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Evolution of Human Music through Sexual Selection
Abstract
The book can be viewed as representing the birth of evolutionary biomusicology.
What biological and cognitive forces have shaped humankind's musical behavior and the rich global repertoire of musical structures? What is music for, and why does every human culture have it? What are the universal features of music and musical behavior across cultures? In this groundbreaking book, musicologists, biologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, ethologists, and linguists come together for the first time to examine these and related issues. The book can be viewed as representing the birth of evolutionary biomusicology—the study of which will contribute greatly to our understanding of the evolutionary precursors of human music, the evolution of the hominid vocal tract, localization of brain function, the structure of acoustic-communication signals, symbolic gesture, emotional manipulation through sound, self-expression, creativity, the human affinity for the spiritual, and the human attachment to music itself.
Contributors Simha Arom, Derek Bickerton, Steven Brown, Ellen Dissanayake, Dean Falk, David W. Frayer, Walter Freeman, Thomas Geissmann, Marc D. Hauser, Michel Imberty, Harry Jerison, Drago Kunej, François-Bernard Mâche, Peter Marler, Björn Merker, Geoffrey Miller, Jean Molino, Bruno Nettl, Chris Nicolay, Katharine Payne, Bruce Richman, Peter J.B. Slater, Peter Todd, Sandra Trehub, Ivan Turk, Maria Ujhelyi, Nils L. Wallin, Carol Whaling
Bradford Books imprint
... We maintain that the hominin-specific combination of several biosocial features, not a single trait or event, should have induced human musical capacity and products. We build on existing literatures that related anthropological interests 8,17,19,[22][23][24]44,45 by further investigating (1) socio-ecology of early hominins: Ardipithecus and Australopithecus, (2) the evolution of stable pair bonding and alloparenting mainly in Homo, and (3) vocal communication and musical capacity in nonhuman primates, songbirds, and cetaceans. The combination of these aspects provides an updated scenario for human music evolution. ...
... 104 Neophilia may also affect the evaluation of music and bring the preference for novel patterns. 44 A statistical analysis of musical products revealed that song lyrics in popular music became simpler over the past several decades in the United States. 105 This example suggested that simple and repetitive lyrics were easier to remember and transmit to others; therefore, they were preferred to save cognitive resources and mental effort. ...
... Miller broadly and carefully proposed that human music (and art, language, humor, creativity, and morality) should be acquired for the benefit for reproduction. 22,44,45,106 His surveys concluded that these traits evolved via the processes of mutual mate choice (i.e., not only women but also men are choosers), and individuals with higher cultural capabilities succeeded in obtaining sexual partner(s) and therefore would gain higher reproductive fitness. Under mutual mate choice, extraordinary cultural traits, such as music, can be expressed by both sexes as both choose traits each other and should be able to accurately assess candidate partners. ...
Various selection pressures have shaped human uniqueness, for instance, music. When and why did musical universality and diversity emerge? Our hypothesis is that “music” initially originated from manipulative calls with limited musical elements. Thereafter, vocalizations became more complex and flexible along with a greater degree of social learning. Finally, constructed musical instruments and the language faculty resulted in diverse and context-specific music. Music precursors correspond to vocal communication among nonhuman primates, songbirds, and cetaceans. To place this scenario in hominin history, a three-phase scheme for music evolution is presented herein. We emphasize (1) the evolution of sociality and life history in australopithecines, (2) the evolution of cognitive and learning abilities in early/middle Homo, and (3) cultural evolution, primarily in Homo sapiens. Human musical capacity and products should be due to the hominin-specific combination of several biosocial features, including bipedalism, stable pair bonding, alloparenting, expanded brain size, and sexual selection.
... Although human musicality has been viewed as a by-product of other adaptations (Pinker, 1997), it has long been theorized to be a prelanguage and more primitive communication tool (Darwin, 1871;James, 1890;Jesperson, 1922;Livingstone, 1973). Recent studies of music effects have identified several behavioral functions of music, including physical arousal and communicating emotions (Schäfer & Sedlmeier, 2011), emotional regulation (Leipold & Loepthien, 2015), social bonding (Huron, 2001;Rentfrow & Gosling, 2006), grouplevel communication (Brown, 2017;Podlipniak, 2022b), and mating (Huron, 2001;Miller, 2000). Other recent works have postulated that music may share a joint evolutionary origin with speech (Brown, 2017) and serve as a protolanguage (Podlipniak, 2022b). ...
... Various hypotheses explaining the functions of musicality have focused on different types of social interactions, such as mate-quality signaling (Miller, 2000), male coalitions (Hagen & Bryant, 2003), infant care (Falk, 2004;Mehr & Krasnow, 2017), and group cohesion (Dunbar, 2012;Trainor, 2015). More recent theories have consolidated these functions into two overarching evolutionary hypotheses of musicality. ...
... Furthermore, when reading self-descriptions of potential mates on online dating platforms, participants rated those who mentioned their musicality as more desirable (Lee et al., 2019). These findings support the hypothesis that music facilitates mating processes (Miller, 2000;Mithen, 2009). A recent review has consolidated empirical findings supporting the idea that musicality plays a key role in sexual selection as there is a genetic basis for the perception and production of music. ...
