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L'anima della formica bianca
Le termiti – o «formiche bianche», come anche furono denominate – hanno attirato sempre, fin da quando Linneo, nel 1748, le classificò, un interesse violento e di specie affatto particolare: questi esseri arcaici e ciechi, provvisti di un imponente potere costruttivo e distruttivo, ordinati rigidamente nella loro esistenza sotterranea, guidati da un centro immobile e nascosto, come il regno cinese era retto dall’Immobile Figlio del Cielo, suscitano naturalmente una serie di interrogativi, proiezioni e provocazioni. La ricerca sulle termiti è stata perciò, sempre, inestricabilmente connessa con temi generalissimi che coinvolgono anche l’uomo – basti pensare come il vocabolo «termitaio» sia venuto a designare l’immagine minacciosa e ipnotica di una società perfettamente organizzata, inferno o paradiso. Una tappa importante in questi studi è stata segnata dal libro che qui presentiamo. Il suo autore, Eugène N. Marais, era un ricercatore affatto singolare: uomo solitario, schivo, vissuto quasi sempre nel Sud Africa, dove era nato, egli condusse per anni e anni, senza stretti legami con la scienza ufficiale, i suoi studi sulla vita animale, arrivando perfino a vivere per tre anni in mezzo a un branco di babbuini. Così egli applicava già, a suo modo, il metodo di osservazione di molti etologi di oggi, che studiano il comportamento degli animali in libertà. Di fronte alle termiti, Marais non si pone tanto delle questioni tassonomiche, fisiologiche e biologiche; egli cerca piuttosto di individuare l’essenza termite nella sua particolarità, di scoprire in questi esseri, per molti aspetti unici, l’inquietante archetipo di una remota forma di vita. Forse, proprio grazie a questa sua esclusiva concentrazione su un punto, Marais è arrivato a formulare un’intuizione fondamentale, veramente illuminante – e cioè che il termitaio, più che a una società, è paragonabile a un corpo, per esempio il corpo umano, ed è quindi ciò che oggi si chiama un superorganismo. Come nelle sue ricerche Marais seguiva procedimenti particolari, piuttosto da outsider che da scienziato ortodosso, così nell’esposizione delle sue opere egli scelse una strada del tutto sua. L’anima della formica bianca non si presenta come un trattato sulle termiti, ma piuttosto come il resoconto di una ricerca appassionata, di un’avventura in una terra incognita, che procede con sempre maggiore suspense fino all’ultimo emozionante capitolo, in cui Marais racconta come, una volta, gli riuscì di vedere il cervello del termitaio, l’immobile regina nella sua cella, fonte di ogni vita e di ogni specifica attività.
196 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1925
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824 people want to read
About the author
Eugène N. Marais
25 books13 followersMarais ('mah-REH', silent s) was the thirteenth and last child of his parents, Jan Christiaan Nielen Marais and Catharina. He attended school in Pretoria, Boshof and Paarl and much of his early education was in English, as were his earliest poems.
After leaving school he worked as a legal clerk and later as a journalist before becoming owner (at the age of twenty) of a newspaper called Land en Volk. He involved himself deeply in local politics.
He began taking opiates at an early age and graduated to morphine (then considered to be non-habitforming and a safer drug) very soon thereafter. He became addicted: An addiction that ruled his affairs and actions to a greater or lesser extent throughout his life. When asked for the reasons for taking drugs, he variously pleaded ill health, insomnia and, later, the untimely death of his wife. Much later, he blamed accidental addiction while ill with malaria in Mozambique.
He married Aletta Beyers but she died from puerperal fever a year later, eight days after the birth of their son, Marais' only child.
In 1897 - still in his mid-twenties - he went to London, initially to read medicine. However, under pressure from his friends, he entered the Inner Temple to study law and qualified as an advocate.
When the Boer War broke out in 1899, he was put on parole as an enemy alien in London. During the latter part of the war he joined a German expedition that sought to ship ammunition and medicines to the Boer Commandos via Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique). However, he was struck down by malaria and before the supplies could be delivered to the Boers the war ended.
