Listening to love
Authors
WOOLNER, CHRISTINA J
Publication Date
2022-04-27Journal Title
American Ethnologist
ISSN
0094-0496
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
AO
VoR
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WOOLNER, C. J. (2022). Listening to love. American Ethnologist https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.13076
Abstract
ABSTRACT: Both music and love are conspicuously absent from the public soundscapes of Hargeysa, Somaliland. But behind closed doors, people listen to love songs. In doing so, these lonely love sufferers and love hopefuls make sense of various challenges. Using accounts from a cross section of Somalilanders, I show that these solitary listening practices open into uniquely intimate and transformative opportunities for dareen‐wadaag (feeling sharing). These opportunities critically depend both on listeners’ attention and intention, and on the culturally elaborated affective affordances of love songs’ “voice”—a voice that is conceived as “love incarnate” and that models intimacy. In short, listeners do not just listen to love songs; they listen to love. Their listening practices call for anthropological models that more fully account for the relationship between culturally situated ears and voices, as well as for the complex interrelation of sound, affect, and subjectivity. [listening, aurality, love and intimacy, voice, iconicity, sound and affect, music, Somaliland]
Keywords
Original Article, Original Articles
Identifiers
amet13076
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.13076
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/336512
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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