This research examines the hypothesis that music experienced during puberty in early adolescence imprints on individuals to promote the pursuit of friendships and mating. We conducted an online survey with samples from the United States and China (Study 1) and a within-subject experiment (Study 2). Results suggest that most songs and poems identified as "favorites" were learned during early adolescence. Furthermore, compared with recently acquired songs and poems, those from early adolescence reminded participants more about friendship and induced more emotional reactions. In the Chinese sample, the shared preference for similar songs from early adolescence increased friendliness perception. Music from early adolescence also increased positive feelings more than other art forms, such as poems, fine arts, movies, dance, and views of natural scenery, especially when experienced in the company of friends than alone. In Study 2, singing songs from early adolescence (vs. those from recent years) enhanced the trustworthiness ratings of faces of the opposite sex and promoted intentions to cooperate. However, early adolescent music did not facilitate mating-related evaluations such as the ratings of facial attractiveness and artistic intelligence. The present two studies provide evidence that early adolescent songs learned during puberty possess imprinting-like effects on friendship formation and trust-building.
... Although human musicality has been viewed as a by-product of other adaptations (Pinker, 1997), it has long been theorized to be a prelanguage and more primitive communication tool (Darwin, 1871;James, 1890;Jesperson, 1922;Livingstone, 1973). Recent studies of music effects have identified several behavioral functions of music, including physical arousal and communicating emotions (Schäfer & Sedlmeier, 2011), emotional regulation (Leipold & Loepthien, 2015), social bonding (Huron, 2001;Rentfrow & Gosling, 2006), grouplevel communication (Brown, 2017;Podlipniak, 2022b), and mating (Huron, 2001;Miller, 2000). Other recent works have postulated that music may share a joint evolutionary origin with speech (Brown, 2017) and serve as a protolanguage (Podlipniak, 2022b). ...
... Various hypotheses explaining the functions of musicality have focused on different types of social interactions, such as mate-quality signaling (Miller, 2000), male coalitions (Hagen & Bryant, 2003), infant care (Falk, 2004;Mehr & Krasnow, 2017), and group cohesion (Dunbar, 2012;Trainor, 2015). More recent theories have consolidated these functions into two overarching evolutionary hypotheses of musicality. ...
... Furthermore, when reading self-descriptions of potential mates on online dating platforms, participants rated those who mentioned their musicality as more desirable (Lee et al., 2019). These findings support the hypothesis that music facilitates mating processes (Miller, 2000;Mithen, 2009). A recent review has consolidated empirical findings supporting the idea that musicality plays a key role in sexual selection as there is a genetic basis for the perception and production of music. ...
This research examines the hypothesis that music experienced during puberty in early adolescence imprints on individuals to promote the pursuit of friendships and mating. We conducted an online survey with samples from the United States and China (Study 1) and a within-subject experiment (Study 2). Results suggest that most songs and poems identified as “favorites” were learned during early adolescence. Furthermore, compared with recently acquired songs and poems, those from early adolescence reminded participants more about friendship and induced more emotional reactions. In the Chinese sample, the shared preference for similar songs from early adolescence increased friendliness perception. Music from early adolescence also increased positive feelings more than other art forms, such as poems, fine arts, movies, dance, and views of natural scenery, especially when experienced in the company of friends than alone. In Study 2, singing songs from early adolescence (vs. those from recent years) enhanced the trustworthiness ratings of faces of the opposite sex and promoted intentions to cooperate. However, early adolescent music did not facilitate mating-related evaluations such as the ratings of facial attractiveness and artistic intelligence. The present two studies provide evidence that early adolescent songs learned during puberty possess imprinting-like effects on friendship formation and trust-building.
... ue la inteligencia de emparejamiento es, en mayor o menor medida, un poderoso vector de la motivación humana, en ese caso, la psicología evolutiva es antagónica a la racionalidad tradicional, y en principio propone que hombres y animales desarrollaron biológicamente y culturamente estrategias de comportamiento que, por un lado, posibilitan un mejor mantenimiento de la vida y, por el otro, permiten un incremento en lo que hace al desempeño reproductivo. Ese tipo de dominio de inteligencia nos ayuda a desarrollar relaciones sociales con hermanos, parientes, amigos, aliados, a desarrollar negociaciones y a buscar compañeros, a lidiar con enemigos, a relacionarse con dominantes, a ejercer el papel otorgado, a trabajar en equipos, a ser mentor, alumnos, a relacionarse con otros grupos (Cosmides, Tobby, Barkow, 1992;Miller, 2000;Andersson, Carnagey, 2004;Kanazawa, 2004;Geher, & Kaufman, 2007;Geher & Miller, 2008). ...
... Consideramos que Miller (2000) tiene una visión más completa sobre este módulo cognitivo. Según él, dentro de las adaptaciones vinculadas a la seducción, podemos suponer que el sentido de la estética, del humor y tipos refinados de inteligencia, están aquí todos inter relacionados; en definitiva, en la disputa de la selección sexual no basta que el individuo presente aptitud de maneras diversas, debe también, por ejemplo, tener sentido del humor, para reconocer el humor, o sentido de la estética, para reconocer una obra de arte, como también inteligencia, es difícil admirar la inteligencia de un tercero si no se tiene un alto grado de inteligencia. ...
... En ese punto, el rasgo de personalidad de abertura social parece favorecer un estilo cognitivo divergente que se encuentra en constante búsqueda de novedades. (Miller, 2000(Miller, , 2008. ...