From 1905 he studied nature in the Waterberg (Water mountain) and wrote in Afrikaans about the animals he observed. His studies of termites led him to the conclusion that the colony should be considered as a single organism. Although Marais could not have known it, he was anticipating some of the ideas of Richard Dawkins. In the Waterberg Marais also studied the black mamba, spitting cobra and puff adder as well as observing baboon troops at length. He was the father of the scientific study of the behaviour of primates.
His book "Die Siel van die Mier" (the "Soul of the White Ant") was plagiarized by Nobel laureate Maurice Maeterlinck, who published "The Life of the White Ant" in 1926, falsely claiming many of Marais' revolutionary ideas as his own.
Marais contemplated legal action against Maeterlinck but gave up the idea in the face of the costs and logistics involved. Marais had by now for some time been a morphine addict and suffered from melancholy, insomnia, depression and feelings of isolation.
In 1936, deprived of morphine for some days, he finally borrowed a shotgun (on the pretext of killing a snake) and shot himself in the chest. The wound was not fatal and Marais therefore placed the end of the weapon in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
Marais is amongst the greatest of the Afrikaans poets and remains one of the most popular, although his output was not large. Along with J.H.H. de Waal and G.S. Preller, he was a leading light in the Second Afrikaans (language) Movement in the period immediately after the Second Boer War, which ended in 1902. Some of his finest poems deal with the wonders of life and nature but he also wrote about inexorable Death. Although an Afrikaner patriot, Marais was sympathetic to the cultural values of the black tribal peoples of the Transvaal; this is seen in poems such as "Die Dans van die Reën" (The dance of the rain).
After leaving school he worked as a legal clerk and later as a journalist before becoming owner (at the age of twenty) of a newspaper called Land en Volk. He involved himself deeply in local politics.
He began taking opiates at an early age and graduated to morphine (then considered to be non-habitforming and a safer drug) very soon thereafter. He became addicted: An addiction that ruled his affairs and actions to a greater or lesser extent throughout his life. When asked for the reasons for taking drugs, he variously pleaded ill health, insomnia and, later, the untimely death of his wife. Much later, he blamed accidental addiction while ill with malaria in Mozambique.
He married Aletta Beyers but she died from puerperal fever a year later, eight days after the birth of their son, Marais' only child.
In 1897 - still in his mid-twenties - he went to London, initially to read medicine. However, under pressure from his friends, he entered the Inner Temple to study law and qualified as an advocate.
When the Boer War broke out in 1899, he was put on parole as an enemy alien in London. During the latter part of the war he joined a German expedition that sought to ship ammunition and medicines to the Boer Commandos via Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique). However, he was struck down by malaria and before the supplies could be delivered to the Boers the war ended.
From 1905 he studied nature in the Waterberg (Water mountain) and wrote in Afrikaans about the animals he observed. His studies of termites led him to the conclusion that the colony should be considered as a single organism. Although Marais could not have known it, he was anticipating some of the ideas of Richard Dawkins. In the Waterberg Marais also studied the black mamba, spitting cobra and puff adder as well as observing baboon troops at length. He was the father of the scientific study of the behaviour of primates.
His book "Die Siel van die Mier" (the "Soul of the White Ant") was plagiarized by Nobel laureate Maurice Maeterlinck, who published "The Life of the White Ant" in 1926, falsely claiming many of Marais' revolutionary ideas as his own.
Marais contemplated legal action against Maeterlinck but gave up the idea in the face of the costs and logistics involved. Marais had by now for some time been a morphine addict and suffered from melancholy, insomnia, depression and feelings of isolation.
