ABSTRACT

This volume approaches the issue of ambient sound through the ethnographic exploration of different cultural contexts including Italy, India, Egypt, France, Ethiopia, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, and Japan. It examines social, religious, and aesthetic conceptions of sound environments, what types of action or agency are attributed to them, and what bodies of knowledge exist concerning them. Contributors shed new light on these sensory environments by focusing not only on their form and internal dynamics, but also on their wider social and cultural environment. The multimedia documents of this volume may be consulted at the address: milson.fr/routledge_media.

chapter |18 pages

Introduction: Multiple Listenings

Anthropology of Sound Worlds
ByChristine Guillebaud

part I|55 pages

Listening into Others

chapter 1|18 pages

Noising the City

Revealing Popular Neapolitan “Soundciabilities” in Pyrotechnical Practices
ByOlivier Féraud

chapter 2|17 pages

Sounds of Hell and Sounds of Eden

Sonic Worlds in Ethiopia in the Catholic Missionary Context, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
ByAnne Damon-Guillot

chapter 3|18 pages

An “Obscene” Calling

Emotionality in/of Marginalized Spaces: A Listening of/into “Abusive” Women in Govindpuri (Delhi)
ByTripta Chandola

part II|40 pages

Sound Displays and Social Effects

chapter 4|21 pages

Standing Out From the Crowd

Vocal and Sound Techniques for Catching People’s Attention in an Indian Bus Stand
ByChristine Guillebaud

chapter 5|17 pages

Melodic Refrains in Japanese Train Stations

The Management of Passenger Behavior Through the Use of Electric Bells
ByPierre Manea

part III|71 pages

Sound Identity and Locality

chapter 6|17 pages

Acoustic Communities Represented

Sound Preferences in the Scottish Village of Dollar
ByHeikki Uimonen

chapter 7|19 pages

Mics in the Ears

How to Ask People in Cairo to Talk About Their Sound Universes
ByVincent Battesti

chapter 8|15 pages

Mapping Out the Sounds of Urban Transformation

The Renewal of Lisbon’s Mouraria Quarter 1
ByIñigo Sánchez

chapter 9|18 pages

Listening to the City

The Sonorities of Urban Growth in Barcelona
ByClaire Guiu

part IV|37 pages

Sound Arts and Anthropology

chapter 10|19 pages

Not Just Tones, Noises too! 1

On Sound Poetry 2
ByJean-Charles Depaule

chapter 11|16 pages

Tribute to a Footbridge

Dance and Sound Spaces Improvisations in Choisy-le-Roi
ByVincent Rioux