic communication... [to be] a message,one of thethings thatis involved[is] taking thenoise or mark ... as havingbeen with as producedby a being certain intentions. [It] cannotjust [be] regarded a naturalphenomenon, like a stone, a waterfall, or a tree. (1965: 137; emphasisadded)
Searle proposed a typology to segregate'noise-like'or 'mark-producing' sorts. But what the phenomena into intentionaland non-intentional Is theirrecruitment dance to honeybeesdo baffles thisstandardtypology. or as a naturalnonbe understoodas producedby beingswithintentions, literature, the dance is often intentional phenomenon?In the scientific as a message is taken described as a 'message'. If its understanding thenapplying the 'noise or mark'of the dance seriously, Searle's syllogism must be produced by 'beings withintentions'. Such an inference, even if forthereis no consensualmold - scientific is dismaying, obliquelyintuited, - to sustaintheproposition or common-sensical thathoneybeesare beings of'beingswithintentions' withintentions. The present-day does geography not include (in anywidelysharedsense) insectsand other'lowerformsof life'. At the same time,what is known about the dance resistsits facile as a non-intentional The dance defiesthe typolregistration phenomenon. ogy recitedby Searle. This is indeed a reason that its descriptionstops to contain symbol-using people: there is no ready-made typification insects. Knowledge about the dance language, then, upsets order: concepversus tually,the dance defiesthe taxonomyof behaviorinto intentional the dance challengesexpectations intrinsically meaningless;empirically, distancebetweenbees and man, and may be based on the phylogenetic The disruption oforder as an 'evolutionary freak'. seen, in Krebs' wording, leads to two kinds of responses. One response involvesa readiness to amend previous conceptionsin order to accommodate a new phenomreceivedviews, seekingto refutethe enon. The otherresponsereaffirms I examine existenceof the 'new phenomenon'.In the sectionthatfollows, scarethe latter typeof responseto thehoneybee'language' - deliberately quoted.
Rejecting the Dance Language 'Hypothesis'