In 1936, deprived of morphine for some days, he finally borrowed a shotgun (on the pretext of killing a snake) and shot himself in the chest. The wound was not fatal and Marais therefore placed the end of the weapon in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
Marais is amongst the greatest of the Afrikaans poets and remains one of the most popular, although his output was not large. Along with J.H.H. de Waal and G.S. Preller, he was a leading light in the Second Afrikaans (language) Movement in the period immediately after the Second Boer War, which ended in 1902. Some of his finest poems deal with the wonders of life and nature but he also wrote about inexorable Death. Although an Afrikaner patriot, Marais was sympathetic to the cultural values of the black tribal peoples of the Transvaal; this is seen in poems such as "Die Dans van die Reën" (The dance of the rain).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
January 8, 2023
L'anima della formica bianca è un saggio molto interessante di Eugène N. Marais che raccoglie al suo interno una serie di informazioni curiose sulle termiti e sul loro modo di vivere all'interno del termitaio. Marais spiega che ognuno di questi insetti ha il proprio ruolo all'interno della "società" e quindi del termitaio, proprio come lo hanno gli organi nel corpo dell’essere umano: alcune termiti costituiscono la bocca e il sistema digestivo, altre fungono da armi di difesa, altre ancora da organi riproduttivi. Se qualche anno fa mi avessero detto che avrei letto un saggio sulle termiti non ci avrei creduto; mi sarei messa a ridere, probabilmente. Ad oggi, invece, è uno dei libri che rileggo più volentieri. E' un libro poco conosciuto ma che vale assolutamente la pena di essere letto. E' di facile comprensione, accessibile a tutti e illuminante. Il mondo è pieno di vita, di esseri meravigliosi e unici nel loro genere. Non siamo soli sulla Terra, c'è tanta diversità e bellezza. Questo libro mi ha aiutato a ricordarlo.
December 18, 2012
(Just found out, you can get this book in its entirety online http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/03...)
This is a wonderful book on termites, though I have yet to compare it with other books on termites. Marais clearly has a love for these creatures (or creature, as we shall talk about) and describes their behaviour diligently and with humour from the first flight of the queen and king to the soldiers. The major contention of this work is that a termitary is essentially a single organism composed of discrete parts. The argument is many-pronged and too complex to go into in a review but it is fairly convincing. He theorises that the queen, encased in a small cell in the center of the termitary, is the source of all the actions of the other termites. The many experiments to prove this include:
1) separating areas of the termitary with a large sheet of metal and watching the workers build an arch that matches near perfectly on either side.
2) stunning the queen and watching how all normal behaviour instantly ceases (including one particularly disturbing example in which as soon as she is stunned all nearby workers and the king leap upon her and suck all the fluid from her body, leaving her withered. She eventually recovers from this but I have rarely come upon something so frightening).
3) killing the queen, which causes all other termites to die unless there is another termitary nearby in which case they will simply serve that termitary. (It is necessary for the termites to be familiar with the others beforehand; if simply introduced into another termitary at random they will be instantly attacked.)
The whole book is fascinating in a way that I would not have expected and I am very curious to find out what further research has revealed, especially with regard to the impenetrable mysteries dotted throughout. One such mystery is the termite queen's cell, in which she first begins to grow and bear children and grow, growing until she fills the cell, at which point she is moved to a bigger cell and then the process is repeated. The mystery in this is the fact that the opening of the cell would be impossible to get the queen through, the walls are not damaged and it is the same queen (unlike with other species with queens, where the queen may simply be killed and replaced). I have tried to find out what conclusions have been reached since then but it's hard to do (with a simple internet search, anyway). The book, originally written in Afrikaans, was only ever widely read in South Africa, and later a French(?) writer put forward his own, apparently new, 'the termitary is a single organism' theory to wide acclaim.
Just a wonderful book, every moment, to the extent that I feel I need to mention many unnecessary facts from it, like that the queen must fly, even if it is only for a second or the amount of illusory flight caused by having your wings caught in a branch and flapping wildly; if she does not she will simply die.
Any good termite books since the 30s please?
Coherence would only be possible if left only with the first 6 words.
This is a wonderful book on termites, though I have yet to compare it with other books on termites. Marais clearly has a love for these creatures (or creature, as we shall talk about) and describes their behaviour diligently and with humour from the first flight of the queen and king to the soldiers. The major contention of this work is that a termitary is essentially a single organism composed of discrete parts. The argument is many-pronged and too complex to go into in a review but it is fairly convincing. He theorises that the queen, encased in a small cell in the center of the termitary, is the source of all the actions of the other termites. The many experiments to prove this include:
1) separating areas of the termitary with a large sheet of metal and watching the workers build an arch that matches near perfectly on either side.
2) stunning the queen and watching how all normal behaviour instantly ceases (including one particularly disturbing example in which as soon as she is stunned all nearby workers and the king leap upon her and suck all the fluid from her body, leaving her withered. She eventually recovers from this but I have rarely come upon something so frightening).
