This volume approaches the issue of ambient sound through the ethnographic exploration of different cultural contexts including Italy, India, Egypt, France, Ethiopia, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, and Japan. It examines social, religious, and aesthetic conceptions of sound environments, what types of action or agency are attributed to them, and what bodies of knowledge exist concerning them. Contributors shed new light on these sensory environments by focusing not only on their form and internal dynamics, but also on their wider social and cultural environment. The multimedia documents of this volume may be consulted at the address: milson.fr/routledge_media.
"Toward an Anthropology of Ambient Sound is a nice and welcome addition to a steadily growing corps of literature on sounds in and of the city. As scholarly reflection and theoretical deepening are profoundly important for me (and, I think, for the entire field of sound studies as well), the contributions written by Chandola, Guillebaud, Battesti, and Thibaud stand out as they go beyond the mere noticing of specific sonic events."
- Marcel Cobussen, Journal of Sonic Studies
- Marcel Cobussen, Journal of Sonic Studies







