Aural Anthropology, a Way of Listening

Abstract

This article considers how hearing, listening and resonances have largely been neglected in anthropological fieldwork. Oral cultures have been “translated” into written reports, while visual anthropology has often found a need to add written subtitles to images. This is part of a general underestimation of the “second” sense, and its role in the awareness of being-in-this-world. New digital technologies have now expanded the acoustic environment globally, thus also offering unprecedented opportunities to the “ethnographic ear.” To foster an approach to the meanings of sounds as cultural signs and to the multiple sensory aspects of hearing, appropriate methodologies are needed. An anthropology of sounds and the overall sensory influence of the ear could be a promising field of study and research.

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Antonio Marazzi

Antonio Marazzi is a past professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Padova, Italy. He has served as Chairman of the IUAES Commission on Visual Anthropology and representative for anthropology at UNESCO's Commission on Human Sciences; and also was Visiting Professor at New York University. Over the years he has given lectures and seminars at many academic institutions, and has done extensive fieldwork on Tibetan and Japanese cultures. His latest books are on the anthropology of the senses (Antropologia dei sensi) and of the artificial (Antropologia dell’uomo artificiale). E-mail: [email protected]