(Bee)coming With 

An Exploration of the Politics of Honeybees

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Through agriculture, industrialization, and climate change, the modern honey bee as we know it has emerged as a vibrant new life form. As pollinators, bees are constantly interacting with different life ways and forces- from other bees, flowers, and trees, to and even pesticides, genetically modified fruits, and radioactive waste. These forces are constantly altering the bee - changing what plants they pollinate, their hive patterns, and expanding the senses of what they recognize. Conversely, the reverse is also true: from what we eat, how we farm our food, and even how we make sense of our socialites, bees have been active sculptures on the human condition. Thinking with Anna Tsing’s definition of an “assemblage” I explore the multigenerational outcomes of our productive, powerful, and dangerous encounters with honeybees.

 

Over the course of this research paper, I first theorize what it means for a bee to be part of an “assemblage,” and then consider the ways in which these entangled histories manifested within the social and political realms of our world. I explore the way hives were used in battles in the Roman Empire, how beeswax was used  to coat ammunition during World war I, and the ways in which bee behavior was used to back-up Nazi ideology. I then investigate how bees were used in biological warfare across the globe and as bio-meters to test radioactive substances in Los Alamos- turning into organisms that are productive because of their toxicity and harm. 

 

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