AdrianWenner,Patrick In the mid-1 960s behavioralscientists Wells, and whatthey recastas the'dance languagehypothesis'. their associatesattacked They contested that honeybees navigate on the basis of information encoded in the dances theyattend,claiminginstead that it was scientists to findthe locations. who decipheredthe dance and used the information
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ForWenner, thefactthatthe dance containsinformation did not mean the attending bees use thatinformation (1971: 7, 37). Rather,he maintained that'successful recruited bees had acted as iftheyhad used thedistanceand directioninformation we scientistshad chosen to measure' (1971: 52, emphasis in original). Gould, a pivotal scientistin the controversy that ensued, describedWenner'sview of the representational featuresof the dance as 'a fortuitous collectionof orientational artifacts withno actual role in recruitment' (Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 73). Wennerconceded thatthe bees 'arrivedpredominantly at or near the site indicatedin the dance maneuver',but claimedthat'we cannot say for certain ... thatthese bees arrivedat the site indicatedbecausetheywere able to interpret and use quantitative information providedby successful foragers' (1971: 47; emphasisin original).He arguedthatinsteadof using the symbolism ofthe dance, the recruits relysolelyon odors; he called this view 'the olfactory hypothesis'. Wennerclaimedthatrelianceon odor cues to detect resources was a simplerand more sensible hypothesisabout insectbehaviorthan the idea of a 'honeybeelanguage':
I feel that the language hypothesis is no longera usefulparadigm.It is betterto say thatexperiencedbees depend upon a conditionedresponse forre-recruitment to familiar food sources and that inexperienced bees relyupon an odor source as theysearchforthatsupplyof food to which theyhave been recruited. (1971: 90)
He proposed thisexplanation at a timewhen the symbolic function of the dance had been established in the scientific as fact. community The alternative hypothesis was a challengeto the dominantview.The subsequentcontroversy unfoldedin a seriesof articlesin Science in thelate 1960s and early1970s, withvon Frischhimself to his critics.25 responding The olfactory view inspired a series of new experiments to probe the efficacyof the dance as a symbolic system (see Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 83ff.).The supportersof the olfactory hypothesis repeated certain of von Frisch's originalexperiments that had demonstrated the honeybees'use ofthe dance code: recruits congregated in greater numbers at the feedingsite at whichthe dancer had been trained,and ignored,or showedup in fewer numbersat, otherfeeding sitesplaced in the field. The team did not replicatethe experiments olfactory per se, but added what they termed 'controls' - odors and an additional controlhive - to the experimental set-up.Foragersfrom the controlhiveweretrainedto forage at all stations. Now each locationhad bothpotentodor and more foraging bees. Under theexperimental conditions createdby theolfactory team,the bees fromthe 'observationhive' showed no preference for the location specifiedby the dance.26Accordingto Gould, the disparity betweenvon Frisch'sresultsandWenner'sresults reflected their use of different training techniqueswiththe bees (1975: 689). The challengersof the 'language hypothesis'maintainedthat their showed thatrecruited experiments bees followedodor cues - adheringto the dancer and the food she parcels out - ratherthan using information
30
Von Frisch responded that'odor controls'voided symbolically delivered. actually testing the dance, forwhenodors in thehive the experiments from Von Frisch's to usingonlysmellto forage. become strong honeybeesswitch team called 'controls' created point was that adding what the olfactory did not conditions thateliminated the need fordancing;theirexperiments itsperformance by makingit disprove thedance language- but preempted Von Frisch wrylycomexperiments, superfluous.27 About the olfactory theimportance ofdancingwith triedto investigate mented:'It is a pitythey bees thatneveror seldom danced at all' (quoted in Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 76). morein offered an explanation hypothesis' The factthatthe 'olfactory to was intriguing line withthe chemicalnatureof insect communication proposcientists (see forexample,Wilson, 1971: 266-67). The olfactory with defendedtheirexplanationas being in agreement nents themselves, Their challengecalled foran Occam's 'razor', or the 'law of parsimony'.28 from thatwould disentangle the use of the dance's symbolism experiment or disproving the coordinatereliance on odor, therebydemonstrating ofthe dance. Clinching proofof the dance would be offered giving efficacy would if'the dances of theforagers werealteredin such a waythatrecruits proceed to a location to which the dancing foragershad never been' (Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 79). This was achieved when Gould in whichhe succeeded in getting a 'misdirection experiments' performed dancer 'to lie' about the location she had visited(1975; Gould & Gould, a peculiarity of the bees' visual 1995 [1988]: 79-83).29 By manipulating and artificial Gould got the of the lighting, comb, system, the placement were dancerto pointto a locationthatshe had nevervisited.If therecruits would go to thelocation odor (of theresourceand/or locale) they following - not the one indicatedby her dance. If from the danceractuallyreturned encoded in the dance, they the information the recruitswere following would fly to the danced location- even thoughthe dancerhad neverbeen indicated by there.The recruitedbees visited the location symbolically the dance, despite the factthatthe dancer did not carrythe odor of the the dance's reprewas regardedas confirming experiment location.30This function sentational forthe honeybees,and closingthe controversy. of a mechandoubt was dispelledby the construction Anyremaining not veryreliably, but reliablyenough ical bee that can lead - apparently to fromthe dance - recruits to demonstrate thatbees garnerinformation designatedsitesto whichthe 'honeybee'has neverbeen (see Michelsen et al., 1989, 1991, 1992; Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 83; J. Gould, contentof the dance The use ofthe informative personalcommunication). as noted, researchers by honeybees is so well established today that, theirforaging patterns(Seeley, 1995). But the employ it to investigate in partdue to the challengethe olfactory community, honeybeebehavioral team presented,recognizesthathoneybeesuse both odor and the dance and odors language to findsources. Indeed, when resourcesare plentiful profuse, the honeybeesdo not (need to) use the dance.
31
