Apùap World Hearing Revisited: Talking with 'Animals', 'Spirits' and other Beings, and Listening to the Apparently Inaudible

The Kamayurá (Apùap) system of classification, identification and nomination of the acoustic-musical domain is comprehensive, sophisticated and powerful. It involves communication with 'humans' and 'non-humans' ('spirits', 'animals' and 'inanimate beings') and is the basis for what I have called 'world hearing', a worldview whose primacy is phono-auditory. For the Kamayurá, 'human' and 'non-human' beings can be situated at the same ontological level. This paper revisits the Kamayurá system and compares it with those reported in other areas of lowland South America, suggesting that it forms the basis for a biopolitics of sensoriality without-or better, against-modernity. It calls for new research in the region into acoustic-musical perception, the universe of ritual, and their connections with the worlds of power and politics.