Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression

by Steven Feld

Winner of the 1991 J. I. Stanley Prize of the School of American Research Now in its second edition, Sound and Sentiment is an ethnographic study of sound as a cultural system--that is, a system of symbols--among the Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea. It shows how an analysis of modes and codes of sound communication leads to an understanding of life in Kaluli society. By studying the form and performance of weeping, poetics, and song in relation to the Kaluli natural and spiritual world, Steven Feld reveals Kaluli sound expressions as embodiments of deeply felt sentiments.

For this second edition the author has updated his original work with a new, innovative chapter that includes an interpretive review by its subjects, the Kaluli people themselves. He has also written a new preface and discography and revised the references section.

Genres: Music, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Animals, Poetry, Ethnography

312 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1982

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in 1999, when I was doing an independent study class on world music as an undergrad. It focuses on the Kaluli people and the idea of birdsong and water flow forming the background concepts of their musical themes and life. Pretty much an ethnomusicology classic.

[Mark]

If I had stuck with anthropology and ethnomusicology, this is the kind of book I would have wanted to write.

[Tomas Serrien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressive piece of fieldwork.

[Trenchologist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense and very specific, but that's to be expected. This book came to me by way of a music major friend who thought I'd enjoy it (I love birds & play piano so understand music theory enough I wasn't lost during the technical stuff), and I did. Music/syntax/symbolism in bird songs and water(falling-movement quality). Not a casual read; it took concentration and I reread some parts. But I liked what I got out of it in the end, and Feld's approach to subject v-v culture then -ism avoidance in explicating both.

[Onur Engin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Sound and Sentiment, Steven Feld presents an ethnographic study of the cultural significance of sound among the Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea. He argues that the limited visibility of the rainforest environment has led Kaluli culture, communication, and aesthetics to be shaped around the spiritual words and natural sounds of their surroundings. Feld begins by examining a Kaluli myth about a boy who transforms into a bird after his sister refuses to share her food with him, and demonstrates how this myth serves as a metaphoric foundation for Kaluli aesthetics, with bird sounds representing the voices of the deceased. He then discusses the classification and symbolism of different bird sounds, the role of women in funeral "melodic-sung-weeping," and the connection between Kaluli poetry and bird sounds. In the final chapter, Feld synthesizes his arguments, arguing that Kaluli aesthetics are centered on the concept of "being a bird" and that birds and their songs serve as mediators for audible social sentiments such as singing, weeping, and communication. Feld employs a range of structuralist, anthropological, linguistic, semiotic, ethnographic, and musicological methods and techniques in his study, and raises questions about the relationship between environment, culture, and the meanings of sounds.