Despite the olfactoryteam being credited as contributing a finer understandingof honeybee communication (Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 83), Wenner and Wells never abandoned their strictolfactory position and resolute opposition to the dance language. In 1990, they coauthoredAnatomy The Question of a Controversy: ofa 'Language' among Bees, in which theydraw on philosophy and sociologyof science both to and to promotetheir analyzethe controversy view- as, at least,an equally credibleparadigm.3' They arguethatit has not been indisputable evidence fromnature that closed the debate in favorof the dance language, but rather 'deep-seatedsocial control'(1990: 209). Social factorssuch as the reward systemwithinscience, peer-grouppressure,perceived scientific authority, and 'New Age' thinking in the culture at large are invoked throughout (see Wenner& Wells, 1990: 209, 186, 68, chapter11).32 Not surprisingly, concepts fromscience studies literature are used to make these arguments.33 In ascribingextra-scientific underpinnings, theiraim was to place the 'dance language paradigm' on wobblygrounds.Wenner and Wells sought to undermineits epistemicstatus by maintaining that non-rationalfactorsunderpinnedits acceptance, ratherthan rationally adjudicatedempiricalevidence. Extra-scientific factorsdo figureeminently in the debate - the most evidentamong them broughtto the forefront by the challengersthemIn particular,issues of human-animal comparison and animal selves.34 mind were key sticking points forthe olfactory proponents.35 Integralto thepromotion of the olfactory perspective was its avowalas morefitting to insect behaviorthan an explanationof foraging recruitment via symboluse. For the olfactory team, ascribinglanguage to bees amountedto the attribution of a sophisticated human abilityto an organismwitha miniscule brain.Accordingto Wennerand Wells,the dance language'presumed thathoneybees were capable of anthropomorphic human level behavior' (1990: 63, 240). In supportof the olfactory view,RuthRosin affirmed the 'time-oldtruth'that 'both the physicaland psychicalcomplexities have attainedtheirmaximal in man', and differences betweenman and lower animals 'are not only simplyquantitative, but also qualitative' (Rosin, 1980: 461). The olfactory thus aimed to correctan ostensible hypothesis that projected language on an invertebrate anthropomorphism species: both its presetintentand substantive contentreaffirmed the properpositions of humans and insects within a hierarchicalscala natura where 'speakingbees' are not admissibleas real. The logic of the olfactory as well as the argumentsits framework, was intrinsically proponentsset forth, tied to the declarationof human- discontinuity animal- or at leasthuman-insect and to thenon-credibility of insectmind.Theelimination from thehoneybeeworldwas part ofagency and parcel of the olfactoryreasoning, constituting both a motive for seeking an alternativeaccount and one of its central epistemic conI refer sequences. By agency, to theregardofanimalsas wide-awake, active and alerttowardothers,events,and objectsin dailylife.36
32
The olfactoryview was formulatedin the behavioristidiom of stimulus-response:the stimulus of odor emanating from the dancer reaction of the honeybeesto flyto the resource.The foraging triggers experiencedbees was described as a 'conditioned response'; first-time from the to followthe odor emanating as triggered wereportrayed recruits dancer's body to the food source.This idea alone - thatbees react to a - re-ranks themin the encoded information rather thaninterpret stimulus view was even more stringent But the olfactory category. 'lower-organism' According reaction. capacityto a sensory thandowngrading an intellectual Rosin as a guide; odor using a search do not conduct the bees to Wenner, to a of 'any reference on the exclusion underscoredthispoint,remarking (1978: at all' human sense in a any search searchforan odor center ... to of 'searching' mightin599, emphasis added). Indeed, an attribution encoded, the symbolically directions sinuateagency insteadof following using smell to locate a resource.But the olfactory bees would be actively by odor cues to theresourceis determined thattheflight averred proponents the odor carriedby the wind; honeybeesdo not use odor as a guide,rather guides themto the food. perspectiveredrewthe the olfactory Recalling Searle's terminology, line between a mark produced by 'beings with intentions'versus one reconfihypothesis occurringas a 'natural phenomenon'.The olfactory of the honeybees- both the 'dance' and subsequent guredall movements the phenomena, therebyreaffirming foragingflight- as unintentional action and mindlessbehavior.More than not divide betweenintentional were signs,honeybees symbolic interpreting through locatingcommodities unequipped even to search forresourcesby means of deemed cognitively behavioras odor-induced oftheir foraging smell.Througha representation - the honeybeeseven lost theirsentience movement, and odor-determined quality of being 'responsive to, or conscious of, sense impressions' was The olfactory NinthNew Collegiate hypothesis Dictionary). (Webster's of behaviorgroundedin mechanism:it thusfarmore than an explanation mind. workof avoiding accomplishedthe 'extra-scientific' honeybee of agencywas effected through representing The elimination set strings, sensory-impacting behavioras passive. Stimuli,like invisible, was escalatedin the puppet-like bees into motion.The pictureof passivity their behavior as bootstrapped- from one consecutivebut portraying disconnected moment to the next - by odor cues. On the stimulusresponsemodel (S-R), honeybeesexistin a perennialmoment,propelled to movethrough stimuli disjoinedpocketsofspace.The main byimpinging it into move of S-R is to 'desequence' actionin orderto convert analytical of the animal on its worldis An experiential mere movement. perspective can onlybe groundedupon the experience erased- forsuch a perspective of 'now', 'before', and structured of spatial continuity by a temporality discussed,the symbolicand performa'later' (Crist,2000). As previously to be that'thereis something tiveunderstanding of the dance - signifying a creates which fetched' assembles a temporaland spatial continuum, like to ideas recognizing, remembering, friendly conceptual environment
33
and evendisbelieving. But theolfactory searching, finding, understanding, or descriptive of hypothesis vitiatedthe explanatory power such concepts, for it replaced an activelydesigned world that animates them with an objectively distributed worldinhabitedby quasi-automata. The effectsof the olfactoryand dance-languageviews differ proboth at the level of theirrespective foundly explanansand at thephenomenological level of the worlds they conjure to house the creaturesthey describe.The olfactory hypothesis extinguished agency via a behavioral model thatconstructs bees as utterly passive.The avoidance of mind,and of a hiatus between insect and human worlds,was not only affirmation intrinsicto the logic of S-R, but an openly operativeand motivating In their1990 work, assumptionof the olfactory supporters. Wennerand Wellsposed a pointedquestion:
In brief, the questionat issue here is: 'Can one really believe thatthesmall beevisiting honey a flower has language The same social situation capability?' that permitted the rise of 'New Age' thinking in the public at large had apparently spilledoverintothebiologicalcommunity. (1990: 68; emphasis added)