3) killing the queen, which causes all other termites to die unless there is another termitary nearby in which case they will simply serve that termitary. (It is necessary for the termites to be familiar with the others beforehand; if simply introduced into another termitary at random they will be instantly attacked.)
The whole book is fascinating in a way that I would not have expected and I am very curious to find out what further research has revealed, especially with regard to the impenetrable mysteries dotted throughout. One such mystery is the termite queen's cell, in which she first begins to grow and bear children and grow, growing until she fills the cell, at which point she is moved to a bigger cell and then the process is repeated. The mystery in this is the fact that the opening of the cell would be impossible to get the queen through, the walls are not damaged and it is the same queen (unlike with other species with queens, where the queen may simply be killed and replaced). I have tried to find out what conclusions have been reached since then but it's hard to do (with a simple internet search, anyway). The book, originally written in Afrikaans, was only ever widely read in South Africa, and later a French(?) writer put forward his own, apparently new, 'the termitary is a single organism' theory to wide acclaim.
Just a wonderful book, every moment, to the extent that I feel I need to mention many unnecessary facts from it, like that the queen must fly, even if it is only for a second or the amount of illusory flight caused by having your wings caught in a branch and flapping wildly; if she does not she will simply die.
Any good termite books since the 30s please?
Coherence would only be possible if left only with the first 6 words.
May 1, 2013
First published in 1925, this book is an extraordinary mix of careful scientific observation, brave and insightful hypothesis, and polemical rave. Eugene Marais was himself an extraordinary man who spent many years in the early 1900s combining professional work as a advocate with painstaking observation of animal behaviour including termites, baboons and snakes. He was also addicted to morphine for most of his life. Growing up in South Africa I've known about his writing for a long time but only now have I actually managed to read his first and most famous book.
Among his observations are:
* Termite mounds are entirely dependent on the queen, who spends her days deep in the nest, unable to move but constantly served by a stream of workers bringing her food, carrying away the eggs she lays (a the rate of thousands per day), and also apparently ferrying a secretion of fluid gleaned from her skin that feeds the pupae. Her male "royal consort" remains in constant attendance by her side.
* If the queen is injured, the whole nest knows in minutes and redirects all energy to her care. If she dies, the entire community comes to a halt immediately and every termite dies within days.
* The termites are able to create "boreholes" of 30 metres or more in depth through hard dry earth to collect water for the lifeblood of the nest. Individual workers in their thousands make half-hour journeys down this channel ferry up moisture a drop at a time to feed the queen, irrigate the "nurseries" and for use in construction of the nest.
In the bigger picture, Marais identifies and explores the remarkable collective behaviour of the community which he sees as a "group soul" that manifests the life of the termitary through the highly-differentiated functions of workers, soldiers and royalty. This is akin to the different parts of a human body doing separate functions that create an organic whole. And he points out that this is all done through an energetic field that is not (or was not at his time) measurable with human instruments. The worker and soldier termites have no eyes or ears and yet they know instantly if something happens to the queen.
It reminds me of what humans refer to as "relationship systems intelligence" - a third entity which is greater than the sum of its parts. And it makes me deeply curious to know more about termites!
Among his observations are:
* Termite mounds are entirely dependent on the queen, who spends her days deep in the nest, unable to move but constantly served by a stream of workers bringing her food, carrying away the eggs she lays (a the rate of thousands per day), and also apparently ferrying a secretion of fluid gleaned from her skin that feeds the pupae. Her male "royal consort" remains in constant attendance by her side.
* If the queen is injured, the whole nest knows in minutes and redirects all energy to her care. If she dies, the entire community comes to a halt immediately and every termite dies within days.
* The termites are able to create "boreholes" of 30 metres or more in depth through hard dry earth to collect water for the lifeblood of the nest. Individual workers in their thousands make half-hour journeys down this channel ferry up moisture a drop at a time to feed the queen, irrigate the "nurseries" and for use in construction of the nest.
