The sounds of people and birds

Abstract

Through combining ethnography of human-bird interactions with analysis of Batek discourses on musical instrument playing, this paper describes the emotional entanglements between human and non-human persons in the Batek's forest. The argument is made that sound-making and listening are privileged means of deepening the relationships between people and birds, and that these relationships then come to be part of what defines people's sense of being Batek. Ways of understanding how sound, environment, memory, and emotion intertwine are presented, speaking to broader debates surrounding the role of 'music' in hunting and gathering societies.

More‐than‐“bird”

“…BL practitioners seek connection with birds and other nonhuman beings, which relates to companionship, better overall conduct, and practical knowledge. In contrast to practices wherein listening to birds tends to reify known categorical information, BL practitioners listen for the unknown messages that bird vocalizations carry, not unlike traditional forager listeners (e.g., Feld, 2012; Rudge, 2019; Walker, 2010). BL praxis foregrounds attentiveness to birds as individual beings more than objects, symbols—more than even their birdness.…”