Bibliothek / EigenverlageÖsterreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde128 (2025) / N.S. 792 (2025)Meloni, Greca N.: „Queen Rearing in Sardinia. A Visual Ethnography“

Greca N. Meloni“Queen Rearing in Sardinia.A Visual Ethnography.”A Series of Drawings.The following series of drawings regarding queen rearing in Sardiniawas created as a provocative attempt to visually narrate my ethnogra-phy, without using written words.1It is based on ethnographic field -work on beekeeping in Sardinia2and explores the intricate humanand non-human entanglements that shape bees, humans, plants, andultimately, the landscape.In my interpretation of beekeeping in Sardinia, I contend thathumans and bees are companion species3that mutually constitute eachother in“flesh and blood” – or hemolymph. However, the relation -ship between humans and bees is not a relationship between two spe-cies;4rather, it involves several species that play a fundamental role inco-creating the environment and mutually shaping their bodies. Thefluid exchange between bees and humans in this practice plays a fun-damental role in co-shaping each other’s bodies and the microbiomeof the environment.5The drawings presented here are informed in1Greca N. Meloni: Queen Rearing in Sardinia. A Visual Ethnographyof Beekeeping. In: Antropologia Pubblica, in publication, 2025.2Greca N. Meloni: Making honey- Making identity. Policies andBeekeeping in Sardinia. Vienna. University of Vienna, 2023,https://utheses.univie.ac.at/detail/65796(access: 09.08.2025)3On the concept of companion species, see: Donna Haraway: Whenspecies meet. Minneapolis, 2008.4Siobhan Maderson, Emily Elsner-Adams: Two Species Ethnography.In: Annalisa Colombino, Heide Glossar ::: zum Glossareintrag  Heide K. Bruckner, Methods in Human-AnimalStudies, London, 2023.5Recent studies proved a reciprocal relationship between the microbiomeof bees’ colonies and the environment. See, for instance: Madhavi L.Kakumanu, Alison M. Reeves, Troy D. Anderson, et al.: Honey Bee GutMicrobiome Is Altered by In-Hive Pesticide Exposures. In: Frontiers inMicrobiology, 7, 2016.