ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the methodological approach of Two Species Ethnography (TSE), which offers a perspective for understanding seemingly radically different species. While HAS traditionally focused on mammals and companion species such as dogs and horses, there is a growing recognition of the need to engage with other, less easily anthropomorphised species such as insects. While insects are the majority of the animal kingdom, they pose a serious challenge to researchers seeking to understand them, due to where they live, how they move, or how they sense the world. Rooted in the authors’ research on honey bees and beekeepers, the chapter provides practical examples of how using different TSE methods within a single project (e.g. interviews and participant observation, or interviews and entomological research) allows scholars to develop their understanding of nonhumans through many different avenues. TSE emphasises collating diverse forms of data on the social, economic and ecological context in which the species lives, and by directly engaging with it in the field to generate an accurate, holistic understanding of diverse nonhumans.
