BEEWILDERED COMPANIONS is an immersive ethnographic study on the socio-material entanglements of humans and honeybees in times of globalized diseases. Triggered by the migration of a small bee parasite from Asia, the culture of beekeeping in Europe today is deeply shaken. The search for new and better practices is also a struggle of different imaginaries regarding the ontological status of the honeybee as domestic or wild. Can and should a serious disease be controlled by medication or breeding? Or is it better for humans to give up control, as in the long lost craft of tree beekeeping? Only in the deep forests of Bashkiria the tradition is still alive. The cultural appropriation of this knowledge in Central Europe could be an important pillar for a sustainable solution to the crisis. Three multisensory-observational and three plurivocal-discursive chapters juxtapose the diverging inner attitudes with the corresponding practices of animal care.
In order for our website to function optimally, we use cookies for some of our applications. This includes i.a. the embedded social media, but also a tracking tool that provides us with information about the ergonomics of our website and user behavior. If you click on "Accept all cookies", you agree to the use of technically necessary cookies and those to optimize our website. See "Cookie Settings" for more information.
Control settings
Please select your preferences. You can change these at any time.
In order for our website to function optimally, we use cookies for some of our applications. These cannot be deactivated, otherwise you will not be able to use all applications.
In order to make our website as user-friendly as possible, we have i.a. social media embedded on our website. This allows you to share content with your loved ones on the appropriate network with just a few clicks. We also use anonymous tracking technology, which gives us information about e.g. the user behavior, but also the effectiveness and ergonomics of our website. For this purpose, we also use services that may be based outside the European Union (especially in the USA), where the level of data protection may be lower than in Germany.