Adam Regiewicz
Przegląd Kulturoznawczy, Numer 1 (31), 2017, s. 106 - 125
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.17.007.6936Audio-anthropology of sounds
This article addresses three major concepts: audiality, anthropology and sound, outlining research horizons for the adopted approach to the topic discussed. Audio-anthropology studies sounds situated right between the main sound narration produced by culture and anthropological experiences of a man – his biology, physiology and mechanics. A sound, as a manifestation of behavior – a sound event, becomes part of a particular behavior stream, social activities which reflect a variety of cultural forms centered around different aspects of experiencing reality by a man and his relationship with the surrounding world, expressed through behavior patterns, habits and customs, traditions and rituals, reflected by social norms and standards, related to experiencing corporality (intimacy, sexuality, hygiene, illness, death, etc.), emotions, sensuality, etc. Based on the phenomenological-anthropological approach, the proposed comparative tool intends to move towards semiotics, which enables to read sounds in the cultural code of a particular community. Thus, it becomes an element of cultural communication: not so much a sound as a semantic gesture, interpreting various phenomena existing in a specific culture. Audio-anthropology of sounds opens a whole new field for scientific discourse to cultural studies researchers, allowing to better describe a man and his place in the surrounding reality.