Desarrollamos el modelo teórico M8 - Modelo de ocho dispositivosadaptativos del cerebro social ? donde incluímos el módulo de puniciónentre los siete que ya estaban previstos en modelos anteriores de cogniciónsocial (Kanazawa, 2004 ). Definimos que el Big five ? 5 grandes rasgos de personalidad , que resultan de la acción estratégica de los módulos . Para testear la existencia del módulo cognitivo de punición, estudiamos elinterés popular por la pena de muerte y la punición en el mundo, conénfasis en los Estados Unidos (2004-2013). Buscamos correlaciones entrecuatro fuentes: 1) datos del Gallup institute ; 2) dados del trabajo de PeterJason Rentfrow (2010); 3) datos del The Democracy Ranking of the Quality of Democracy sobre la calidad de la democracia en los países del mundo y4) datos de Big Data creados a partir de la herramienta Google Trends .Trazamos 4 hipótesis para realizar el estudio: 1) la influencia del M8 (ymás precisamente del módulo de punición), el interés por la punición y la pena de muerte es universal y no varía mucho en su distribución, incluso enescenarios estruturales distintos; 2) existe una fuerte correlación entre altosniveles de extroversión e interés por la pena de muerte en los EstadosUnidos; 3) hay una sólida relación entre interés por la pena de muerte einterés en campañas electorales en los Estados Unidos; 4) existe unatendencia para que niveles similares en cuanto al interés por la pena demuerte aparezca en grupos con preferencias distintas (política y religión),en tanto haya semejanza en cuanto a la distribución de los rasgos de la personalidad (con variaciones en los mismos rasgos). Nuestros resultadosapuntan que la primera y la segunda hipótesis son partidarias tanto en países de alto como de bajo s core democrático, hay incidencia de interés por la punición y la pena de muerte; en los Estados Unidos hay una fuertísima correlación entre interés por la pena de muerte y la extroversión( r = 0,472; p = 0,001). La tercera hipótesis tiene también alta adhesión,existe una correlación altísima entre interés electoral e interés por la penade muerte ( r = 0,336; p < 0,001). Además de eso, encontramos un patrón deestacionalidad de interés consistente, inédito en la literatura. La cuartahipótesis muestra relativa adhesión, puesto que escenarios donde haydistribución de personalidad semejante (con variaciones en los mismosrasgos), los individuos tienden a mostrar niveles de interés semejante por la pena de muerte. La corroboración de las hipótesis 1, 2 y 3 dan base para laexistencia de un módulo punitivo propio del modelo M8 de cognición social.
... This puzzle led Darwin 14 to describe musicality as "among the most mysterious [faculties] with which [humans are] endowed", since "neither the enjoyment nor the capacity of producing musical notes are faculties of the least use to man in reference to his daily habits of life" 14 . Darwin speculated that the evolutionary value of musicality may have instead been to attract mates, and while this theory gained some traction in the past decades 15,16 , enthusiasm for this sexual selection hypothesis has generally been limited, due in part to the lack of sexual dimorphism in musical abilities between human males and females [17][18][19] . ...
... Cooperation will be measured using the following variables used in previous studies 16,22 . Participants will answer the following set of self-report questions: All variables will be collected using a 0-100 continuous slider via Qualtrics. ...
The evolution of music, language, and cooperation have been debated since before Darwin. The social bonding hypothesis proposes that these phenomena may be interlinked: musicality may have facilitated the evolution of group cooperation beyond the possibilities of spoken language. Although dozens of experimental studies have shown that synchronised rhythms can promote cooperation, it is unclear whether synchronous singing enhances cooperation relative to spoken language, particularly across diverse societies that differ in their musical/linguistic rhythms and social organisation. Here, we propose a Registered Report to test this hypothesis through a global experiment in diverse languages aiming to collect data from 1500 participants across 50 sites. The social bonding hypothesis predicts that cooperation will increase more after synchronous singing than after spoken (sequential) conversation or (simultaneous) recitation, while alternative hypotheses predict that song will not increase cooperation relative to speech. Regardless of outcome, these results will provide an unprecedented understanding of cross-cultural relationships between music, language, and cooperation.
... In aesthetics, one frequently discussed account is Darwin's sexual selection hypothesis (Darwin, 1871;Prum, 2012;Renoult, 2016;Kalinowski et al., 2021), according to which music acts as a courtship display in reproductive mate choice. Darwin's hypothesis, which states that trait-preference covariation may occur without necessarily having a biological function, was revived by Miller (1999Miller ( , 2000Miller ( , 2001, who emphasizes the fitness indicator role of the sexually selected trait (see also Sluming and Manning, 2000) and regards music as an honest signal. Supporting this hypothesis, Miller noticed that interest for music peaks in adolescence and that young male musicians produce more music than female musicians (see also Savage et al., 2015). ...
... One can thus conclude that excitation-transfer effects are clearly observable when musical primes and facial targets are not explicitly linked by the instructions, but not when primes and targets are linked. This suggests two possible (partly interwoven?) pathways by which music(ality) may affect partner choice: one route that is rather affect-based, and another that showcases the musician as someone having advanced motoric and expressive skills (Miller, 2000). Since arousal (affective route) and complexity (honest signal) are often interrelated in music (see Marin and Leder, 2013), further studies using different musical styles and experimental paradigms are necessary. ...
