Composing Sound Identity in Taiko Drumming

Although sociocultural theories emphasize the mutually constitutive nature of persons, activity, and environment, little attention has been paid to environmental features organized across sensory dimensions. I examine sound as a dimension of learning and practice, an organizing presence that connects the sonic with the social. This ethnographic study of taiko drumming underscores an acoustemological sense of knowing that configures the practice and performance of taiko as an Asian American soundscape of (re)composed cultural identity.[music, Japanese American, Asian American, identity, race].