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Can an Insect Speak?

The Case of the Honeybee Dance Language

124 Lane Hall, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, VA 24061-0247, USA; fax: +1 540 231 7013ecrist{at}vt.edu

In this paper I investigate the scientific understanding of the honeybee dance language. I elucidate the implicit and explicit reasons why the honeybees’ communication system has been referred to as a ‘language’, and examine the ways this designation has entangled the themes of animal mind and human– animal continuity. I end with an investigation of a scientific controversy surrounding the honeybee dance language. I argue that this controversy was a battle over assumptions regarding insect capacities, and a willingness or unwillingness to abandon those assumptions in the face of a phenomenon that undermined them.

Key Words: animal mind • form of life • honeybee • human–animal continuity • language

Social Studies of Science, Vol. 34, No. 1, 7-43 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0306312704040611


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