Sounding Out Japan (Sensory Studies)

Stevens, Carolyn S.

Kohn, Tamara

Chenhall, Richard

Reference

Routledge

Benelong's Haven was the first residential alcohol and drug treatment program controlled and operated by an Aboriginal Australian. It was established by Val Bryant in 1974 in the Sydney suburb of Marrickville, before moving to the small township of Kinchela Creek on the mid-north coast of New South Wales three years later. The centre is one example of the different approaches Aboriginal people have developed to deal with the problem of drug and alcohol abuse in their communities, where people who have experienced problems with alcohol and drug use can leave their existing environment and come to a different place. Anthropologist Richard Chenhall first visited Benelong's Haven for two weeks in late 1997. At the invitation of Val Bryant he returned later for an extended period of fieldwork, observing and participating in the centre's activities and getting to know staff and residents. There have been few studies that reflect Aboriginal social life in larger cities or in institutional settings. Benelong's Haven represents an attempt to examine, at the ethnographic level, the different ways in which individuals are shaped by, and interact within, the larger structures and social institutions that surround them. More specifically it documents an instance of Australian Aboriginal people trying to achieve change in their lives.

Benelong's Haven

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Addiction & Recovery

MUP Academic

So many ethnographies describe local worlds with a deep attention to what is seen and what people say, but with a limited understanding of the broader sonic environments that enrich and inform everyday life. This book takes the reader on 'a sensory ethnographic tour' in Japan. Through a focus on sounds, real and imagined, the volume employs a critical ear to engage with a range of sonically enriched encounters that include crosswalk melodies in streetscapes, announcements and jingles at train stations, water features in gardens, dosimeters in nuclear affected zones, sounds of training in music and martial arts halls, celebrations under the cherry trees. The authors use different analytic frames to understand the communicative and symbolic aspects of sounds, and to sense the layers of historical meaning, embodied action and affect associated with sonic environments. Supported by a companion website that contains sound files and images from the authors' sensory experiences in the field, Chenhall, Kohn and Stevens describe the many ways sounds seep into everyday experiences. 'Sounding Out Japan' is, they argue, about attending to the everyday with an alert and imaginative 'ethnographic ear'.

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