Society is Not a Human Invention
A radical and fascinating branch of Wild Sociology deliberately decenters the human. We engage in detailed ethological observation of highly social non-human animals—prairie dog towns, raven congregations, wolf packs, elk herds—not as quaint natural history, but as comparative sociology. The goal is to identify universal patterns of social organization, communication, conflict, and cooperation that transcend species. By studying these ‘other’ societies, we gain a clearer, less culturally biased understanding of what society is.
Prairie Dog Metropolis: Communication and Social Complexity
Our decade-long study of a black-tailed prairie dog colony on a Montana ranch has been revelatory. Their ‘town’ is a complex society with distinct neighborhoods (coteries), a sophisticated vocal language (documented to have specific calls for different predator shapes, sizes, and even colors of clothing on humans), and intricate social bonds. We have observed:
- Conflict Resolution: ‘Kissing’ (mouth-to-mouth contact) and grooming following aggressive encounters, suggesting ritualized reconciliation.
- Cooperative Breeding: Females within a coterie often nurse each other’s pups, a form of alloparenting that strengthens group cohesion and survival.
- Social Learning: Young prairie dogs learn the specific alarm calls of their colony, and we’ve documented ‘accents’ varying between towns just miles apart.
Sociologically, this forces us to expand our definitions of language, culture, and politics. The prairie dog town is a polity with its own rules, communication networks, and territorial diplomacy with rival towns.
Raven Conspiracies: Alliance, Deception, and Play
Ravens present a different model: a fluid, fission-fusion society based on intelligence and social manipulation. Our researchers, using remote cameras and careful hide-based observation, have documented behaviors that read as intensely sociological:
- Strategic Alliances: Ravens form temporary partnerships to displace a dominant pair from a rich carcass, then squabble among themselves over the spoils—a clear analog to shifting political coalitions.
- Deception and Cache Protection: A raven will pretend to hide food in one location while secretively caching it elsewhere if it senses it is being watched, demonstrating a theory of mind and complex social calculation.
- Play as Social Glue: Young ravens engage in spectacular aerial play (barrel rolls, object-dropping) not just as skill practice, but seemingly to build social bonds and test peers. Playful groups later form more stable foraging alliances.
This paints a picture of a society where individual cunning is balanced against the need for social standing and cooperative opportunity.
Implications for Human Sociology
Studying these animal socialities does two things. First, it humbles anthropocentric assumptions. Concepts like trade, politics, kinship, and even morality have deep evolutionary roots visible in other species. Second, it provides clean models. Animal societies are often less cluttered by the complex cultural overlays that obscure fundamental social mechanics in humans. By identifying a shared social grammar—how groups manage resources, resolve conflict, communicate danger, and form alliances—we can better understand the bedrock upon which human societies, in all their dazzling complexity, are built.
This research also challenges the ethics of our own society. Recognizing the profound social lives of these animals demands a radical rethinking of our relationship to them. It becomes harder to justify practices that destroy prairie dog towns or treat ravens as pests when we understand them as fellow citizens of the social world, engaged in their own daily dramas of love, conflict, and survival. In listening to their politics, we learn more about our own.