I'm considering the "politics" of sound, which refers to the processes that seek to promote, capture, block, or impede sound, to encourage specific forms of cultural expression. I'm particularly interested in how late Postclassic to early colonial period (ca. AD  1325-1650) communities from central Mexico negotiated and mediated sound. For ancient central Mexicans, sound was used in a variety of ways, such as for sonic warfare, during ritual and celebratory  performances, and as a mnemonic device making connections between people and places. Archaeologically and in historical and pictorial documents,  we can see the maintenance of traditions in the material record in how people made and played musical instruments, and in other ways of making sound. Yet, during the colonial period when there were significant changes made to traditional ways of life, sound did not have abrupt boundaries or distinctive thresholds. Rather, sound became more complex in a different socio-political context and space, and the density and physicality of sound became a force of social transformation.