More than a century ago, Darwin proposed a putative role for music in sexual attraction (i.e., sex appeal), a hypothesis that has recently gained traction in the field of music psychology. In his writings, Darwin particularly emphasized the charming aspects of music. Across a broad range of cultures, music has a profound impact on humans’ feelings, thoughts and behavior. Human mate choice is determined by the interplay of several factors. A number of studies have shown that music and musicality (i.e., the ability to produce and enjoy music) exert a positive influence on the evaluation of potential sexual partners. Here, we critically review the latest empirical literature on how and why music and musicality affect sexual attraction by considering the role of music-induced emotion and arousal in listeners as well as other socio-biological mechanisms. Following a short overview of current theories about the origins of musicality, we present studies that examine the impact of music and musicality on sexual attraction in different social settings. We differentiate between emotion-based influences related to the subjective experience of music as sound and effects associated with perceived musical ability or creativity in a potential partner. By integrating studies using various behavioral methods, we link current research strands that investigate how music influences sexual attraction and suggest promising avenues for future research.
... Both of these accounts are broadly compatible with the notion that musicality was primarily used in parent-infant interactions, and only later to support adult musicking (e.g., Cross, 2001;Leongómez et al., 2022). An older strand of theoretical accounts has explored sexual selection as an explanation for human musicality (e.g., Miller, 2000), following the ideas first articulated by Darwin (1871) in The Descent of Man. This line of thinking notes that, for example, popular musicians are often portrayed as sex icons, seemingly supporting the notion that musicality may be attractive and could be a factor affecting mate choice (Marin and Rathgeber, 2022). 1 Overall, the sexual selection and social bonding approaches suggest two different ultimate functions of music: music for attraction and music for connection. ...
... Creativity may indicate a well-functioning nervous system, which would have other survival benefits (Watkins, 2017;Novaes and Natividade, 2023). If general creativity is a marker of fitness, then musical creativity may be likewise (Miller, 2000). ...
In this theoretical review, we examine how the roles of music in mate choice and social bonding are expressed in romantic relationships. Darwin's Descent of Man originally proposed the idea that musicality might have evolved as a sexually selected trait. This proposition, coupled with the portrayal of popular musicians as sex symbols and the prevalence of love-themed lyrics in music, suggests a possible link between music and attraction. However, recent scientific exploration of the evolutionary functions of music has predominantly focused on theories of social bonding and group signaling, with limited research addressing the sexual selection hypothesis. We identify two distinct types of music-making for these different functions: music for attraction, which would be virtuosic in nature to display physical and cognitive fitness to potential mates; and music for connection, which would facilitate synchrony between partners and likely engage the same reward mechanisms seen in the general synchrony-bonding effect, enhancing perceived interpersonal intimacy as a facet of love. Linking these two musical functions to social psychological theories of relationship development and the components of love, we present a model that outlines the potential roles of music in romantic relationships, from initial attraction to ongoing relationship maintenance. In addition to synthesizing the existing literature, our model serves as a roadmap for empirical research aimed at rigorously investigating the possible functions of music for romantic relationships.
... The very richness of music-making across human societies has, however, resulted in the discussion becoming mired in a plethora of alternative proposals. These have included the role of music-making in mate advertising (Darwin, 1871;Miller, 2000;Kaskatis, 2006), coordinating emotional states in groups of people (Roederer, 1984), coordinating (male) war bands (Hagen and Bryant, 2003), coalition signalling (Mehr et al., 2021) and social bonding (Dunbar, 2012;Dunbar et al., 2012;Savage et al., 2015Savage et al., , 2021. When many alternative explanations are offered for a trait, all of which can claim some empirical evidence in their support, it is often because they all capture some aspect of reality. ...
... The capacity for musicking has been no exception. As I remarked at the outset, a plethora of possible functions have been offered for music-making: mate advertising (Darwin, 1871;Miller, 2000;Kaskatis, 2006), pleasure (Vuust and Kringelbach, 2010;Zatorre and Salimpoor, 2013), coordinating emotional states in groups of people (Roederer, 1984), coordinating (male) war bands (Hagen and Bryant, 2003), coalition signalling (Mehr et al., 2021) and, of course, social bonding (Dunbar, 2012;Dunbar et al., 2012;Savage et al., 2021). By its nature, mate choice is likely to have been a secondary function, most likely the outcome of sexual selection acting on an existing musical ability as a cue of gene quality. ...
Music is widely recognised as a human universal, yet there is no agreed explanation for its function, or why and when it evolved. I summarise experimental evidence that the primary function of musicking lies in social bonding, both at the dyadic and community levels, via the effect that performing any form of music has on the brain’s endorphin system (the principal neurohormonal basis for social bonding in primates). The many other functions associated with music-making (mate choice, pleasure, coalition signalling, etc) are all better understood as derivative of this, either as secondary selection pressures or as windows of evolutionary opportunity (exaptations). If music’s function is primarily as an adjunct of the social bonding mechanism (a feature it shares with laughter, feasting, storytelling and the rituals of religion), then reverse engineering the problem suggests that the capacity for music-making most likely evolved with the appearance of archaic humans. This agrees well with anatomical evidence for the capacity to sing.
