When the same parameters and quantitative theory are used to analyze both
termite colonies and troops of rhesus macaques, we will have a unified science
of sociobiology. Can this ever really happen? As my own studies have advanced,
I have been increasingly impressed with the functional similarities between
insect and vertebrate societies and less so with the structural differences
that seem, at first glance, to constitute such an immense gulf between them.
Consider for a moment termites and macaques. Both form cooperative
groups that occupy territories. In both kinds of society there is a well-marked
division of labor. Members of both groups communicate to each other
hunger, alarm, hostility, caste status or rank, and reproductive status. From
the specialist’s point of view, this comparison may at first seem facile—or
worse. But it is out of such deliberate oversimplification that the beginnings
of a general theory are made.
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