The impliedresponseis thatone cannot really believe such a far-fetched propositionas an insect with language. Since there are people in the biological communitywho apparentlyhold this unreasonable belief, WennerandWellsoffered a cultural-ideological originforsuch irrationality - 'New Age' thinking, the embrace of flaky, halfpresumablyimplying baked, or romanticideas. The authors do not consider that theirown adamantrejection of a 'small' honeybeewithlanguagecapability has deepseated historical culturalroots,and ideologicalovertones.37 origins, Earlier in the same work, the existence of the dance language is as a 'rathertrivialquestion'. Discussing theirmotivesforconportrayed sideringthe controversy, Wennerand Wells appear momentarily less inabout rejecting of a dance language': transigent the 'possibility
to provideraw materials[forthe disciplinesof philosThis opportunity ophy, sociology,and psychologyof science] strikesus as a far more important issue than therather trivial question of a possibility of a 'dance language' among bees. (1990: 10; emphasisadded)
The former passage impliesthattheidea of a bee 'language' is implausible, while the latterallows forits possibility. While at face value the two views thereis a deeper sense in which thereis no inconappear inconsistent, betweenthem- fortheysharea cardinalanthropocentric gruity credo: the tacit idea of insects as a lower formof life denotes boththat honeybees cannothave language,and thatanyway, the questionof whether theydo is in comparisonto the interest trivial in the human discoursessurrounding thatquestion. Rosin also attackedthe dance languageon the groundsthatit contravenes a clear-cutdemarcation betweenhuman and insectrealms:
The controversy between [the] ... 'language' hypothesis and ... [the] forthearrival ofhoneybee recruits olfactory hypothesis at fieldsources,is
34
foran insect hypothesis betweena human-level essentially a controversy which for an insect. Since a hypothesis hypothesis and an insect-level of 'language' foran insectupsetsthe veryfoundation claimshuman-level behavior,and biologyin general,the burden of proofforthe 'language' (1978: of thathypothesis. is, and alwayswas, upon supporters hypothesis
589)
hypothesis' and 'insect-level hypothesis' The meaningsof a 'human-level are assumed to be both clear and fixed.The author proceeds to make an endlesstask forthe hypothesis' the burdenof prooffora 'human-level that variousexperiments ofthe dance language.In considering proponents of the central show the bees' use of the dance code - to the satisfaction in the field- she contendsthatall lack the 'propercontrols'. researchers of H.M. Collins' idea of Rosin's grievancesappear as an instantiation regress',for the distinctimpressionis conveyedthat no 'experimental could establishthe dance language beyond all doubt, since a experiment flawmightalwaysbe discernedin its design (see Rosin, 1978; Collins, 1992 [1985]: 83ff.). of the dance view revalidated beliefsthatthe discovery The olfactory manner.Implicitly, the S-R language disturbed.It did so in a vociferous of bees as puppetsin a matrix portrayed model of the olfactory hypothesis with a 'let's-get-real' stimuli that automaticallysteer them. Explicitly, insistedthat the existenceof an insect the olfactory supporters attitude, forlocating withlanguageis less than credible,and a simplerexplanation A postulateabout theplausibledistribution resourcesshouldbe preferred. but openlydeclared; as of capacitiesin the animal worldwas not implicit it was used as an argumentagainstthe the passages cited earlierillustrate, language hypothesis.Pitted against the dance language, the olfactory set of set of claims,or an alternative was morethana contesting hypothesis It maximally about honeybeecommunication. disjoined inexperiments, sect and human formsof life and avoided animal mind by eliminating and sentient presencethatanchorsthepossibility agency- thewide-awake and allows questions about cognition to arise or be of mindfulness, posed. The paramountrole of what 'one can believe', when it comes to the in a quote abilitiesof animals(and especially insects),was nicelydisplayed view of the olfactory Lewis Carrollwithwhichthe leadingresearcher from ended his 1971 work(Wenner,1971: 102):
'I can't believethat!'said Alice. tone. 'Can't you?' the Queen said in a pitying 'Try again: draw a long breath,and shutyoureyes'. Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying.One can't believe impossible things'.
Conclusion
from von Frischto contempoI have examinedhow behavioralscientists, have conceptualizedthe honeybeedance as a linguistic raryresearchers,
35
system. Whileno one claimsthatthe dance languagecomes anywhere near the complexity of human language, the two exhibitnon-trivial affinities. Scientistshave understoodthe dance as rule-governed; sensitiveto hive to environmental conditionsand changes;symbolic exigencies;responsive in representing statesof affairs distant in space and time;and performative in thathoneybeesdo things withdancing. The dance upset deep-seated assumptions,lay and scientific. The honeybee language makes a shambles of what one olfactory-hypothesis proponentcalled 'our old-fashioned phylogenetic system'(Rosin, 1978: the 'greatchain of being' stillat large 600).38 In otherwords,it disturbed despite the Darwinian revolution: the pictureof man (and other'higher in thebasementof a hierarchy mammals') at the apex and invertebrates of and value. The discovery of the dance contributed ability to undermining the idea thatlanguageis a distinguishing human possession- an idea that has also been damaged by primatestudies.39 The dance languagethrewa ifofteninvisible, wrenchintothe cogs of the pervasive, monkey beliefthat insectsare 'naturalautomata' (Descartes, 1981 [1646-49]: 244). Finally, the discovery of the dance intimated thatconscious awarethe possibility ness - associatedwitha capacityto represent landscapes,products, needs, - mayexistin worldswe havebeen disinclined and sentiments symbolically to imagine. I have discussedthe debate betweenthe dance languageand olfactory viewproponents from a particular I arguethatthe controversy perspective: centeredon divisive about backgroundassumptions. If this disagreements controversy speaks to familiarpost-Kuhnian ideas like 'incommensur'conversion ability', versusresistance to a new paradigm',or 'seeing duck versus seeing rabbit',then I would argue that it shows this: that if 'one really doesnotbelieve thata small honeybeehas language capability', then no evidencemayeversuffice apparently to proveitsexistence. This seems a reasonable explanation for why a minorityof skeptical scientistshas renounced evidence that the preponderanceof the honeybee research have foundamplypersuasive. community The presentpaper has not been a detached analysisof the scientific of the dance. I accept at face value that scientists understanding have discovereda remarkable factabout the animalworld- and by implication, about thehumanworld.A significant contribution of the knowledge about the dance language has been to expand our horizonsbeyond preconceptions thathave servedhuman vainglory while ignoring or demeaningthe of the livingworld.As von Frischurged: complexity
considerin theirentirety the accomplishments of thesesmall insects. The moredeeplyone probesherethegreater his sense ofwonder,and this perhaps may restoreto some that reverencefor the creativeforces of Nature which has unfortunately been lost. (quoted in Morrow, 1998:
