A spasso con Lucy Denkenesh. Sull'ascolto a partire da Roland Barthes

In 1977 Roland Barthes wrote the entry "listening" in the Einaudi Encyclopedia. He points out that this is a little known and only apparently modest subject. On the contrary, he thinks this is a very important issue. Indeed, he is convinced that we must make a history of listening, a natural and cultural history. Thus, a political history of man and a history of the species are produced. The intentional reproduction of rhythm is the first "sign" of the humanization of the animal faculty to "watch over" the surrounding environment. Precisely in the same years in which Roland Barthes wrote his essay, paleoanthropology achieves an extraordinary result. A singular specimen of australopitecus is found. It went down in history under the name of Lucy. Its existence allows us to date bipedalism to 3 million and 200 thousand years ago. is a fact that obliges us to place the study of the evolution of the ear at the center of our reflection. This is the organ that mainly allows the acquisition of verticality. Anthropogenesis is deeply linked to the morphological evolution of the ear and auditory cortex. The ear "dominated" the hominids long before the appearance of language. Surviving for a long time was a matter of ear. Listening is what made us and makes us human.