The Anthropology of Sound
This MIT OpenCourseWare course looks at how humans hear and interpret sound and how that perception is shaped by culture, economy, and history. Students examine environmental, linguistic, and musical sound across societies, then trace the rise of telephony, architectural acoustics, and sound recording technologies as they spread globally. Readings and discussion take up the boundary between sound and noise, how it has been drawn differently in scientific and cultural contexts, and how digital file sharing has reopened questions of ownership, authorship, and copyright. Auditory examples, including sound art, environmental recordings, and music, are used throughout to ground the theoretical material. Materials include the full syllabus, reading list, and assignments as taught at MIT, free to access with no certificate offered. The course suits anyone curious about the technology and politics behind everyday listening rather than acoustics as a purely physical science.