... Studying the power of music in a mating context is a question of relevance to music psychology because it may help elucidate one of the most intriguing questions of mankind, namely why humans have the ability to produce and enjoy music (see, e.g., Ravignani, 2018). Darwin's sexual selection hypothesis of music (Darwin, 1871;Miller, 2000) is one of the alternative theories to the idea of natural selection as the driving force behind musicality (Kalinowski et al., 2021). Empirical evidence supporting Darwin's idea has been accumulating slowly over the last few years (e.g., Charlton, 2014;Madison, Holmquist & Vestin, 2018;Marin et al., 2017;Marin & Rathgeber, 2022) and Darwin's theory has also been discussed in the wider theoretical context of creativity and artisticness (e.g., Miller, 2001;Novaes & Natividade, 2022;Varella et al., 2022). ...
... This line of research may improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms by which music may affect mate choice. Possible candidate mechanisms may involve music as an aesthetic display and as a set of sexually-selected indicators (Miller, 2000), but the exact nature of these mechanisms still needs to be determined in greater detail. ...
Music is a stimulus that is known to have manipulative potential in different societal contexts. Misattributed arousal is one mechanism through which music may affect perception and behavior. Lee and Zaryab (this volume) present a study that examined the influence of groove on sexual selection in a simulated speed-dating paradigm, building upon research by Marin et al. (2017) and Chang et al. (2021). Their results indicate that groove ratings predicted sexual attraction among males, but not among females. This commentary discusses several methodological issues and suggests possible refinements for future studies on music-induced arousal transfer, which may ultimately enhance our understanding of how music can affect mate choice. Finally, I discuss the topic in the context of the origins of music and musicality.
... The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted December 15, 2022. ; Table 3 acoustic reappearance diversity index {continuous index of manifest musicality measuring the average number of repeated syllable types in a call} motive emplacement and entrainment {intentionally realizing body movements with respect to socially generated acoustical cues and signals} (2022) leap landing: a locomotor form of motive emplacement where by leaps are landed on narrow arboreal substrate targets acoustic adaptation hypothesis {features evolved to improve propagation of acoustic signals around obstacles specific to particular habitats} (Morton 1975) auditory scene analysis {perceiver-side recovery of individual sound streams from a cacophonous mixture of multiple environmental sounds} (Bregman 1994) "auditory cheesecake" (Pinker 1994) or auditory chocolate, whereby biased sensitivities for environmental listening is exploited easily processed musical sounds paralimbic insular acoustic neighbor orientation {higher-cortical para-hippocampal brain areas involved in orientation and navigation tasks that facilitate spatial harmony with conspecifics and cohabitants of shared ecological niches} (2021 & 2022) selection in species characterized by slow (body & population) growth rates, low parity, long life spans, long weaning durations, and relatively altricial offspring competition between members of the same sex (deterring rivals) in order to attract mates; can result in bizzare ornamental secondary traits (Darwin 1871) more sexually symmetrical form of mate choice via indicators, in contrast to more asymmetrical sexual selection based on exaggerated or costly signals (Miller 2000) mate selection broadly construed around the full life-cycle: including courtship, copulation, fertilization, gestation, and parenting (Westneat & Fox 2010) (possibly acoustic mode) acquaintance before cohabiting (e.g. a tree) or parenting; a part of courtship and pair formation (adapted from Savage 2020) long term bonds formed by established couples typically jointly rearing offspring, post copulation; thought to co-evolve with vocal duetting (Wickler, 1980) process of choosing long-term mates in k-selected species (includes most of the mate choice cycle except offspring nurturing-the signal payoff) Includes selection for costly / honest signals (sent to all rivals, partners, enemies); but excludes utilitarian selection (e.g. fighting ability) (Zahavi & Zahavi 1997) providing for offspring via both menage and range defense as well as dietary scouting or provisioning (can include infant carrying) evolutionary or developmental means (e.g. ...
... He also thought of music as the best example of mate choice playing a role in a human behavioral trait (Darwin, 1871). Geoffrey Miller has been Darwin's most vociferous supporter (on this topic) in the last hundred years (Miller, 2000). He champion's Darwin's view on sexual selection "through" mate choice for "brains as indicators" as a way to preempt natural selection. ...
Chemical sensing via olfaction constitutes a most ancient form of inter-organism communication. But acoustical signaling via tonal and rhythmic patterning is also common among higher vertebrates. Animals that live in well ventilated habitats and move in diasporic ways have further evolved more spectrally varied and discretized call structure. But unlike song in birds, researchers have struggled to locate isolated nucleii specialized for music cognition. The brain stem, midbrain, hindbrain, and forebrain, however, all largely associate with aspects of musical performance, perception, memory, and emotion. I hypothesized that spectral features of musical display evolved as honest signals of spatial cognition for precarious locomotor tasks associated with nurturing and protecting vulnerable offspring. I investigated possible connections between motor, visual, and spatial cognitive areas in relation to both signaler production and receiver processing of acoustical features of musical output. Brain component volume fractions of 42 parts from 48 primates were compiled, from a single source, and compared against a vocal complexity index (ARDI) as well as individual musical feature scores: including tone, interval, repetition, transposition rhythm, and unique syllable count. Structures for spatial and visual perception as well as motor control and emotional processing associated moderately with areas used by species who produce calls with both temporal and spectral musical features. These findings are consistent with a dual (both receiver- and signaler- side) function of musical signals. Associations with spatio-social areas (e.g. schizocortex and insula) support direct selection for a paralimbic-based neighbor orienting [PIANO] sensory modality for mapping and anticipating movement of fellow arboreal cohabitants. Associations with motor areas (e.g. LGN, mid-brain, and thalamus) support the complementary model that signaler capacities for spatio-motive emplacement [ME] are indirectly selected by conspecific receivers. This dual manifestation in low-parity species that locomote in diasporic ways through (arboreally) diffuse habitats, is compatible with musicality serving as courtship signals by long-term mates with consistent and reliable spatial capacities directly relevant to care of vulnerable (arboreal) offspring.