56)
So, can an insect speak? And if yes, do we understandit?Wittgenstein maintainedthat'if a lion could speak we would not understand him', by
36
whichhe impliedthatwe do not share the 'formof lion-life' thatwould make lion languagefully transparent to us (1968 [1953]: 223).4 Thomas a century Nagel also mightinsistthatafter or more of scientific research, in the dark about 'what it is like to be a honeybee'.A we are stilllargely similar insight was eloquently expressedby the early20th-century naturalist and honeybeeresearcher Maurice Maeterlinck. The irony thathe wrote these wordsbeforethe discovery of the dance makes theirwisdom all the morepoignant: Beyond theappreciable facts oftheir life we know butlittle ofthebees. And thecloserour acquaintance thenearer is our ignorance becomes, to us ofthedepths oftheir brought realexistence. Butsuchignorance is better which thantheother kind, is unconscious and satisfied. (1901: 6) Notes
I would like to thankJamesGould foran enlightening phone interview, fouranonymous reviewers of an earlierdraft, and Michael Lynchforhis editorialand substantive suggestions. Especially, I would liketo thankProfessor Donald Griffin forcareful readings of earlierdrafts, detailedsuggestions, and sharingof filmclips of dancinghoneybees. Any inaccuraciesin thispaper are due solelyto myown ignoranceof the intricacies of honeybee behavior. 1 I use the spelling'honeybee' (one word) throughout. Some scientists, however, prefer the two-word thatspellingin quotationsof researchers spelling'honeybee'; I preserve who use it. 2. Von Frischsharedthe Nobel Prize withKonrad Lorenz and NikolaasTinbergenfor theircontribution to the studyof animalbehavior(Burkhardt, 1981). 3. The discovery of the dance was announced in 1923, thoughmore enduring of the formand uses of the round and waggledance werepublishedby descriptions von Frischin 1946. The languageof the bees became morewidelyknownin the English-speaking worldafter1950 withthe publicationof his Bees: Their Vision, Chemical For shortaccounts of the Senses,and Language,introduced by Donald Griffin. of the discovery history see Butler(1954: 201ff.),Gould & Gould (1995 [1988]: 55ff.), and Griffin (2001 [1992]). had suspected,but neverconfirmed, 4. Earliernaturalists thathoneybeesmight have a the locationof resources, way of communicating without leadingtheirhive-mates to the site. See Lubbock (1892: 274ff.),Maeterlinck (1901: 168) and Gould & Gould (1995 [1988]: 55). 5. Studies of the accuracyof direction information suggestthatthe alternate waggleruns the further varymore in angle the closerthe food source; conversely, awaythe source, the lesserthe angle of difference betweenthe waggleruns of a singledance. have suggestedthatthe smallvariation in angle mightcorrespond Researchers to the 2001 [1992]: 197). After typicalsize of a flower patch (Griffin, all, rarely are dancers the hive-mates directing to a pointlocation. in the 1920s, von Frischconcluded thathoneybeesdo the 6. From his earlyobservations 'round' dance to communicate about nectarsourcesand the 'waggle' dance forpollen. in the 1940s he was able to correct Withmorepreciseexperiments thisearlier 2001 [1992]: 191-92). misinterpretation (Griffin, 7. In the round dance, the 'wagglerun' is represented at its minimalmeasureof a single of the round and waggledances point. EthologistColin Butlerdiscernedthe identity 40 yearsago. Describingthe round dance, he wrotethat'the performer turnsround in in one direction and thenin the other;in factshe traces circleson the same spot first withits two loops more or less closelysuperimposed out a figure-of-eight upon one another'(1954: 202).
37
8. The significance of thiswillbecome apparentwhen I discuss the 'dance-language Those who rejectedthe dance-languagemaintained controversy'. thathoneybeesonly use odor to locate resources. 9. When the resourceis in the same direction as the sun, the wagglerun is directed upward,againstgravity, whereasthe downwardwagglerun signalsthatthe source is awayfromthe sun. 10. As Colin Butlerexplained,'it appears,therefore, thatthe timeor energy thathas to be expendedin orderto reach the feeding the basis of the honeybee's place forms estimation of distance' (1954: 205). If the honeybeescan be forcedto walk- by a tube fromthe hive to the food source- theywill switchfrom(what are connecting differentiated conventionally as) the round to the waggledance onlya fewmetersfrom the hive.Again,whatis conveyedis effort than requiredto arriveat the source,rather its absolutedistance(Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 62). 11. Not all honeybeespecies employsound in the dance, leadingresearchers to view sound as 'a laterevolutionary arrival'(Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 110). 12. Bees show aesthetic preferences, choosingreal flowers overartificial and feeders, artificial feedersshaped like flowers overopen dishes (Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 94-95). 13. A subfieldof ethnomethodology called 'conversation analysis'has empirically uncoveredand codifieda variety of fairly invariant and complexconversational rulesthatpeople followexpectably, but about whichtheyremainhappilyunaware.See Atkinson & Heritage (1984) foran excellent, classic collectionof conversation analysis studies.See also Boden & Zimmerman(1991). 14. Lindauer also pointedout whytracking resourcesis crucial:'Newly discoveredsources of crops can be exploitedas quicklyas possible,beforethe blossoms close theircalyces and beforecompeting bee populationstake awaythe newlyfoundnectar' (1971 [1961]: 32). 15. Anotheraspect of the influence of communicative feedbackon the dancer is less well understood.It involves whathave been called 'stop signals'producedby attending bees thatcause the dancer to stop dancing.The function of thesesignalsis speculatedto slow down recruitment when resourcesbeingbrought to the hive cannotbe processed 2001 [1992]: 201). effectively (Griffin, 16. In a remarkable passage in his celebratedThe LifeoftheBee, Maurice Maeterlinck describeshow the swarmarrives practically at a decisionabout a particular location. His description, of the dance, is remarkably precedingthe discovery He prescient. writesthatupon swarming scouts 'sallied forth in all directions in searchof a lodging'. And he goes on 'theyreturn one by one, and renderaccount of theirmission'. He then proceeds to statewhat in contemporary behavioralscience researchers describeas the bees' arriving at a consensus:'We may regardit as probable ... thatmost careful attention is givento the reports of the variousscouts. One of them,it maybe, dwells on the advantageof some hollowtreeit has seen; anotheris in favour of a crevicein a ruinouswall, of a cavity in a grotto, or an abandoned burrow. The assemblyoftenwill untilthe following pause and deliberate Then at last the choice is made, and morning. approvedby all' (1901: 127-28). Interestingly, Maeterlinck's whichmight assessment, have been branded as blatant'anthropomorphism' (in the sense of an imaginative projectionof human capacities),turnedout, fromthe point of contemporary to be exactlyon the mark. knowledge, 17. For example,Griffin submits:'Althoughwe can onlyspeculateabout what,ifanything, the dancingbees and theirsisters who followthe dances on swarmsare thinking, their vigorouscommunication suggeststhattheyare thinking of a suitablecavity'(2001 [1992]: 210). 18. Althoughexperiments withlady bugs have revealeda fortuitous correspondence betweendirectional movement withrespectto the sun transferred to directional movement withrespectto gravity, no apparentfunction serving (Gould & Gould, 1995 [1988]: 70-71).
