Silence : the currency of power : the currency of power

Silence is normally perceived as an absence and a withholding. What is ignored is the fact that this absence hides a presence that can be suppressed or manipulated since it has been removed from view. The practice of silence therefore turns it into an instrument of power. The contributors to this volume examine how silence works in the perception and manipulation of sound, of speech, and of perspective in areas as disparate as music, language, race, work dislocations, and the construction of anthropological subjects. They conclude that only by studying the hidden nature of silence can we arrive at the elusive roots of power in all its dimensions.