Bees and Man
Mankind has held the honey bee in adoring reverence, either as a being of divinity in and of itself, or as a messenger of the god(s). All of the continents that have evolved with bees in their landscapes, have induced awe among the human populations, by serving as role models for advancing civilizations, as personal representatives of power, and symbols of nobility. The activities of the honey bee, has provided nourishment for the Earth’s inhabitants, either directly or indirectly. Bee products have been used in many varied ways, from ritual offerings, to forms of market exchange. Honey bees have helped to reduce pain and suffering with the medicinal properties of their alchemical secretions, and aided us in our artistic endeavors, all while slaking our sweet tooth.
Long before homo sapiens appeared on the Earth, honey bees were busily pollinating the flowering trees and other plants, whilst honing their honey craft. Numerous examples of primitive artwork in widely dispersed locations depict the relationship between bees and our ancestors.
Around 13500 BC, the earliest known documentation of mankind’s relationship with the bee, appears in a detailed rendition, of our ancestors foraging activities, in what will become known as a “honey hunt,” on the walls of a cave in Altamira, Northern Spain. (Crane 37)
Honey hunting involved the seeking out of the wild hives and in the daring and often painful plunder of the contents therein. The very nature of the honey bee demands respect. Their sting serves as an instant reminder should the hunter become too complacent. Honey hunting was usually carried out by men, and was often used as a rite of passage. Our ancestors developed ingenious ways of locating the...
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...orse) The U.S. Department of Agriculture lists the amount of honey produced by large Apiculturists, not including the honey production from hobbyists, to be 175,904,000 pounds valued at $281,974,000.00 ("National Agricultural Statistics Services of the USDA")
Works Cited
Crane, Eva. The world history of beekeeping and honey hunting. 1st. New York, NY: Routledge, 1999. 37. Print.
L., Stephen, Stephen Buchmann, and Banning Repplier. Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind. 1st. New York, NY: Bantam, 2006. Print.
Ransome, Hilda. The Sacred Bee in Ancient Times and Folklore. 1st. Mineola, NY: Dover Pubns, 2004. 58. Print.
, Roger. "The Value of Honey Bees as Pollinators of U.S. Crops in 2000." March 2000: n. pag. Web. 17 Apr 2011.
United States of America. National Agricultural Statistics Services of the USDA. , Print.
A beehive without a queen is a community headed for extinction. Bees cannot function without a queen. They become disoriented and depressed, and they stop making honey. This can lead to the destruction of the hive and death of the bees unless a new queen is brought in to guide them. Then, the bees will cooperate and once again be a prosperous community. Lily Melissa Owens, the protagonist of Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, faces a similar predicament. While she does not live in a physical hive, the world acts as a hive. She must learn to work with its inhabitants, sharing a common direction, in order to reach her full potential. The motif of the beehive is symbolic of how crucial it is to be a part of a community in order to achieve
von Frish, K. 1967. The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Throughout The Secret Life of Bees , there is no shortage of symbolism, coming directly from its namesake, bees. Each connection draws upon the deep and rich meaning behind this wonderful composed text. The bees, however, never are a scapegoat. Similar to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird character Atticus, they never allow for shortcuts or disillusion with reality. They force you to see the world as it is, and to accept it, and send love to it, for it is all you can, when you are as insignificant as a
Para 2: First of all, Bees and beehives is a significant motif in the novel by Kidd because it represented the community of women. The Boatwright sisters, along with Our Daughters of Mary, stood up for Lily when T. Ray came to take her home. Quoted from page 721, “The four of them lined up beside us, clutching their pocketbooks up against their bodies like they might have to beat the living heck out of somebody.” The Daughters of Mary all stood in the parlor of the Boatwright house, ready to take on whatever came their way. The community of women in this novel stuck together
“The Secret Life of Bees” is an adventurous book that tells the story of a teenage girl name Lily who grew up abused by her father, T.Ray. The story takes places in Sylvan, South Carolina 1964 when this state was crawling with racists. Lily had a negro caregiver, Rosaleen, that she loved dearly. Given the racist tones in Sylvan, this caused Rosaleen to be discriminated. Already resenting living with T.Ray because of her abuse, and the desire to find out what happened to her dead mom, Lily runs off on an adventure with Rosaleen in a quest to find find these answers. Throughout their adventure Lily and Rosaleen face many challenges together which compromises their friendship.
Kidd, Sue M. “The Secret Life of Bees.” Hunter, Jeffrey W. Twenty-First Century Novels: The First Decade. Vol. 3. Detroit, Gale, 2011. 983-987. Gale Cengage Learning. Print. 14 February 2014.
In life, actions and events that occur can sometimes have a greater meaning than originally thought. This is especially apparent in The Secret Life Of Bees, as Sue Monk Kidd symbolically uses objects like bees, hives, honey, and other beekeeping means to present new ideas about gender roles and social/community structures. This is done in Lily’s training to become a beekeeper, through August explaining how the hive operates with a queen, and through the experience Lily endures when the bees congregate around her.
Honey Bee Population Decline Daisy Childs 11-20-14 Professor Garcia ENG 1027. INTRODUCTION: Apis mellifera, commonly known as the honey bee, are solely responsible for pollinating one-third of the world’s crops, and they are in danger of dying off, according to the article “Natures Dying Migrant Worker,” written by Josephine Marcotty for the Star Tribune. This honey bee population decline poses a huge threat to our environment, farmers, and economy. It is assumed by BBC News writer Zoe Gough in her article,"Wild Honey Bees: Does Their Disappearance Matter?" that all of the wild honey bees in England and Wales are gone.
Miline, Ira Mark. Ed. "The Secret Life of Bees." Novels for Students. Vol. 27. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Print.
Zaleski, Jeff. “Review of The Secret Life of Bees.” Publishers Weekly 12 Nov. 2001: 33. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Detroit: Gale, 2009. N. pag. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Apr. 2014. .
Think for a moment of a world without bees; a world without our buzzing friend. They might look like they barely do much to help our ecosystem. However, bees are a vital part of our agriculture and this makes it vital that we keep them around. The bee population decline in recent years is troubling for both us and our little friends. As their friends, we must do all we can in order to ensure their survival which in turn will ensure our own.
Winfree, R. . The conservation and restoration of wild bees. Annuals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Volume 1195, 3 May 2010, Pages 169 – 197.
Our bees are dying at the highest rates ever recorded: 42 percent of the United States bee colonies collapsed in 2015 (NRDC, 2015). 50 to 80 percent of the world's food supply is directly affected by honeybee pollination (Pennsylvania Apiculture Inc., 2011). Reduced crop pollination will make food more expensive and can even make some crops harder to grow successfully (Worland, 2015).
All around the world honeybees are vanishing at an alarming rate, according to the documentary Vanishing of the Honeybees. This film features two commercial bee keepers and their fight to preserve their bee numbers. David Hackenburg was the first commercial bee keeper to go public the bee population was decreasing. Approximately two billions bees have vanished and nobody knows the reason why. Honeybees are used all across America to help pollinate monoculture crops like broccoli, watermelon, cherries, and other produce. Without the honeybees the price for fresh and local produce would be too much money. According, to this film commercial bee keeper’s help fifteen billion dollars of food get pollinated by commercial
Bees are small flying insects, buzzing around with its painful stings which always make people afraid and annoyed. What generally relate with bees are their roles in pollination and producing honey and beeswax. So it seems that bees might be nothing to human as it’s easy to find substitutes for honey as flavoring. However, this perception is mistaken. Without bees, aftermath.