In the bigger picture, Marais identifies and explores the remarkable collective behaviour of the community which he sees as a "group soul" that manifests the life of the termitary through the highly-differentiated functions of workers, soldiers and royalty. This is akin to the different parts of a human body doing separate functions that create an organic whole. And he points out that this is all done through an energetic field that is not (or was not at his time) measurable with human instruments. The worker and soldier termites have no eyes or ears and yet they know instantly if something happens to the queen.
It reminds me of what humans refer to as "relationship systems intelligence" - a third entity which is greater than the sum of its parts. And it makes me deeply curious to know more about termites!
November 28, 2021
I reckon I know stuff about termites because I sat looking at loads of them for ages! They're like humans aren't they? They're like apes aren't they? I murdered a termite queen and noticed how the colony fell apart. I pulled a queen termite apart to check if the fat was just fat, and it was, har har har! I poured water in the way of worker termites to see what they'd do. Once, I cut into a lizard's tail and do you know what, it grew multiple tails! How bizarre!
This is the fuckery of Eugene N Marais, and I wish I had never read it, the cruel, narrow minded piece of shit.
This is the fuckery of Eugene N Marais, and I wish I had never read it, the cruel, narrow minded piece of shit.
April 4, 2017
This book sits in the delta where science, wonder and poetry meet. The strange world of termites is explored and described by a man who clearly stood in child-like awe and with determined interest before the intricacies of the world we're part of.
This is a beautiful, exciting book on creatures that reveal how much mystery lies beyond our thin veil of familiarity.
This is a beautiful, exciting book on creatures that reveal how much mystery lies beyond our thin veil of familiarity.
November 7, 2025
“አንተ ታካች፥ ወደ ገብረ ጕንዳን ሂድ፥ መንገድዋንም ተመልክተህ ጠቢብ ሁን።...”
July 3, 2007
I have never been a fan of sciene or biology books but on a recent trip to africa a friend recommended i pick this one up. It's very well known in africa but has received almost no attention here. Eugene Marais devoted his life to studying termites on the African plains and was one of the first to classify the entire termite mound as one single organism. Because he wrote in Afrikaans his work was not widely known and eventually a Belgian author republished Marais' findings as his own -- eventually leading Marais to take his life. I know it sounds weird to promote a book on termites but its a truly unique and incredible read.
July 15, 2014
I got this book from the local library just by chance while browsing for something else altogether. What luck, for this opened up a whole new perspective for me regarding the lives of termites. Hmmm, that sounded a bit odd. A proper review is what this book deserves. For now I will say this is an amazing book, with exceptional quality of writing. I'm going to look for his other books now. And if I find any of them in the shops, I will just grab without thinking. This might be the one push for me to want to learn Afrikaans properly.
Read
March 25, 2025What a pity Marais could not see the nature filming of today. He has to use so many wsords to describe what we can watch in a half hour ptrogram.
November 22, 2018
A fascinating and very enjoyable read about termites. Written almost one hundred years ago by Eugene Marais the book discusses his meticulous observations of the termites of South Africa and the conclusions he drew from them. Some of his conclusions are dated and a few are naive but most are very relevant even today. His observation that the termite colony works very much like an individual organism I thought was very interesting. His writing was extremely accessible unlike many scientific journals and he presented his observations and conclusions in a very conversational manner.
April 16, 2012
The best book I ever read about termites, hands down! Naturalist Eugene Marais's study of the termite offers fascinating insights into their world, and life itself. I'll never look at a termite's nest again the same way.
May 30, 2013
He wasn't even a real scientist, just some guy who spent years messing around with termites.
February 27, 2023
https://journeytoforever.org/farm_lib... (full text of book found at link)
This classic book of speculative science on the African Termite is more interesting than it might appear from the title and it remains a widely read and appreciated work. This is in part due to its accessible and poetic language but mostly to the catalog of interesting observations that seem to be the daily machinations of an obsessive-compulsive madman. These observations and the subsequent provocative theories have endured in the sciences and arts and will be immediately recognizable in their nascent forms. Marais' more important book, 'The Soul of the Ape' is considered a modern classic and is the first extensive study of primates in the wild.
Being lazy I'll use an LLM to summarize the main theories:
"ChatGPT"
1. The concept of "swarm intelligence": Marais argued that the collective behavior of termites could be explained by a type of group intelligence that emerged from the interactions of individual termites. He suggested that this type of intelligence was fundamentally different from the intelligence of individual organisms and could not be fully understood using traditional scientific methods.
