ALL RED FEATHER MATERIALS ARE ALWAYS FREE TO STUDENTS AND TO THOSE WHO TEACH THEM....T R Young

And God Created the Great Whale

SOCGRAD MINI-LECTURES

by

T. R. Young
The Red Feather Institute

National Public Radio had a piece on whale songs on 24 May.

Listening to it twice opened up my curiousity about the varieties of Symbolic Interaction much farther than ever before.

Until I heard that bit of research, I had given thought only to forms and content of human speech. But there are several interesting questions for the next generation of Interactions to consider.

First the findings:

1. Whales use at least 17 different sounds/notes/signals in the tapes assembled by John Buck and Peter Hayek (?).

17 notes provide a large base for symbolic interaction...the human genome in all its complexity, relies on but four information bits.

English Literature with its rich potential, relies on but 22 or so different letters. On the other hand, there are some 385,000 words in the English Lexicon...and, in Hamlet, Shakespeare uses over 20,000 of them...I would doubt whales reflect upon the falsity of whale uncles or the fidelity of whale mothers.

But, an animal species could build a very, very complex social order using 17 or fewer symbols...I wonder just how complex such undecodeable social life worlds are....undecodeable to us, that it.

2. Susuki used information theory analyse both rate of information flow as well as the ratio of noise to code. He found that:

    a. Whales speech/song is very slow compared to humans...while human speech flows at between 10 and 20 bits per second, whale signals convey only .1 to .6 information bits per second. Compare that to your modem which transmits some 56000 bits per second.

    b. Whale songs/signals have a syntax...that is there are rules by which the signals are combined.

Those of us interested in information theory in particular and symbolic interaction theory in general have much to do.

First...I wonder what difference speed of information flow makes...in the world of the whale, maybe .5 bits/second is fast enough...given the distance and distortions, faster rates might transform all speech into noise.

I wonder just what are, in the animal kingdom, the relationships are between rate of information flow and:

    a. size of the animal
    b. nature of the environment
    c. complexity of the social life world
    d. number and nature of predators

Given the social life world of a whale, maybe .5 bits/second is adequate to inform other whales of:

    Who it is speaking
    What is going on
    Where we shall meet
    What kind of food is available
    What dangers lurk
    Who is courting whom

I wonder if there are complex social relationships not predicated on family ties and early bonding...stratification, 'tribal' and perchance, oceanic.

I wonder what kind, if any, definitions of the situation emerge out of the symbolic interactions of whales; do they build family relationships not based upon kinship and early bonding?

Do they have complex political systems in which leadership is not based upon kinship and physical force?

Do they play complex games, keep score and run tournaments of a sort?

Do they think about mystery and magic in their social life course?

What do they do with death, grief and the pain of loss?
   
Second...maybe such rates are adequate to create culture: re-affirm relationships, make group plans, remember significant events, remind all of traditional gatherings, teach young ones about dangers and delights, control deviancy and perchance punish violation of the norms...

Do whales create norms, mores, moralities and try to impose ethical standards...questions which arise if symbolic interactional patterns are complex enough.

And, if so, then the boundaries of culture and symbolic interaction...and social theory have to be opened up much wider than we might suppose. The boundaries between animal and human culture might not be as clear as we assume. If whales, dolphins and the great apes create complex cultural patterns, questions of ethics and morality are much more complex than our poor philosophy might suppose.

Thirdly..I wonder what other information systems whales might have to supplement/enrich symbolic interaction.

Human beings have as least five: voice, body talk, clothing/cosmetics/body decoration, lines of behavior as well as architecturual encodings which help define situations/relationships/identities.

I can think of two short range information flow systems which might serve: manta rays use electro-magnetic fields to pick up information; moths and ants use chemical to send and recieve information.

Whales have such large brains and brain cases, I wonder if there are still other symbolic interactive systems about which we know nought...the US Navy uses ultra-low range electro-magnetic waves to communicate with subs around the world...I wonder if whales do some similar.

Whatever the case, I suspect that the next generation of symbolic interactionists will learn far more than did the first, second or third generation...and all good luck to them.

                                    TR Young
                                    Scholar in Residence
                                    The Red Feather Institute
May 27 2000