Transcription of The social function of intellect Nicholas Humphrey
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The social function of intellect Nicholas Humphrey
First published in Growing Points in Ethology, ed. and , pp. 303- 317,Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1976. The social function of intellectNicholas HumphreyHenry Ford, it is said, commissioned a survey of the car scrap yards of America to find out if there wereparts of the Model T Ford which never failed. His inspectors came back with reports of almost everykind of breakdown: axles, brakes, pistons all were liable to go wrong. But they drew attention to onenotable exception, the kingpins of the scrapped cars invariably had years of life left in them. Withruthless logic Ford concluded that the kingpins on the Model T were too good for their job and orderedthat in future they should be made to an inferior is surely at least as careful an economist as Henry Ford. It is not her habit to tolerate needlessextravagance in the animals on her production lines: superfluous capacity is trimmed back, new capacityadded only as and when it is needed.
First published in Growing Points in Ethology, ed. P.P.G.Bateson and R.A.Hinde, pp. 303- 317, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1976. The social function of intellect
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