38
directions stations at fourdifferent withthe placementof feeding 19. Experimenting round dances bees soon attending relative to the hive,von Frischfoundthatafter thatthe round he inferred appear at all fourlocations.On the basis of thisexperiment, dance is used in the case of food sourcesnearbythe hive,and it does not directthe location. bees to a specific presentation of the background 20. The analogythatcomes to mind in readingGarfinkel's talkis thatwhatwe actuallysay to one into action in everyday knowledge brought between a conversation anotherconstitutes the tip of the iceberg.In transcribing showsthatthe 'et ceteraclause' husband and wife,forexample,Garfinkel each turn(and set nextto it by the analyst)is two to threetimeslonger accompanying itself than the turn'sutterance (see 1989 [1967]: 38-39). to revealthe level of opacityof an analytic mechanism 21. Of course thisanalogyis simply the dance to human languageand not in any sense a proposal of whatthe dance is in againstthe notion,or counterA performative can onlybe implicit its own terms. of its againstthe background example,of its being explicit;it can onlybe primitive beingprecise. to erron the side of exaggerating thatthereis a predilection 22. It maybe noted,however, and shrewdness of actorsamongprimates(includinghuman). levelsof intentionality Social theorist HarveySacks observedthatwhenwe examinehow we engage in such routine perceptualactionsas seeing'that'sa marriedcouple and that'sa black guy', withyourboyfriend or girlfriend about 'what an afternoon and routinejudgments kindof powerful consistsof', 'you can begin to appreciatethatthereis some immensely in handlingyourperceptions and thoughts, otherthanthe known mechanismoperating like the chemistry of vision,etc.' (1992 [1970]: 219). and immensely things powerful earlierin the paper, that'the socio-biological 23. Here the authorsforget theirown insight, in genotypes] stableproperties solution[offinding le[aves] moot the questionof the means by whichsocietycould be achieved' (Strum& Latour, 1987: 788). proximate in the direction of social insectgeneticsalso leaves moot the questionof the Gesturing coordination requiredto createand run theirsocieties. extraordinary, proximate 24. In a conservation biologycontext, StephenKellertand E.O. Wilson have arguedthat revealmore about the human ideas about invertebrates dismissive and/or derogatory themselves. and perceptions than about the organisms Negativeperceptions attitudes disservice to the vitalecological roles of invertebrates (Wilson, 1987; do a profound Kellert,1993). 25. See Johnson (1967), Wenner(1967, 1971), Wenneret al. (1969), von Frisch (1967b) and Wenner& Johnson (1967). was paid to maintained thatno adequate attention supporters 26. In addition,the olfactory See Wenneret al. (1991) fora reporton and speed in earlyexperiments. wind direction withcontrolodors and foraging bees, making more recentolfactory experiments, similarclaims. In one case, in responseto critics. 27. Von Frischalso citedtwo of his telling experiments bees continueto dance but the hive is turnedhorizontally, when the darkvertical and indicateneither a certaindistancenor direction' dances 'become disoriented fora specificsite.When the hiveis bees show no predilection (1967b: 1073); recruited orienttowardwherethe dance is pointing set vertical immediately again, recruits wherethe dancer indicated detourexperiments (1967b: 1073). The othercase involved overa mountainridgeor highbuilding,despitethatshe did not the 'beeline' direction did fly overit, indicating overit; recruits however they discoverthe source by flying fromthe dance (1967b: 1073). As no cue otherthanthe directions werefollowing overan obstacle (in one case a 12-storey Gould put it, in flying building),von Frisch deduced thatthebees 'musthave "known"whereto go' (1975: 685). 28. See Wenner(1971:100-01) and Wenner&Wells (1990: 246). borrowsfrom 29. The use of the idea of the bee 'lying'about whereshe'd been implicitly of the dance. At the the overallperformative ('telling') dimensionof the understanding misinformation same timeit is a facetioususage, for'lying'impliesproviding deliberately.
39
'When the experiments wererepeated 30. Interestingly, Gould & Gould note the following: using the training methodsofWennerand Wells,thispatterndisappeared.Apparently when thereis a highly food source ... dancingdeclinesas recruits search fragrant successfully using onlyodor cues' (1995 [1988]: 82). in 1991, Wenneret al. averred that'the two ... competing 31. Similarly hypotheses ... mayboth be consideredto be supportedby any givenset of experimental results; howeverneither should have become a "rulingtheory"'(1991: 779). 32. Biologist Thomas Seeley's reviewof thisworkforNaturewas scathing(1991). He a 'strawman' versionof the dance languageview,as chargesthe authorsforpresenting no role to odors - whenvon Frischhimself ascribing recognizedtheirimportance. all the evidencethat Wennerand Wellsmusterto refute Seeley concludes that'virtually withvon Frisch'sview of the dance the dance-language is consistent hypothesis language'. He goes on to note that'manyotherseriouserrorsof scholarship further of thisbook's analysisof the dance-languagecontroversy'. erode the credibility 33. In particular, a panoplyof Kuhnian notionsof paradigm,anomalies,normaland revolutionary science,scientific community, and othersis deployedto keep a thatis pragmatically controversy closed, conceptually open. 34. Questions of character, and authority have been part of the controversy, but reputation, did not play the decisiverole that Wenner,and others,soughtto assignthemin closing the controversy behavioralscientists are satisfied that (see Veldink,1989). Rather, evidencehas sufficiently odor and dance cues to provethat experimental disentangled can use the dance's symbolically encoded information to locate honeybees,themselves, resources. 35. 'Discovering'or 'proving'the existenceof a languagein a non-humanspecies does not of all has to be able to 'believe' thatsuch a capability hingeonlyon evidence.One first can be possible (Wenner&Wells, 1990: 67). Commentators who favor Wennerand Wells' skepticism raise congruent the brain questions:'The questionto ask is whether of a bee is capable of processing of such abstractinformation' (Kak, 1991: 364). 36. I do not use 'agency' in the actornetwork theory(ANT) sense of 'actant'. In the substantive of 'non-humans'in the creationof acknowledging participation scientific ANT endeavorsto epistemologically knowledge, navigatebetweenthe Scylla of sociologicalreductionism and Charybdisof naive realism(Latour, 1994). But the notionof 'actant' is too blunta tool to distinguish betweendifferent typesof agency. Since inanimateobjectslike doors and computers, as well as animatebeingslike as 'actants',the bacteria,scallops,baboons, or honeybees,can all be characterized latterconcept is useless in distinguishing betweenascribedand intrinsic intentionality, and cannot speak to the questionof animalmind in any robustsense. 