A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. How do we know through atmospheres? How can being affected by an atmosphere give rise to knowledge? What role does somatic, nonverbal knowledge play in how we belong to places?
Atmospheric Knowledge takes up these questions through detailed analyses of practices that generate atmospheres and in which knowledge emerges through visceral intermingling with atmospheres. From combined musicological and anthropological perspectives, Birgit Abels and Patrick Eisenlohr investigate atmospheres as a compelling alternative to better-known analytics of affect by way of performative and sonic practices across a range of ethnographic settings. With particular focus on oceanic relations and sonic affectedness,
Atmospheric Knowledge centers the rich affordances of sonic connections for knowing our environments.
Birgit Abels is Professor of Cultural Musicology at the University of Göttingen and author of Music Worlding in Palau and Sounds of Articulating Identity.
Patrick Eisenlohr is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Göttingen and author of Sounding Islam and Little India.
"This episodic, experimental, and intellectually capacious book is an example of what contemporary anthropology and musicology do best. It has the potential to serve as a catalyst to decenter affect as the preeminent analytic of arts and humanities scholarship."—Timothy Cooper, author of Moral Atmospheres: Islam and Media in a Pakistani Marketplace
"This book has potential for becoming a seminal work, providing intellectual and analytical tools for future generations of scholars across a broad range of academic terrains. The vagueness and, by definition, ineffability of atmospheres make them a heuristic resource that is abstractable and applicable across cultures and historical contingencies."—Carola Lorea, author of Folklore, Religion and the Songs of a Bengali Madman: A Journey between Performance and the Politics of Cultural Representation
"Atmospheres are everywhere—and yet they have been surprisingly underresearched until now. This wonderfully provocative book provides a foundational text for tomorrow's theorists in fields like anthropology, environmental studies, music and sound studies, and critical geography."—Jim Sykes, author of The Musical Gift: Sonic Generosity in Post-War Sri Lanka
186 pp.6 x 9Illus: 11 b/w illustrations; 5 a/v files
9780520423190$95.00|£80.00Hardcover
Sep 2025