In the initial, throat-clearing run-up to his massive 1975
masterwork, Sociobiology, Edward O. Wilson, in the section “The Kinds
and Degrees of Sociality”, the author mentions W.M. Wheeler’s 1930 stab at
classification, consisting of five types, rather dismissively, by contrast with
the earlier (1918) system of Deegener, “who paid close attention to the fine
details”, with 40 categories; but
then adds a linguistic or rather lexicographic caveat:
Unfortunately, Deegener felt
compelled to provide a full terminology for his classification. One form of concunnubium, he noted, is
the amphoterosynhesmia, a swarm of
both sexes gathered for
reproductive purposes … or the polygynopaedium, an association of mother and
daughters each of which is
reproducing parthenogenetically.
-- op. cit., p. 16)
Note: However
sesquipedalian those coinages may be, they are at least more self-explanatory
[provided you are familiar with Greek and Latin roots] than e.g “Class II(a)
and Class IV(b)”. They are no more
inherently outlandish than deoxyribonucleic acid;
successful such mouthfuls live on as acronyms, like DNA.
In any case, these categories are not nearly as obscure as
their polysyllabicity might suggest -- both being exemplified even within human societies, without so
much as a nod to baboon troops or termite hives. An amphoterosynhesmia
(I was personally familiar with several of these, in and around Berkeley) was
precisely a hippie crash pad (the attention being however directed to
reproductive preliminaries, rather than actually getting knocked up) or a
Weatherman collective during their
period of obligate panmixia (for which see Susan Stern’s moving memoir). And a polygynopaedium is the stated aim of The Rodwoman © and her coven of androphobic maenads.
Note: Wilson
himself seldom shies at the lexical rara
avis or hapax legomenon. A few pages after clucking his tongue
at polygynopaedium, he writes of
efforts “to define a niche as a Hutchinsonian
hyperspace” -- neither of
those terms having been defined. Your
lexicographer might find that definition a case of obscurum per
obscurius.
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