37. In 1646, Descartes stipulated that'when the swallowscome in the spring, theyoperate like clocks', and added that'the actionsof honeybeesare of the same nature' (1981 [1646-49]: 207). Descartes reasonedthatifwe attribute 'thought'to animals,thenthey musthave 'immortal souls', and thenproceeded to use insects(and otherinvertebrates) to rebutsuch a possibility: 'it is more probablethatwormsand fliesand caterpillars than thattheyhave immortal move mechanically souls' (1981 [1646-49]: 208, 244). 38. Rejectingthe dance language,Rosin wrote,'maintainshoneybeesat a stateof ordinary But then,it also retainsour old-fashioned insects,whichmaybe disappointing. in a relatively phylogenetic system intactstate,whichis no small consolation'(1978: well wonder,in the post-Darwinian lifesciences,what an 'old600). One might fashionedphylogenetic system'exactlyis, and whyit is a consolationto retainit (see forexample,Gould, 1977: chapter3, on Darwin's non-hierarchical conceptionof evolutionand phylogeny). Rosin's critiquesof the dance languageare the most in showing thatthe dance-as-codewas objectionablefordisturbing a priori transparent hierarchical assumptions. 39. See Harre & Reynolds,1984; Savage-Rumbaugh, & Lewin, 1986; Savage-Rumbaugh et al., 1998. 1994; Shanker,1994; Savage-Rumbaugh 40. 'Forms of life'is a notoriously terseand vague expression that Wittgenstein onlyused a handfulof times(see Hunter, 1971). StanleyCavell lucidlydescribesthe connection
40
Social Studies of Science 34/1 a languageand 'formof life':'That on the whole we [makeand betweensharing routesof in language]is a matter of our sharing understand the same projections and of modes of response,senses of humorand of significance interest and feeling, of whatis similarto whatelse, whata rebuke,what fulfillment, of whatis outrageous, of when an utterance is an assertion, when an appeal, when an explanation forgiveness, - all the whirlof organism Wittgenstein calls "formsof life"' (1976 [1969]: 52). Much unavailableforhuman apprehension. of the 'whirl'of othercreatures is, clearly,
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Wolfgang Kirchner & MartinLindauer Jesper Storm, Michelsen,Axel, Bent Bach Andersen, Dances Studied by Means of a (1992) 'How Honeybees PerceiveCommunication and Sociobiology 30: 143-50. Ecology Mechanical Model', Behavioral oftheBees (Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversity Michener,C.D. (1974) The Social Behavior Press). Made of Flowers,Light, Morrow,Susan Brind (1998) 'The Hum of Bees: A Civilization and Wax', Harper'sMagazine (September):77-63. & D.C. Nagel, Thomas (1981 [1974]) 'What Is It Like to Be a Bat?', in D.R. Hofstadter Dennett (eds), TheMind's I (NewYork: Basic Books): 391-403. Biology ofTheoretical Rosin, Ruth (1978) 'The Honey Bee "Language" Controversy', Journal 72(4): 589-602. and the Foundations Rosin, Ruth (1980) 'The Honey-Bee "Dance Language" Hypothesis Biology 87(3): 457-81. of Biologyand Behavior',Journal ofTheoretical and Emanuel Sacks, Harvey(1992 [1970]) 'Doing "Being Ordinary"',in Gail Jefferson on Conversation: HarveySacks,volumeII (Oxford:Blackwell): Schegloff (eds), Lectures 215-21. forthe (1974) 'A SimplestSystematics & Gail Jefferson Sacks, Harvey,Emanuel Schegloff ofTurn-taking forConversation', Language50(4): 696-735. Organization to Symbol (New Sue (1986) Ape Language:FromConditioned Response Savage-Rumbaugh, York:Columbia University Press). Sue & Roger Lewin (1994) Kanzi: TheApe at theBrinkoftheHuman Savage-Rumbaugh, Mind (New York:John Wiley& Sons, Inc). Sue, StuartShanker& TalbotTaylor(1998) Apes,Language,and the Savage-Rumbaugh, Press). Human Mind (NewYork: OxfordUniversity inAmerica Searle,John(1965) 'What is a Speech Act?', in Max Black (ed.), Philosophy Press). (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Nature349: 114. ofa Controversy', Seeley,Thomas (1991) 'Bee Warned:ReviewofAnatomy ofHoneyBee Colonies oftheHive: The Social Physiology Seeley,Thomas (1995) TheWisdom Press). (Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversity Seeley,Thomas & Susannah Buhrman(1999) 'Group Decision Makingin Swarmsof and Sociobiology 45(1): 19-31. Ecology Honey Bees', Behavioral Shanker,Stuart(1994) 'Ape Language in a New Light',Languageand Communication 14(1): 59-85. & Bruno Latour (1987) 'Redefining the Social Link: From Baboons to Strum,Shirley Information 26(4): 783-802. Humans', Social Science Science Connie (1989) 'The Honey-Bee Language Controversy', Interdisciplinary Veldink, Reviews14(2): 166-75. Chemical von Frisch,Karl (1950) Bees: Their Senses,and Language(Ithaca, NY: Vision, Cornell University Press). ofBees (Cambridge,MA: The von Frisch,Karl (1 967a) TheDance Languageand Orientation Press). Belknap Press of HarvardUniversity von Frisch,Karl (1967b) 'Honeybees: Do theyUse Directionand Distance Information Providedby theirDancers?', Science158(3804): 1072-76. of von Frisch,Karl & MartinLindauer (1996 [1956]) 'The "Language" and Orientation the Honey Bee', in L.D. Houck & L.C. Drickamer(eds), Foundations ofAnimal of Chicago Commentaries Behavior:ClassicPaperswith (Chicago, IL: The University Press): 539-52. AdrianM. (1962) 'Sound ProductionDuring theWaggleDance of the Honey Wenner, Bee', AnimalBehaviour10: 79-95. Contained AdrianM. (1967) 'Honey Bees: Do theyUse the Distance Information Wenner, in theirDance Maneuver?',Science155(3764): 847-49. An Experience in Science(Boulder, AdrianM. (1971) TheBee LanguageControversy: Wenner, CO: Educational ProgramsImprovement Corporation). AdrianM. & Dennis L. Johnson (1967) 'Response to von Frisch', Science158 Wenner, (3804): 1076-77.
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The Question ofa ofa Controversy: Wenner, AdrianM. & P.H. Wells (1990) Anatomy Press). 'Language'among Bees (New York:Columbia University Search Behavior, Wenner, Adrian,Daniel Meade & LarryJonFriesen (1991) 'Recruitment, Zoologist 31(6): 768-89. and FlightRanges of Honey Bees', American AdrianM., PatrickH. Wells& Dennis L. Johnson (1969) 'Honeybee Recruitment Wenner, to Food Sources: Olfactionor Language?', Science164(3875): 84-86. in Angus Fletcher(ed.), White,Hayden (1976) 'The Fictionsof Factual Representation', (New York:Columbia Papers from theEnglish Institute The Literature ofFact: Selected University Press). Societies (Cambridge,MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard Wilson,E.O. (1971) TheInsect University Press). Biology1(4): Wilson,E.O. (1987) 'The LittleThings thatRun theWorld',Conservation 344-46. (NewYork: Macmillan Investigations Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1968 [1953]) Philosophical Publishing, Inc).
AnimalMind(TempleUniversity Press, 2000). She is currently working on forbiodiversity. scientific advocacy
VirginiaTech. She is author of Images of Animals: Anthropomorphism and
is AssociateProfessor in Scienceand Technology in Society EileenCrist at
Address:124 Lane Hall,Virginia Tech,Blacksburg, Virginia, VA24061-0247, USA;fax:+1 540 231 7013; email:ecrist@vt.edu

