Review Essay of Rees, Helen, ed. 2024. Instrumental Lives: Musical Instruments, Material Culture, and Social Networks in East and Southeast Asia. Urbana XXTITEL Chicago: University of Illinois Press

This short review essay focuses on the recently published collection Instrumental Lives: Musical Instrument Material Culture, and Social Networks in East and Southeast Asia, edited by Helen Rees and published by the University of Illinois Press. The essay engages with the volume’s core themes, particularly its reimagining of musical instruments as dynamic, culturally embedded entities shaped by human-nonhuman interactions. Bridging ethnomusicology, anthropology, and museum studies, the anthology advocates interdisciplinary engagement with instruments’ lifespans, agency, and socio-political embeddedness.