IN-PERSON: Prague – Section A

Abstract

“To be Slovenian is to be a beekeeper.”, states the website of Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association. Beekeeping is also described as the poetry of agriculture. The strong emotional attachment to the Carniolan bee has been reinforced by the recent inscription of ‘Beekeeping in Slovenia, a way of life’ onto the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, highlighting the deep intersections of tradition and identity of the Slovenian people, praising the folk art of the front beehive panels that were initiated by Anton Janša (the first professional beekeper, and emphasizing bees as “teachers and friends as well as symbols of virtue, cleverness and frugality.” The strong tradition is continuously reinforced in various state initiatives, such as World Bee Day or Slovenian Honey Breakfast, foregrounding the historical practices, technologies and landscapes of the late 18th and early 19th century. However, under the influence of climate change and mass agriculture, landscape has undeniably changed, as has the way we relate to it. This must be considered in light of Slovenian beekeeping. This paper will analyse the situation of this tradition as authorized heritage discourse, using the data and experience acquired from my work in the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum and interviews with different beekeepers. I would like to talk about the mythologization present in different literatures and the transmissions of beekeeping including the musealisation and educational intitiatives. Also, by looking at both rural and urban beekeeping practices in the Slovenian lands, I would like to discuss how we can incorporate change into our folk traditions, and how they can be reconstructed and rethought in light of recent environmental and social changes. In other words, I would like to affirm the position of beekeeping as between nature and culture, between lands and humans, between past and present.