Ethnoentomology: the ties the bind the bugs and us
For many, thoughts of interaction with the insect world would mainly end with a splat, squish or crunch. But the truth is, humans and insects have always been closely linked — and it’s not such a one-dimensional connection. From the snacks of the earliest hunter-gatherers to today’s ‘entopreneurs’ doing big bug business, via the moths that spun the Silk Road, a few million crop failures and Malaria, worlds have collided with successes for both sides.
This ever-creative clash of a few billion Goliaths and a few quintillion Davids has its own academic niche: ethnoentomology. It’s a mouthful of a word and something of a conceptual blizzard of a discipline, combining local knowledge and international concepts.
The interests of the only academic journal dedicated exclusively to the subject are actually not very exclusive at all. In its own words: “Ethnoentomology includes but is not restricted to the history of entomology, history of apiculture, sericulture, pest management, entomophagy, taxonomy, historical insect biogeography, influences of insects in art, religion, music, folklore, medicine, literature, philosophy and countless other areas”.
The Czechia-based journal is a good starting point for those who are interested in insects, but aren’t only interested in insects, and in particular are attracted to that particular intersection where insects meet human culture. Topics covered in published papers include the sale of singing grasshoppers and crickets as pets in Japan, the extent to which ancient Hungarians were beset by mosquitoes, and a bee-themed film festival.
The publication may bear the name of the discipline, but it’s hardly the last word. There seems to be a growing creep of ethnomethodological ideas out of the shadows and into the light. While papers on the use of colourful grasshoppers on stamps, including assessments of the taxonomic accuracy of the depictions, are wonderful, it’s those works which analyse the importance of species to different world cultures that could have the longer-term impact. It may prove that applying the principles of ethnoentomology provides a promising route to save the insects, and by association, humanity too.
Redefining the totemic insect
A group of researchers in South Africa recently made the case that the ‘charismatic’ praying mantis offers a potential gateway to ideas around insect conservation, highlighting mantids’ links to belief systems in different cultures. They noted that they are seen as manifestation of God on earth in some parts of Africa, that the ancient Greeks invested such value in the mantis’s supernatural qualities that they were included on coins, while in China and Japan, they are linked to war and martial arts techniques.
On a more basic level, the authors also pointed to the physiology of mantids, most notably their large eyes, providing a perceived connection with humans, and their general shape and pose making them easy to identify. Such factors shouldn’t be overlooked.
Another recent work looks at the connection between the worldview of the Mapuche people, indigenous to Chile and Argentina, and the giant bumble bee (Bombus dahlbomii). With various words in Mapuche language for these flying giants, the species is variously considered to be embodied with the spirits of lost relatives, deified as a goddess, and a representation of femininity more broadly. Its honey has also served as a valuable commodity and medicine, used in the paying of tithes at points in history, and there are many examples of jewellery bearing the B. dahlbomii image.
These connections are particularly pertinent to conservation in this case, as B. dahlbomii is considered a severely threatened species. The European bee Bombus terrestris, imported for commercial pollination, has proven a destructive presence over the last few decades, not least because it brought along diseases to which B. dahlbomii is highly susceptible.
The displacement of the species has echoes of the much earlier displacement of the Mapuche by colonialists. Without conservation interventions, it may be that the numerous place names referencing the species may end up being the only way of knowing that this intimate insect-human relationship ever existed. Tying conservation efforts up with the drive to preserve indigenous culture could prove a potent force against this narrative.
Traditional and modern approaches can mesh
Superficially, it may seem that ethnoentomology lacks some of the technical rigour necessary to comfortably connect with the complexities of ecology, but the use of well-known local species can allow for the relatable introduction of modern ideas. In Brazil, landless workers have been familiarised with the ideas of agroecology through discussion around leafcutter ants, which has started a movement against the use of damaging commercial insecticides.
The mixing of the anthropological and entomological is particularly pertinent when it comes to the human consumption of insects — and here, the latest scientific techniques can help. Insects eaten by communities in South Africa are being DNA barcoded as part of an ongoing project, with the aim to preserve such valuable sources of nutrition before they’re lost to the same pressures threatening insects worldwide, such as habitat loss, urbanisation and pesticides.
What’s particularly interesting about this work is that it doesn’t just employ conventional taxonomic naming, and consider that job done. It links this knowledge to the idea ‘ethno-species’ — the local categorisation of these animals of importance.
Cultural factors may unlock mass appeal
Some have looked at how best to use marketing techniques to take bugs to the public, focused on the timing and delivery of conservation messages — but there may well be a case for ethnoentomology at the heart of it all.
For one thing, ethnobiological thinking is the ultimate way out of the kind of navel-gazing that can blight various academic disciplines’ attempts to leap into the mainstream discourse. It stops the biologists simply being ‘the nature guys’ and the anthropologists and sociologists ‘the people guys.’ Humans are nature: the only way to give the survival of all living things a chance is to radically accept that fact.
Putting the insects that resonate strongest in different locations at the forefront of outreach, whether that’s because of ubiquity, ‘charisma’ or the fact they’re considered delicious, seems like a logical way forward. What’s more, linking insects to places, and then on to conservation, rather than coming with a blanket, Western-centric and prescriptive vision may also help increase ethnic diversity in the profession of entomology — something that’s much needed.
When the human cultural aspect is as likely to lead the entomological as the other way round, there is the potential to create bug enthusiasts, if not of us all, then at least more than at present. The idea of closely interacting human and insect populations is far from a new one. Maybe it’s possible that through reengagement with bugs, we can also learn a little bit more about ourselves.
