Acoustic Colonialism

“Luis E. Cárcamo-Huechante provides a radical critique of how to study indigeneity and sound, and their relation to literary and media history. With an approach that draws on Native American and Indigenous scholars from the North and South, he demonstrates the need to consider Indigenous scholarship as central to the interpretation of sound and voices in a settler colonial context while offering transformational readings of the Mapuche literary and media cultures Acoustic Colonialism is a crucial book.” - Ana María Ochoa Gautier, author of Aurality: Listening and Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Colombia

“In this stunning book Cárcamo-Huechante makes audible the complex waves of centuries-long colonialisms affecting Mapuche Peoples and places and the consequent rise of Indigenous movements for autonomy across the sounded territories of poetry, radio, and music. By centering the rich particularities of Mapuche Peoples and the concept of allkütun (to listen attentively), Acoustic Colonialism offers capacious accounts of sonic forms of resurgence that resonate with Indigenous Peoples elsewhere working towards liberation.”

"Acoustic Colonialism is a crucial text on the impact of colonial legacies on Indigenous cultural and linguistic identities, focusing on sound. . . . Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals." - K. Sorensen, Choice

"Acoustic Colonialism is one of those books that immediately becomes an essential reference for anyone working across decolonial thought in sound studies. . . . What makes this book especially important is that it goes beyond mere diagnosis, by valuing Mapuche literary, vocal, radiophonic, and musical practices as forms of response, agency, and disruption. . . . It is not only a major contribution to (Global South) sound studies, but also an essential intervention for anyone interested in listening as a contested field." - eme isaza, Sonic Field

"Cárcamo-Huechante’s sustained self-reflexive approach . . . [results in] an embodied form of writing in which theory, lived experience, and activism converge." - Ricardo Andrade Fernández, Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies

"A groundbreaking book. . . . Cárcamo-Huechante offers a model for Indigenous media studies grounded in land and committed to Indigenous liberation." - Cinthya Ammerman Muñoz, American Indian Culture and Research Journal

"This book is a must read for Indigenous studies, Latin American studies, Decolonial studies, Media studies, and Sound studies. Its readers will all become more engaged and interactive listeners and more deeply attuned to their own acoustic landscapes thanks to Luis Cárcamo-Huechante’s invitation to enter his." - Marcy Schwartz, Latin American Literary Review

"When readers finish Acoustic Colonialism, they are likely to listen to the world differently. More than a contribution to sound and aural studies, the book proposes a Mapuche-centered methodology for unsettling the colonial soundscape." - Romina Akemi Green, The Americas