Presenter(s): Jacob Jansen − Cultural Anthropology
Faculty Mentor(s): Ana-Maurine Lara
Oral Session 4CS
Research Area: Social Science
It is argued that as we are shaped, so too are the animals that come into contact with our interests. By positioning honeybee identity in the context of environmental conflict, we can see through and with biological objectives, including social matters which actively influence our relationship to honeybees. When we question the autonomy of honeybees, we reveal the agency that has been deeply imbedded in this organism’s relationship with humans. To see the manifestations and human interest of this agency, the shaping of honeybees must be considered in a physical and social context. Through empowering nature, an idea originally brought forth by Anna Tsing, we can associate familiarities that allow us to position honeybees in an entangled human-animal complex. By questioning autonomy, we dust off the normality of Western honeybee culture, asking us to challenge the ways through which we’re associated to this animal’s identity.