... Musicologia Evolucionista se ampara em todas as abordagens evolutivas recentes que estudam o comportamento e a mente humana: Ecologia Comportamental, Etologia Humana, Psicologia Evolucionista, Coevolução Gene-Cultura e Evolução Cultural (ver os capítulos 2, 3 e 4 neste livro). Nestes últimos 22 anos houve uma explosão na quantidade de autores contribuindo para o tema e na diversidade de abordagens e propostas (e.g.,Brown 2000;Miller 2000; Cros 2001;Fukui 2001;Dunbar 2004;Fitch 2005; Brown 2007; Hagen & Hammerstein 2009; Wan 2015;Varella et al. 2017;Patel 2018;Winegard et al. 2018, Beccacece et al. 2021Mehr et al. 2021;Savage et al. 2021; Verpooten 2021; ...
Somos primatas musicofílicos; apresentamos um interesse e apego espontâneo e universal por atividades musicais, podendo ser parte inerente da natureza humana (Sacks 2007; Varella et al. 2010; Varella 2011). Da "nana neném" até a "marcha fúnebre", a música perpassa períodos relevantes de nossa vida. Para Platão, a música é soberana porque o ritmo e a harmonia encontram seu caminho para o íntimo da alma e se apoderam dela com mais força. Para Aristóteles, a música representa diretamente as paixões da alma. Para Nietzsche, a vida sem música seria um erro. Para Darwin (1871), os prazeres e capacidades musicais, por serem aparentemente desprovidos de utilidade imediata, estão "entre as qualidades mais misteriosas dentre aque-las das quais o ser humano é dotado" (p. 570). Darwin (1871) resolveu este mistério via seleção sexual: "parece provável que os progenitores do Homem, sejam eles machos ou fêmeas ou ambos os sexos, antes de adquirirem o poder de expressar seu amor mútuo em linguagem articulada, procuraram encantar uns aos outros com notas musicais e ritmos" (p. 426).
Neste capítulo, caracterizo a comunicação acústica, defino música e musicalidade, apresento a Biomusicologia e a Musicologia Evolucionista, apresento algumas fontes interdisciplinares de evidência corroborando a natureza evoluída da musicalidade humana, e apresento valores adaptativos ancestrais propostos para a musicalidade humana.
... As in the case of the language faculty [204], musicality is composed of abilities that are both specific (e.g., the ability to process musical pitch, to sing, to synchronize movements with music) and not specific (e.g., the ability to recognize sound sources, to segregate sounds into separate streams) to music. The general-purpose dispositional toolkit for coping with sounds, moreover, has not evolved as the result of the adaptive value of musical behavior, though it cannot be excluded that some abilities used in music listening have served adaptive functions, such as sexual attraction [205][206][207], signaling social cohesion and strength [208,209], enhancing social bonding [210][211][212], parentinfant bonding and communication [213], deterring predators [214,215], triggering attention in parent-infant competition [209], and free-rider recognition (enjoying the benefits of a shared resource or service without bearing the fair share of the costs) [216]. Both the music-specific and non-music-specific aspects depend on learning, and this learning has its evolutionary origins in affective-emotional and cognitive functions, which are grounded in basic homeostatic regulation, with a gradual enrichment of coping mechanisms as brains grew more complex. ...
Listening to music can span a continuum from passive consumption to active exploration, relying on processes of coping with the sounds as well as higher-level processes of sense-making. Revolving around the major questions of “what” and “how” to explore, this paper takes a naturalistic stance toward music listening, providing tools to objectively describe the underlying mechanisms of musical sense-making by weakening the distinction between music and non-music. Starting from a non-exclusionary conception of “coping” with the sounds, it stresses the exploratory approach of treating music as a sound environment to be discovered by an attentive listener. Exploratory listening, in this view, is an open-minded and active process, not dependent on simply recalling pre-existing knowledge or information that reduces cognitive processing efforts but having a high cognitive load due to the need for highly focused attention and perceptual readiness. Music, explored in this way, is valued for its complexity, surprisingness, novelty, incongruity, puzzlingness, and patterns, relying on processes of selection, differentiation, discrimination, and identification.
... Darwin's theory has resurfaced in more recent discourse on the evolution of music. For example, Miller (2000) argues that musical activities could have evolved to indicate the physical fitness of the music maker while also being aesthetically pleasing, both important traits for sexual selection. Some researchers have recently attempted to empirically investigate the sexual selection hypothesis. ...
