Sound and identity explored through the Indian Tamil diaspora and Tamil Nadu

Sound is very much a part of identity. While identities are neither singular nor stable, they can be expressed through sound in daily life. Scholars have used soundscapes in geography to understand urban environments within cities, rural national park systems, and provide musical insights into cultural landscapes. However, furthering discussion on the role of sound in identity can move concepts of soundscape and cultural landscape forward. The goal of this paper is to investigate how identity and culture, though they are dynamic, can be performed and stabilized through sound in particular moments and yet also exist banally. Soundscapes through both spoken language and music can give geographers further insights on identity and place. Sound can also show how non-dominant identities distinguish themselves from larger national identities. With research in Tamil Nadu, India and Cleveland, OH, this paper examines sound’s role in identity, belonging, and community through lived experience and performance. Focusing on intersections and tensions between soundscapes, this paper investigates how the Tamil soundscape is used to assert and perform identity.     

Book reviews

Australian politics

L.F. Crisp, Federation Fathers (ed. John Hart: Studies in Australian Federation) (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990) pp.xv + 484. $48.00 ISBN 0 522 84399 3.

I.M. Cumpston, Lord Bruce of Melbourne (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1989) pp.xviii + 291. $n.p. ISBN 0582 71274 2.

John Forster and John Wanna (eds.), Budgetary Management and Control (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1990) pp.vii + 206. $29.95 ISBN 0 7329 0332 7.

Hal L. Kendig and John McCallum (eds.), Grey Policy: Australian Policies for an Ageing Society (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990) pp.xiii + 226. $19.95 ISBN 0 04 442129 X.

Chandran Kukathas, David W. Lovell and William Maley, The Theory of Politics: an Australian Perspective (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1990) pp.210 + vii. $15.99 ISBN 0 582 86806 8.

Scott Prasser, Rae Wear and John Nethercote (eds.), Corruption and Reform: The Fitzgerald Vision (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1990) pp.xvi + 267. $26.95 ISBN 0 7022 2234 8.

Kosmas Tsokhas, Markets, Money and Empire: The Political Economy of the Australian Wool Industry (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990) pp.viii + 235. $29.95 ISBN 0 522 84417 0.

Comparative and international politics

Abdullahi Ahmed An‐Na'im and Francis M. Deng (eds.), Human Rights in Africa: Cross‐Cultural Perspectives (Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1990) pp.xv + 399. $36.95 ISBN 0 8157 1796 2.

Thomas A. Baylis, Governing by Committee. Collegial Leadership in Advanced Societies (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) pp.236. $n.p. ISBN0 88706 944 4.

George C. Edwards III with Alec M. Gallup Presidential Approval: A Sourcebook (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1990) pp.viii + 214. $US40.50 ISBN 0 8018 4085 6.

Kristian Gerner and Stefan Hedlund, Ideology and Rationality in the Soviet Model: A legacy for Gorbachev (London: Routledge, 1989) pp.xii + 455. $n.p. ISBN 0 415 02142 1.

John A. Hall (ed.), States in History (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990) pp.vi + 317. $39.95 ISBN 0 631 17136 3.

M.D. Hancock, West Germany: The Politics of Democratic Corporatism (N.J.: Chatham House, 1989) pp.v + 186. $US12.95 ISBN 0 934540 54 3.

Christine Jennett and Randal G. Stewart (eds.), Politics of the Future: the role of social movements (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1989) pp.xi + 471. $34.95 ISBN 0 333 50222 1.

Peter Jennings, The Armed Forces of New Zealand and the Anzus Split: Costs and Consequences (Aukland: New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1988) pp.xi + 108. $NZ12.00 ISBN 0 908772 04 1.

Ihor Kamenetsky (ed.) The Tragedy of Vinnytsia; materials on Stalin's policy of extermination in Ukraine during the great purge, 1936–1938 (Toronto: Ukrainian Historical Association, 1989) pp.xviii + 265. $n.p.

Martin Laffin, Managing Under Pressure (Hampshire and London: Macmillan, 1989) pp.xvi + 207. $24.95 ISBN 0 333 44660 7.

Brij V. Lal, Power and Prejudice: The Making of the Fiji Crisis (Auckland: New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1988)

Garry Rodan, The Political Economy of Singapore's Industrialisation: National State and International Capital (London: Macmillan, 1989) pp.266. £35.00 ISBN 0 333 47079 6.

Richard Scase (ed.), Industrial Societies: Crisis and Division in Western Capitalism and State Socialism (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989) pp.xi + 260. $29.95 ISBN 0–04–301303–1.

G.A. Wood, Governing New Zealand (Auckland: Longman Paul, 1988) pp.ix + 164. $NZ16.95 ISBN 0 582 71822 8.

Political theory and methodology

J.M. Barbalet, Citizenship: Rights, Struggle and Class Inequality (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1988) pp.119. £5.95 ISBN 0 335 15570 7.

Peter Calvert, Revolution and Counter‐Revolution (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1990) pp.vi + 90. $24.95 ISBNO 335 15397 6.

Cynthia Farrar, The Origins of Democratic Thinking: The invention of politics in classical Athens (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp.x + 301. $42.50 ISBN 0 521 37584 3.

Norman Geras, Discourses of Extremity: Radical Ethics and Post‐Marxist Extravagances (London: Verso, 1990) pp.xiii + 171. $29.95 ISBN 0 86091 980 3.

Barry Hindess (ed.), Reactions to the Right (London: Routledge, 1990) pp.viii + 193. $32.95 ISBN 0 415 03385 3.

Margot Light, The Soviet Theory of International Relations (Brighton: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1988) pp.vi + 376. $n.p. ISBN 0 7450 0556 X.

Joseph McCarney, Social Theory and the Crisis of Marxism (London: Verso, 1990) pp.x+217. $29.95 ISBN 0–86091–948‐X.

John Morrow, Coleridge's Political Thought: Property, Morality and the Limits of Traditional Discourse (London: Macmillan, 1990) pp. xi + 215. £29.50 ISBN 0 333 51192 1.

Peter P. Nicholson, The Political Philosophy of the British Idealists: Selected Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) pp.x + 359. $135.00 ISBN 0 521 37102 3.

Stuart Schram, The Thought of Mao Tse‐tung (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989) pp.242. $30.50 ISBN 0 521 32549 8.

Arthur Seldon, Capitalism (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990) pp.xiii + 419. $45.00 ISBN 0 631 12558 2.