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

Front Cover
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990 - History - 297 pages

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.

 

Selected pages

Contents

The Boy Who Became a Muni Bird
20
To You They Are Birds to Me They
44
Weeping That Moves Women to Song
86
The Poetics of Loss and Abandonment
130
Song That Moves Men to Tears
163
Kaluli Aesthetics
217
Postscript 1989
239
Kaluli Folk Ornithology
269
References
284
Copyright

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Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression
Steven Feld
No preview available - 1990

Common terms and phrases

adɛ aesthetic anthropology Asɔndɔ audience bali became a muni becoming a bird behavior Bibiali Bird of Paradise bird sound bird sound words bird story Bosavi boy who became Brown Oriole cassowary ceremony codes composed context creek Cross-cousin cultural dancer discussion emotional ethnographic evocation expressive feathers feel female forest Fruitdove Gigio gisalo song gulu halaido domɛki Hane hega interpretation kalu Kaluli language linguistic listeners longhouse male marked means mediation melody metaphor molab moving Mubi muni bird musical myth no-so-go onomatopoeia onomatopoeic Papua New Guinea Papuan Plateau pattern performance phrases pitches place names poetic response sa-yɛlab sadness sago Schieffelin seance singer singing social Sonia Sound and Sentiment sɔ go speak specific spirit story structure style Sululib sung symbolic talk talun tears textual tion Tok Pisin tonal center turn ululiyabɔlɔ underneath verb vocal voice waterfall weeper wept whistle women wɔkwele

References to this book

About the author (1990)

Steven Feld, a MacArthur Fellowship recpient, is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Music at the University of New Mexico. He is coauthor, with Charles Keil, of Music Grooves: Essays and Dialogues and, with Bambi B. Schieffelin, of Bosavi-English-Tok Pisin Dictionary. With Keith H. Basso he edited Senses of Place.

Bibliographic information

TitleSound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression
Conduct and communication series
Publications of the American Folklore Society: New series, American Folklore Society
University of Pennsylvania Press conduct and communication series
AuthorSteven Feld
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherUniversity of Pennsylvania Press, 1990
ISBN0812212991, 9780812212990
Length297 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / Oceania
Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / Sociolinguistics
Music / Ethnomusicology
Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
Social Science / Anthropology / General
  
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