The question of why music evolved has been contemplated and debated for centuries across multiple disciplines. While many theories have been posited, they still do not fully answer the question of why humans began making music. Adding to the effort to solve this mystery, we propose the socio-affective fiction (SAF) hypothesis. Humans have a unique biological need for emotion regulation strengthening. Simulated emotional situations, like dreams, can help address that need. Immersion is key for such simulations to successfully exercise people's emotions. Therefore, we propose that music evolved as a signal for SAF to increase the immersive potential of storytelling and thereby better exercise people's emotions. In this review, we outline the SAF hypothesis and present cross-disciplinary evidence.
... Rhythm, and other musical abilities, evolved due to (runaway) sexual selection for complex acoustic displays (24,25). ...
While rhythm can facilitate and enhance many aspects of behavior, its evolutionary trajectory in vocal communication systems remains enigmatic. We can trace evolutionary processes by investigating rhythmic abilities in different species, but research to date has largely focused on songbirds and primates. We present evidence that cetaceans—whales, dolphins, and porpoises—are a missing piece of the puzzle for understanding why rhythm evolved in vocal communication systems. Cetaceans not only produce rhythmic vocalizations but also exhibit behaviors known or thought to play a role in the evolution of different features of rhythm. These behaviors include vocal learning abilities, advanced breathing control, sexually selected vocal displays, prolonged mother–infant bonds, and behavioral synchronization. The untapped comparative potential of cetaceans is further enhanced by high interspecific diversity, which generates natural ranges of vocal and social complexity for investigating various evolutionary hypotheses. We show that rhythm (particularly isochronous rhythm, when sounds are equally spaced in time) is prevalent in cetacean vocalizations but is used in different contexts by baleen and toothed whales. We also highlight key questions and research areas that will enhance understanding of vocal rhythms across taxa. By coupling an infraorder-level taxonomic assessment of vocal rhythm production with comparisons to other species, we illustrate how broadly comparative research can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the prevalence, evolution, and possible functions of rhythm in animal communication.
... Since the 18th century, there have been evolutionary, cultural, and psychological [perceptual-cognitive] theories regarding the origin of music and human musicality (Michel & Vogel, 2021). In this regard, theoretical and empirical research on the Darwinian evolutionary context of music (Miller G., 2000; see also Thompson, 2014;Bannan, 2017;Honing, 2018), rooted in Spencer's (1875) essay on animal vocal mimicry, and the emotional transmission function acquired by music in the evolutionary process, is noteworthy. Derived from J. G. Herder's cultural and language-based book Treatise on the Origin of Language, the theories propose that folk songs and the language they contain reflect a society's thoughts, traditions, and even its spirit (Bohlman, 2013;Cooley, 2013). ...
... As suggested by the reference above to "prosthetic extension[s] of the human (and perhaps non-humananimal) musical body, " and to the notion of mechanical complexity, instruments can capture both voice-driven melody and limbdriven rhythm. Substrates for the latter-underpinning the group rhythmic synchrony in dance likely to have been key to human survival (Merker, 2000;Merchant et al., 2018;Savage et al., 2021)appear to have evolved separately from (and perhaps before) those for the former-underpinning fine control of F_0 and its hypothesized use in musilanguage, sexual selection (Miller, 2000;Mosing et al., 2014;Ravignani, 2018), and infant nurturing (Dissanayake, 2012). Thus, melodic instruments were at some stage complemented (having perhaps been preceded) by percussion instruments-various wooden and stone drums; struck idiophones in Hornbostel and Sachs (1914)-these designed (or found) to augment and support a regular tactus in communal dancing (and singing) contexts. ...
Applying the theory of memetics to music offers the prospect of reconciling general Darwinian principles with the style and structure of music. The nature of the units of cultural evolution in music—memes or, more specifically, musemes—can potentially shed light on the evolutionary processes and pressures attendant upon early-hominin musicality. That is, primarily conjunct, narrow-tessitura musemes (those conforming to Ratner's “singing style,” and its instrumental assimilations) and primarily disjunct, wide-tessitura musemes (those conforming to Ratner's “brilliant style,” and its vocal assimilations) appear to be the outcome of distinct cultural-evolutionary processes. Moreover, musemes in each category arguably acquire their fecundity (perceptual-cognitive salience, and thus transmissibility) by appealing to different music-underpinning brain and body subsystems. Given music's status as an embodied phenomenon, both singing-style and brilliant-style musemes recruit and evoke image schemata, but those in the former category draw primarily upon vocal images of line, direction and continuity; whereas those in the latter category draw primarily upon rhythmic impetus and energy. These two museme-categories may have been molded by distinct biological-evolutionary processes—the evolution of fine vocal control, and that of rhythmic synchronisation, respectively; and they might—via the process of memetic drive—have themselves acted as separate and distinct selection pressures on biological evolution, in order to optimize the environment for their replication. As a case-study of (primarily) singing-style musemes, this article argues that a passage from the love duet “Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix” from Camille Saint-Saëns' opera Samson et Dalila op. 47 (1877) is the cultural-evolutionary antecedent of the Introduction/Chorus/Outro material of ABBA's song “The Winner Takes It All.” Discussion of their melodic and harmonic similarities supports a memetic link between elements of Saint-Saëns' duet and ABBA's song. These relationships of cultural transmission are argued to have been impelled by the fecundity of the shared musemes, which arises from the image-schematic and embodied effects of the implication-realisation structures (in Narmour's sense) that comprise them; and which is underwritten by the coevolution of musemes with vocal- and rhythmic-production mechanisms, and associated perceptual-cognitive schemata.
