Doing anthropology in sound by Steve Feld and Donald Brenneis

In this conversation with Feld and Brenneis, Feld’s work amongst the Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and his study of culture through acoustics, or the connection between sound and place, comes to light. Feld says, “…An ethnography should include what it is that people hear every day.” In addition to speaking in detail about his teachers throughout his undergraduate and graduate years, Feld spoke about the different CD’s he put together from his work in Papua New Guinea and also in Greek Macedonia. A common observation in both societies was the “layering” of sounds. In PNG, Feld recorded a structured kind of whooping in between speech and song that people do when they’re cutting trees. Feld states that, “Simultaneously and in sequence you get the layering of speaking voices, the birds and ambience, the overlapping of axes, trees falling, and the whooping, whistling, yodeling, and singing different snatches of song—12 minutes of life-up-over sounding, the local term for all the ways sounds alternate, interlock, and overlap.” (p.236) A similar layering of sounds was observed in Greece, but with different types of bells. Church bells, along with bells on sheep, along with funeral bells could be heard simultaneously.
Not only was the Kaluli peoples’ interaction with the rainforest important in their culture, but also their interaction with each other was very strong. Feld gives one example of singer and mother, Ulahi, who changes the lyrics of her songs based on who is listening to them.
Feld’s work on music and human rights intrigued me immensely, because my main interest lies in human rights. His main passion, “recordings related to human rights, related to the way the indigenous, refugee, diasporic, and exile world of music has changed,” seems genius to me. His focus on oud player, Munir Bashir, and the story of how his talents were practically thrown away once he came to the United States touched me. I was also amazed to see how Feld focused his studies of musicians so much on emotion.