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Acoustic Colonialism
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Luis E. Cárcamo-Huechante examines the role of sound in Chilean and Mapuche cultural production and struggles over colonialism and Indigenous agency over the last two centuries.
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21 October 2025

In Acoustic Colonialism, Luis E. Cárcamo-Huechante examines the role of sound in Chilean and Mapuche cultural production over the last two centuries. Cárcamo-Huechante theorizes sound as a territory of racial, patriarchal, and colonial hegemony as well as of Mapuche struggle, agency, and response to what he calls "acoustic colonialism." From the mid-nineteenth century to the present, Chilean literature, radio, and other media have exerted a historic role in disseminating distorted visual and sonic representations of the Mapuche. The enduring effects of what Cárcamo-Huechante defines as the colonial ear—the entry point for these misrepresentations—reflect the logic of the Chilean settler nation-state. In response to these aural and sonorous figurations, contemporary Mapuche writers, artists, and activists have produced their own literary, radiophonic, vocal, and musical expressions. The voices, sounds, and discourses of these Mapuche productions contest and disrupt the acoustic colonialism that has dominated the soundscape of the territory designated in present-day cartography as central and southern Chile.
Price: $31.95
Pages: 288
Publisher: Duke University Press
Imprint: Duke University Press
Series: Dissident Acts
Publication Date:
21 October 2025
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781478032632
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
“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.”
—Jessica Bissett Perea, author of, Sound Relations: Native Ways of Doing Music History in Alaska"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
Luis E. Cárcamo-Huechante belongs to the Mapuche People. He is a founding member of the Comunidad de Historia Mapuche and Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Texas at Austin.
Author’s Note ix
Mañumtun/Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
1. Disfiguring and Silencing of the Mapuche in the 1860s 34
2. Indio Pije: A “Mapuche” in the Mediascape 67
3. Listening Poetically: A Land That Resounds and Sings 94
4. Wixage Anai: Mapuche Voices on the Air 130
5. Enduring Listening and Sounds: The Contemporary Musics of Ngulu Mapu 168
Coda 211
Notes 219
References 245
Index 261
Mañumtun/Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
1. Disfiguring and Silencing of the Mapuche in the 1860s 34
2. Indio Pije: A “Mapuche” in the Mediascape 67
3. Listening Poetically: A Land That Resounds and Sings 94
4. Wixage Anai: Mapuche Voices on the Air 130
5. Enduring Listening and Sounds: The Contemporary Musics of Ngulu Mapu 168
Coda 211
Notes 219
References 245
Index 261