2. The idea of a "termite caste system": Marais described the complex social structure of termite colonies, including the existence of different types of termites with specialized roles and functions. He suggested that this caste system was an example of a "super-organism" in which the individual parts (termites) worked together for the good of the whole (the colony).
3. The concept of "telepathic communication": Marais argued that termites were capable of communicating with each other through a type of telepathy that was not yet understood by science. He suggested that this communication was facilitated by a type of "mental ether" that permeated the termite colony.
4. The theory of "social heredity": Marais proposed that termite behavior was not solely determined by genetics, but was also influenced by the behavior of other termites in the colony. He suggested that this type of "social heredity" could explain the remarkable consistency of termite behavior across different colonies and regions.
5. The idea of a "termite mind": Marais argued that termites possessed a type of consciousness or "termite mind" that was distinct from human consciousness. He suggested that this termite mind was responsible for the instinctual behavior and organization of termite colonies, and that it was a manifestation of a larger "universal consciousness" that permeated all of nature.
"/ChatGPT"
To this I would add his somewhat wild idea that birthing pain is required for mothers to show affection toward their offspring among all creatures. Having been born with a very large head I can't confirm this from my experience, unless my mom was heavily sedated. Some of these ideas have been influential in modern science particularly the concepts of swarm intelligence/hive mind and social heredity. The more speculative philosophical ideas have been played out in works of science fiction and will be immediately familiar.
A few final curiosities, there is some speculation that Marais committed suicide (via two shotgun blasts, one unsuccessful to the chest and the next to the head) due to his despair that Maurice Maeterlink had plagiarized the contents of 'The Soul of White Ants' in his popular book the 'The Life of the White Ants'. The plagiarism seems most likely true but the suicide is complicated. Marais was a lifelong depressive and drug user who was highly addicted to morphine. All of this complicated his relations to family and friends near the end of his life and left him quite isolated.
I also encountered several instances where the writer Arthur Koestler was said to have borrowed too freely from the ideas of Marais particularly in his concept of 'bisociation', which seems an extension of Marais' idea of 'two-fold-thought', which was first proposed in the Soul of the White Ant. Very simply, the concept of two-fold-thought is that the termites have two internal modes of thinking, individual and collective, and in both bisociation and two-fold-thought very complex thinking patterns can emerge. I find this claim of plagiarism a bit bizarre. Koestler was certainly capable of all kinds of bad behavior but as he was a thoroughgoing Marxist I believe his views on intellectual property were similar to his friend Bertolt Brecht, who simply could not be bothered with cataloging the provenance of all his ideas. Koestler who was vastly more prolific and creative no doubt felt the same.
This classic book of speculative science on the African Termite is more interesting than it might appear from the title and it remains a widely read and appreciated work. This is in part due to its accessible and poetic language but mostly to the catalog of interesting observations that seem to be the daily machinations of an obsessive-compulsive madman. These observations and the subsequent provocative theories have endured in the sciences and arts and will be immediately recognizable in their nascent forms. Marais' more important book, 'The Soul of the Ape' is considered a modern classic and is the first extensive study of primates in the wild.
Being lazy I'll use an LLM to summarize the main theories:
"ChatGPT"
1. The concept of "swarm intelligence": Marais argued that the collective behavior of termites could be explained by a type of group intelligence that emerged from the interactions of individual termites. He suggested that this type of intelligence was fundamentally different from the intelligence of individual organisms and could not be fully understood using traditional scientific methods.
2. The idea of a "termite caste system": Marais described the complex social structure of termite colonies, including the existence of different types of termites with specialized roles and functions. He suggested that this caste system was an example of a "super-organism" in which the individual parts (termites) worked together for the good of the whole (the colony).
3. The concept of "telepathic communication": Marais argued that termites were capable of communicating with each other through a type of telepathy that was not yet understood by science. He suggested that this communication was facilitated by a type of "mental ether" that permeated the termite colony.
4. The theory of "social heredity": Marais proposed that termite behavior was not solely determined by genetics, but was also influenced by the behavior of other termites in the colony. He suggested that this type of "social heredity" could explain the remarkable consistency of termite behavior across different colonies and regions.
