Honey-bees, court ladies, and beekeeping in Java before 1500 CE
People have been interacting with bees in the Indo-Malay world for thousands of years. Though the practice of robbing bees of honey and wax is relatively well-documented, we know very little about the early history of beekeeping in Southeast Asia. In this study I will use Old Javanese evidence to de...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universitas Indonesia, Faculty of Humanities
2022-04-01
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| Series: | Wacana: Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://scholarhub.ui.ac.id/wacana/vol23/iss2/3/ |
| _version_ | 1827913827470016512 |
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| author | JiŘí Jákl |
| author_facet | JiŘí Jákl |
| author_sort | JiŘí Jákl |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | People have been interacting with bees in the Indo-Malay world for thousands of years. Though the practice of robbing bees of honey and wax is relatively well-documented, we know very little about the early history of beekeeping in Southeast Asia. In this study I will use Old Javanese evidence to demonstrate that providing honey bees with artificial cavities was a practice known in Java at least by the twelfth century CE, several centuries earlier than suggested by the historians of beekeeping. In the second part of my contribution I will discuss in detail an intriguing passage in the Sumanasāntaka, a court poem composed in the early thirteenth century CE, in which a literary motif of the “marriage by choice“ (swayamwara) of Princess Indumatī is based on the image and structure of beehive. The idea that a bee-colony is ruled by the “queen“ rather than the “king“ was not widely known in pre-modern world, and the Sumanasāntaka suggests that pre-Islamic Javanese were good observers of nature. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T02:36:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9c72ec3f03ce470fb266e4921fd9f22f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1411-2272 2407-6899 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T02:36:29Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | Universitas Indonesia, Faculty of Humanities |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Wacana: Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia |
| spelling | doaj.art-9c72ec3f03ce470fb266e4921fd9f22f2023-06-29T03:10:26ZengUniversitas Indonesia, Faculty of HumanitiesWacana: Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia1411-22722407-68992022-04-0123233735910.17510/wacana.v23i2.1058Honey-bees, court ladies, and beekeeping in Java before 1500 CEJiŘí Jákl0Heidelberg UniversityPeople have been interacting with bees in the Indo-Malay world for thousands of years. Though the practice of robbing bees of honey and wax is relatively well-documented, we know very little about the early history of beekeeping in Southeast Asia. In this study I will use Old Javanese evidence to demonstrate that providing honey bees with artificial cavities was a practice known in Java at least by the twelfth century CE, several centuries earlier than suggested by the historians of beekeeping. In the second part of my contribution I will discuss in detail an intriguing passage in the Sumanasāntaka, a court poem composed in the early thirteenth century CE, in which a literary motif of the “marriage by choice“ (swayamwara) of Princess Indumatī is based on the image and structure of beehive. The idea that a bee-colony is ruled by the “queen“ rather than the “king“ was not widely known in pre-modern world, and the Sumanasāntaka suggests that pre-Islamic Javanese were good observers of nature.https://scholarhub.ui.ac.id/wacana/vol23/iss2/3/old javanese poetrybeesbeekeepingpre-islamic java. |
| spellingShingle | JiŘí Jákl Honey-bees, court ladies, and beekeeping in Java before 1500 CE Wacana: Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia old javanese poetry bees beekeeping pre-islamic java. |
| title | Honey-bees, court ladies, and beekeeping in Java before 1500 CE |
| title_full | Honey-bees, court ladies, and beekeeping in Java before 1500 CE |
| title_fullStr | Honey-bees, court ladies, and beekeeping in Java before 1500 CE |
| title_full_unstemmed | Honey-bees, court ladies, and beekeeping in Java before 1500 CE |
| title_short | Honey-bees, court ladies, and beekeeping in Java before 1500 CE |
| title_sort | honey bees court ladies and beekeeping in java before 1500 ce |
| topic | old javanese poetry bees beekeeping pre-islamic java. |
| url | https://scholarhub.ui.ac.id/wacana/vol23/iss2/3/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jirijakl honeybeescourtladiesandbeekeepinginjavabefore1500ce |