Primal Listening

Human Minds and Animal Ears in the Age of Comparative Anatomy

Bibliographic Data

ID11498323
AuthorsDavid Trippett (0000-0002-1252-0324, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume150
Issue2
Pages1-42
Publication date2025-09-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the Royal Musical Association (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0269-0403 • E-ISSN: 1471-6933
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/rma.2025.10045
OpenAlexW4414616704
LanguageEN
References cited33

Approaches to different listening practices rarely extend beyond human ears. During the nineteenth century, anatomists’ fascination with non-human hearing emerged in tandem with the professionalization of comparative anatomy. This existed in tension with the professionalization of European music criticism, where the only model for listening was human. Theories of sensationalism, developed particularly in Feuerbach’s and Marx’s writings on the human senses, grounded an anthropocentric outlook, yet numerous commentators considered animal hearing as materially related to that of humans. This article traces the process of decentring human listening. It uncovers a discourse on the materiality of the senses, and asks when did the penny drop that human hearing was neither the only aural reality, nor necessarily the ‘highest’ in the natural world

Active listening · Anthropocentrism · Human science · Human studies · Professionalization · Empathy and Medical Education · Race, Genetics, and Society · Science Education and Perceptions