Can An Insect Speak The Case of The Honeybee Dance Language

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Can An Insect Speak The Case of The Honeybee Dance Language

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Can an Insect Speak?

Can an Insect Speak? The Case of the HoneybeeDance Language

Social Studies of Science 34/1

A Description of the Dance

Social Studies of Science 34/1

Crist: Can an insect speak?

Social Studies of Science 34/1

Why Call it Language?

Crist: Can an insect speak?

The rule-set of the dance

Social Studies of Science 34/1

Crist: Can an insect speak? FIGURE2 The Code at a Glance

Social Studies of Science 34/1

Crist: Can an insect speak?

Social Studies of Science 34/1

The Dance as Symbolic

Crist: Can an insect speak?

Social Studies of Science 34/1

The Dance as Performative

Crist: Can an insect speak?

Social Studies of Science 34/1

Crist: Can an insect speak?

Social Studies of Science 34/1

Crist: Can an insect speak?

Symbolism-cum-Performance: The Dance as a Complete Act

Social Studies of Science 34/1

Upsetting Order: The Bees as an 'Evolutionary Freak'

Rejecting the Dance Language 'Hypothesis'

Crist: Can an insect speak?

Social Studies of Science 34/1

Crist: Can an insect speak?

Social Studies of Science 34/1

Crist: Can an insect speak?

Social Studies of Science 34/1

Crist: Can an insect speak?

Social Studies of Science 34/1

Crist: Can an insect speak?

Social Studies of Science 34/1

Crist: Can an insect speak?

Crist: Can an insect speak?

Social Studies of Science 34/1

Crist: Can an insect speak?

AnimalMind(TempleUniversity Press, 2000). She is currently working on forbiodiversity. scientific advocacy

VirginiaTech. She is author of Images of Animals: Anthropomorphism and

is AssociateProfessor in Scienceand Technology in Society EileenCrist at

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