AntReaktion Books, 2003 - 216 strán (strany) Ants are legion: at present there are 11,006 species of ant known; they live everywhere in the world except the polar icecaps; and the combined weight of the ant population has been estimated to make up half the mass of all insects alive today. When we encounter them outdoors, ants fascinate us; discovered in our kitchen cupboards, they elicit horror and disgust. Charlotte Sleigh’s Ant elucidates the cultural reasons behind our varied reactions to these extraordinary insects, and considers the variety of responses that humans have expressed at different times and in different places to their intricate, miniature societies. Ants have figured as fantasy miniature armies, as models of good behavior, as infiltrating communists and as creatures on the borderline between the realms of the organic and the machine: in 1977 British Telecom hired ant experts to help solve problems with their massive information network. This is the first book to examine ants in these and many other such guises, and in so doing opens up broader issues about the history of science and humans’ relations with the natural world. It will be of interest to anyone who likes natural history or cultural studies, or who has ever rushed out and bought a can of RaidTM. "[Charlotte Sleigh's] stylish, engaging and informative study deserves to win new members for the ant fan club."—Jonathan Bate, The Times |
Obsah
Introduction | 7 |
Ants as Minions | 28 |
Ants as Models | 58 |
The Enemy Without | 87 |
The Enemy Within | 116 |
Ants as Machines | 142 |
The Ambiguous Ant | 167 |
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A. S. Byatt Aeacus Aesop American Angels and Insects Animal World ant-like ant's Ants Compared AntZ aphids appears Argentine ants army ants Auguste Forel Bala bees behaviour Belt Bert Hölldobler Booi Bredely Hall Byatt C. K. Ogden caste Chapter claim Clarissa colony creatures cultural Deborah described dream E. O. Wilson eggs enemy entomologists European evolution evolutionary explores fable fantasy film fire ants foraging formic giant ants Gordon grasshoppers Harmondsworth Heinz Ewers Honey ants Honey-Ant horror human Ibid illustration individual Insect Menace inspired invading labour Lady Alabaster larvae live London machine mandibles mechanical metaphor miniature minions moral myrmecologist Myrmidons native natural theology Naturalist nest nineteenth century observed organization Photo queen reader robots role satire sense Siafu social insects Social World society soldiers species story suggests supercolony swarm termite threat tiny tion trans twentieth century Victorian Vietnamese Walcott wasps workers writers