The soul of the ape, and The soul of the white ant (2 volumes)

Science & Math

Marais, Eugène

Biological Sciences

Penguin

This book by Eugene Marais is a passionate, insightful account into the world of termites. It is a meticulously researched expose of their complex, highly structured community life.
Originally translated into English in 1937, the quality of research remains as relevant today as it was when it was first published. This illuminating account will not only appeal to those with a scientific interest in termites, but will similarly enthrall readers who are new to their captivating world. An exceptional feature of his detailed research is the extraordinary psychological life of the termite.
While the studies are based in South Africa, the extensive research also includes the termites of Magnetic Island, Australia. You will be taken on an exciting journey into the amazing life of termites, as their astonishing world of hierarchy and roles within their community is revealed in captivating detail.
His years of unceasing work on the veld led Eugène Marais to formulate his theory that the termite nest is similar in every respect to the organism of an animal. He observed that the workers and soldiers resemble red and white blood cells, while the fungus gardens are the digestive organ. The queen functions as the brain, controlling the collective mind, and the sexual flight of the kings and queens is similar in every aspect to the escape of spermatozoa and ova.
Marais was also the author of The Soul of the Ape. It was always his intention that his two bodies of work, on termites and apes, were companion pieces in the search for an understanding of the psyche that would span the gulf between the insect and primate worlds. The point of Marais’ work was, always, the mystery of consciousness itself, on which grounds it is as relevant as ever.“He offers a vision of nature as a whole, whose parts obey different time-laws, move in affinities and linkages we could learn to see: parts making wholes on their own level, but seen by our divisive brains as a multitude of individualities, a flock of birds, a species of plant or beast. We are just at the start of an understanding of the heavens as a web of interlocking clocks, all differently set: an understanding that is not intellectual, but woven into experience. Marais brings this thought down into the plain, the hedgerow, the garden.” - Doris Lessing in The New StatesmanReviews"I have never read a book written in such a unique style. It is as though Eugene Marais breathes life into the words, animating the lives and struggles of the white ants in such a way that they almost seem human."
"As a safari Guide in the Okavango Botswana for many years, I used this book as a basis for presenting a fascination for the smaller creatures of the African bush, my home for my entire life and which I was privileged to share with many clients from different countries. Termite mounds are really interesting and Eugene Marais compared the infrastructure of a termitary to that of the human body. Writing from the heart, this scientific author instills a wonder in the reader, of the incredible intracacies of nature, in a light-hearted, easily readable manner."
"Brilliant and thought provoking material."
Contents
<ol>
<li>The Beginning of a Termitary</li>
<li>Unsolved Secrets</li>
<li>Language in the Insect World</li>
<li>What is the Psyche?</li>
<li>Luminosity in the Animal Kingdom</li>
<li>The Composite Animal</li>
<li>Somatic Death</li>
<li>The Development of the Composite Animal</li>
<li>The Birth of the Termite Community</li>
<li>Pain and Travail in Nature</li>
<li>Uninherited Instincts</li>
<li>The Mysterious Power which Governs</li>
<li>The Water Supply</li>
<li>The First Architects</li>
<li>The Queen in her Cell</li>
</ol>

The Soul of the White Ant

History

Africa

dminoz

Eugene Marais spent three years living in the South African wilderness in close daily contact with a troop of baboons. He later described this as the happiest, most content time of his troubled life. This period produced two works which are testament to his research and conclusions; they have very different histories.
Firstly, there was a series of articles written in Afrikaans for the newspaper Die Vaderland. They were then published in book form under the title Burgers van die Berge, and were first published in an English translation in 1939 under the title My Friends the Baboons. These pieces were written in a popular vein suitable to a newspaper readership, and were not regarded seriously by Marais himself. They are a journal; a series of anecdotes and impressions.
The Soul of the Ape, which Marais wrote in wonderfully clear and precise English, was the more serious scientific document; however after his death in 1936, it could not be found. It was lost for 32 years, and was recovered in 1968, and published the following year.
The excellent introduction by Robert Ardrey that is included in this volume was part of the 1969 and subsequent editions of The Soul of the Ape, and adds greatly to an appreciation of its importance.
Together, these three texts give us as complete a picture as we will ever get of Marais’ three year study of these complex relatives of humanity, and its implications for the study of consciousness.
Eugѐne Marais is also the author of The Soul of the White Ant, his exploration of the psyche and social life of the termite. It was always his intention that the two bodies of work, on termites and apes, were companion pieces in the search for an understanding of the psyche that would span the gulf between the insect and primate worlds. The point of Marais’ work was, always, the mystery of consciousness itself, on which grounds it is as relevant as ever.“He offers a vision of nature as a whole, whose parts obey different time-laws, move in affinities and linkages we could learn to see: parts making wholes on their own level, but seen by our divisive brains as a multitude of individualities, a flock of birds, a species of plant or beast. We are just at the start of an understanding of the heavens as a web of interlocking clocks, all differently set: an understanding that is not intellectual, but woven into experience. Marais brings this thought down into the plain, the hedgerow, the garden.” - Doris Lessing in The New StatesmanContentsIntroduction by Robert ArdreyTHE SOUL OF THE APE<ol>
<li>Means and Methods of Research</li>
<li>Habits Acquired in Different Environments</li>
<li>Phyletic and Individual Memory</li>
<li>The Selective Cause</li>
<li>Addiction and Depression</li>
<li>Submerged Instinctive Attributes in Man</li>
<li>Hypnotic Hyperaesthesia</li>
<li>The Sense of Locality, Hypnotic and Normal</li>
<li>Specific Consequences of the Evolution of Primate Mentality</li>
<li>Divergence From Type</li>
<li>Disturbances of the Sexual Sense</li>
</ol>MY FRIENDS THE BABOONS<ol>
<li>The Habits of the Baboons</li>
<li>The Distribution of the Baboon</li>
<li>The Baboons of Doornhoek</li>
<li>Birth Pain in Man and Animal</li>
<li>Behaviour and Character of Young Baboons</li>
<li>Friendship Between Men and Baboons</li>
<li>Baboons and Human Beings</li>
<li>Reason in Apes and Lower Species of Animal</li>
<li>Law and Government among the Baboons</li>
<li>Death among Baboons</li>
</ol>

The Soul of the Ape & My Friends the Baboons

A Distant Mirror

Eugène Marais was born in a farming community near Pretoria in 1872. Journalism was his first career, but he later studied law in London, and by 1910 was in Johannesburg trying to establish himself as an advocate. Increasing depression drove him to retreat to Waterberg, a mountain fastness in northern Transvaal. Settling near a large group of chacma baboons, he became the first man to conduct a prolonged study of primates in the wild. It was this period that produced My Friends the Baboons and provided the major inspiration for The Soul of the Ape. He returned to Pretoria to practise law, to resume his career as a journalist, to continue his animal studies and to write poetry in Afrikaans. In 1926, the year after he had published a definitive article on his original research and conclusions about the white ant, a world-famous European author took half Marais's life-work and published it as his own. This plagiarizing may well have been a major factor in Marais's final collapse. Plagued for many years by ill-health and an addiction to morphine, he took his own life in March 1936.

The Soul of the White Ant (Complete and Unabridged): The Original Work of Ethology

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Marais, Eugène. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Marais, Eugène