5. The idea of a "termite mind": Marais argued that termites possessed a type of consciousness or "termite mind" that was distinct from human consciousness. He suggested that this termite mind was responsible for the instinctual behavior and organization of termite colonies, and that it was a manifestation of a larger "universal consciousness" that permeated all of nature.
"/ChatGPT"
To this I would add his somewhat wild idea that birthing pain is required for mothers to show affection toward their offspring among all creatures. Having been born with a very large head I can't confirm this from my experience, unless my mom was heavily sedated. Some of these ideas have been influential in modern science particularly the concepts of swarm intelligence/hive mind and social heredity. The more speculative philosophical ideas have been played out in works of science fiction and will be immediately familiar.
A few final curiosities, there is some speculation that Marais committed suicide (via two shotgun blasts, one unsuccessful to the chest and the next to the head) due to his despair that Maurice Maeterlink had plagiarized the contents of 'The Soul of White Ants' in his popular book the 'The Life of the White Ants'. The plagiarism seems most likely true but the suicide is complicated. Marais was a lifelong depressive and drug user who was highly addicted to morphine. All of this complicated his relations to family and friends near the end of his life and left him quite isolated.
I also encountered several instances where the writer Arthur Koestler was said to have borrowed too freely from the ideas of Marais particularly in his concept of 'bisociation', which seems an extension of Marais' idea of 'two-fold-thought', which was first proposed in the Soul of the White Ant. Very simply, the concept of two-fold-thought is that the termites have two internal modes of thinking, individual and collective, and in both bisociation and two-fold-thought very complex thinking patterns can emerge. I find this claim of plagiarism a bit bizarre. Koestler was certainly capable of all kinds of bad behavior but as he was a thoroughgoing Marxist I believe his views on intellectual property were similar to his friend Bertolt Brecht, who simply could not be bothered with cataloging the provenance of all his ideas. Koestler who was vastly more prolific and creative no doubt felt the same.
November 4, 2019
Enjoyed reading the book written by a naturalist. His writing style and the content of the book is engaging and fascinating. The author compares the colony of termites as a human body and describes the functions of the termites with respect to the functions in our own body. The meticulous and cumbersome studies that performed with termites for several years is worthy of enormous respect. Not only he talks about termites in this book but also ants, scorpions, apes and others animals to focus our attention on details of a termite behavior. I just wonder if he know more about DNA then many of the problems that baffled him for many years would have been solved. This book gave me new insights on the life of termites and why they do what they do.
November 18, 2018
I read this book on the recommendation of Rabbi Daniel Lapin, from a discussion of it on his podcast. I have no interest in insects, let alone termites (except to kill them before they eat my house), but this book was very interesting nonetheless. The way the Queen acts as the brain of the termitary is quite fascinating, not to mention how they construct it. He discusses the "group psyche or soul," which is interesting. Even though we are a culture based on individualism, we are still interconnected, just as each organ in our bodies have separate functions, but are working for a communal purpose. This tension between individual and community has lessons for humans, and how we organize our society. Interesting read, thanks Rabbi Lapin.
August 22, 2024
"L'anima della formica bianca" è un meraviglioso trattato in cui Marais descrive il termitaio come animale composito, dove ogni gruppo specializzato di termiti compie il suo dovere come ogni organo del nostro corpo compie il suo. L'autore pone domande, risponde a quesiti e solleva questioni che fanno riflettere, utilizzando un linguaggio semplici e di facile comprensione. Questo libro apre una breccia nel mondo delle termiti e racconta la lotta per la sopravvivenza di queste piccole vite. Un inno alla vita, una meraviglia per il lettore pagina dopo pagina.
September 12, 2017
WOW! very very very interesting. After a trip to Africa a friend reccomended to read the book. I am not a biologist and have never paid much interest in this field, but it was truly fascinating. Good Good book, RIP to a very clever, passionate man!
April 15, 2019
A poet writes a scientific book. Extraordinary.
I picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend who grew up in South Africa. It’s fascinating, beautiful, and informative. This genre is not my style, nor is the subject interesting to me, yet I’m so glad I read it. Enjoy.
I picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend who grew up in South Africa. It’s fascinating, beautiful, and informative. This genre is not my style, nor is the subject interesting to me, yet I’m so glad I read it. Enjoy.
March 24, 2020
Written quite obviously in a different time but rather entertaining and interesting.
October 1, 2020
Written so long ago there is some outdated information, but nevertheless found this book extraordinary and thought provoking.
February 10, 2021
So interesting, written in 1925 :) #audibleapp #audiobooks
July 4, 2024
Non quello che mi aspettavo.
May 2, 2025
2.5 Stars. Good, but a little bit outdated.
August 1, 2024
This is a fascinating study of termite behavior, blending natural history with philosophical insights. Marais, a South African naturalist and poet, spent many years observing termites and their social structures. His work delves into the complex and often mysterious lives of these insects, offering readers a unique perspective on their communal existence and the intricate workings of their colonies. As he observed the workings of a termite hive, he began to see the hive as an organisim in itself, and the individual termites as cells within that organism. Marais' has the ability to draw broader philosophical conclusions from the natural world.
June 27, 2024
L'argomento è interessante, l'interesse di Marais per la natura è sconfinato, tuttavia non è proprio per me: troppe parentesi, troppa astrazione e invenzione, metodo scientifico scarso e poca capacità di analisi mi hanno fatto mal sopportare questo libro. Peccato.
Pensavo di aver scoperto un altro pioniere del naturalismo stile Gerald Durrell ma non è stato così.
Pensavo di aver scoperto un altro pioniere del naturalismo stile Gerald Durrell ma non è stato così.
November 14, 2021
What an amazing book!! It was a great blend of scientific research and philosophical hypothesising; Marais postulates throughout about the nature of the termite "soul" as it relates to the collective consciousness of the colony. He wanted to understand how a colony functions and to do so he described other studies about the innate and inherent learning habits of various other creatures, such as the baboon and the otter. I cannot express how deeply fascinating I found this to be. It was written almost 100 years ago now, yet does not feel outdated in the least. I really liked these detailed insights into other scientific studies, for example, the explanations of sexuality in living things and the primary role of scent in stimulating sexual urges. All of this he related back to his study of termites, to better grasp the roles and functions of the colony.
I was really surprised and upset at the end, however, as the text finishes so abruptly. There is a note that says this is the end of the text, and surely there would have been more had the author not committed suicide. :-I To have just finished such an incredible book full of one man's passion for life and nature, to have it end on that note was a kick in the gut.
I was really surprised and upset at the end, however, as the text finishes so abruptly. There is a note that says this is the end of the text, and surely there would have been more had the author not committed suicide. :-I To have just finished such an incredible book full of one man's passion for life and nature, to have it end on that note was a kick in the gut.
February 26, 2022
Singolare e unico saggio sulla vita delle termiti, come metafora della nostra. Un affascinante viaggio in questo mondo in larga parte ancora sconosciuto e misterioso che è un'occasione per riflettere sull'infinitamente piccolo. “Ormai avrete imparato che anima e vita sono la stessa cosa. Ogni definizione dell'anima sarà perciò altrettanto valida come definizione della vita, e viceversa” (cit.). Inaspettato.
October 20, 2015
A bit dated but in some ways that is what makes it an interesting read. Lots of interesting information (it'd be good if someone could recommend a modern popular book about termites - did I really just say that!) about termites but also a window into the mind of someone pushing the boundaries of his field in the days prior to the development of genetics (and epigenetics more recently). I'm not sure how his central hypothesis of the termitary acting as a composite being has stood the test of time but it's fascinating stuff and predates related ideas by some margin.
October 31, 2017
How we humans underestimate the intelligence of creatures so radically different from ourselves as ants appear to be! Yet there are parallels because ants too are social creatures. Looked at with true objectivity, are we really 'God's chosen'? Reading this book encourages as many questions as it answers.
September 8, 2016
Brilliant. Especially when you consider the time in which his research was conducted.
The insight, creativity and ingenuity of his experiments are second to none.
All naturalists can look up to this man and his feel for field work.
The insight, creativity and ingenuity of his experiments are second to none.
All naturalists can look up to this man and his feel for field work.
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