... 30 Proposals for adaptations that led to music-making, the focus of this paper, make for a similarly long list. Beginning with Darwin,31 who suggested music's roots derive from courtship signals, 32 the most often discussed precursors include complex vocal learning, 33 territorial vocal displays, 27 social bonding mechanisms related to vocal grooming, 22,26 infant caretaking signals, 34 and proto-communicative "musilanguage." 35 But there are many more: a recent Behavioral and Brain Sciences publication (Volume 44, 2021) illustrates both the amount of interest and the lack of consensus among evolutionists regarding the adaptive origins of musicality. ...
Human musicality (the capacity to make and appreciate music) is difficult to explain in evolutionary terms, though many theories attempt to do so. This paper focuses on musicality's potential adaptive precursors, particularly as related to rhythm. It suggests that pace setting for walking and running long distances over extended time periods (endurance locomotion, EL) is a good candidate for an adaptive building block of rhythmic musicality. The argument is as follows: (1) over time, our hominin lineage developed a host of adaptations for efficient EL; (2) the ability to set and maintain a regular pace was a crucial adaptation in the service of EL, providing proximate rewards for successful execution; (3) maintaining a pace in EL occasioned hearing, feeling, and attending to regular rhythmic patterns; (4) these rhythmic patterns, as well as proximate rewards for maintaining them, became disassociated from locomotion and entrained in new proto‐musical contexts. Support for the model and possibilities for generating predictions to test it are discussed.
... As another point, sexual selection is often brought up in discussions about the evolution of music (e.g., Miller, 2000). ...
Vocal production learning and beat perception and synchronization (BPS) share some common characteristics, which makes the vocal learning and rhythmic synchronization hypothesis (VLH) a reasonable explanation for the evolution of the capability for rhythmic synchronization. However, even in vocal learners, it is rare to see non-human animals demonstrate BPS to human music. Therefore, the first objective of this article is to propose some possible reasons why we do not see BPS in budgerigars, an excellent vocal learning species, while presenting some of my own findings. The second objective of this article is to propose a seamless bridge to connect the capability for vocal learning and BPS in locomotion. For this purpose, I present my own findings, wherein cockatiels spontaneously sang in synchrony with a melody of human music. This behavior can be considered a vocal version of BPS. Therefore, it can establish a connection between these two capabilities. This article agrees with the possibility that some mechanisms other than the vocal learning system may enable BPS, contrary to the original idea of VLH. Nevertheless, it is still reasonable to connect the capability for vocal learning and that for BPS. At the very least, the capability for vocal learning may contribute to the evolution of BPS. From these arguments, this article also proposes a scenario which includes vocalizing in synchrony as a driving force for the evolution of BPS and the capability for music production.
... www.nature.com/scientificreports/ later theoreticians, particularly by Miller in the late 20th century [16][17][18] . It even came to prominence in the awareness of laypeople, as instructions on dating platforms such as Tinder imply, which (somewhat humorously) refer to using a profile image containing a musical instrument to increase one's sex appeal (see Supplementary Fig. S1). ...
Music production is a universal phenomenon reaching far back into our past. Given its ubiquity, evolution theorists have postulated adaptive functions for music, such as strengthening in-group cohesion, intimidating enemies, or promoting child bonding. Here, we focus on a longstanding Darwinian hypothesis, suggesting that music production evolved as a vehicle to display an individual’s biological fitness in courtship competition, thus rendering musicality a sexually selected trait. We also extend this idea to visual artists. In our design, we employed different versions of naturalistic portraits that manipulated the presence or absence of visual cues suggesting that the person was an artist or a non-artist (e.g., farmer, teacher, physician). Participants rated each portrayed person’s appeal on multiple scales, including attractiveness, interestingness, sympathy, and trustworthiness. Difference scores between portrait versions revealed the impact of the artistic/non-artistic visual cues. We thus tested Darwin’s hypothesis on both a within-subject and within-stimulus level. In addition to this implicit approach, we collected explicit ratings on the appeal of artists versus non-artists. The results demonstrate divergent findings for both types of data, with only the explicit statements corroborating Darwin’s hypothesis. We discuss this divergence in detail, along with the particular role of interestingness revealed by the implicit data.
... System, który składa się z ograniczonej liczby dyskretnych jednostek organizowanych według określonych reguł, określa się mianem systemu Humboldta. 50 Co więcej, struktury muzyczne, podobnie do struktur języka naturalnego, są często organizowane na sposób rekurencyjny, 51 co świadczy niewątpliwie o złożoności procesów poznawczych umożliwiających doświadczenie muzyki. Aby rozpoznać zależności rekurencyjne w przebiegu czasowym, jakim jest bodziec mowny czy muzyczny, usłyszany wzorzec musi zostać podtrzymany w pamięci roboczej i porównany z następującymi po nim w czasie rzeczywistym słyszanymi przebiegami. ...
Jednym ze szczególnych rodzajów świadomych doznań człowieka jest doświadczenie muzyki. Wyjątkowość doświadczeń muzycznych wiąże się z trudnym do wyrażenia rodzajem przeżyć o charakterze przedkonceptualnym. Muzyka jest jednocześnie zjawiskiem generatywnym, przypominającym pod tym względem język naturalny, i tak jak język naturalny jest specyficzna dla gatunku Homo sapiens. By zrozumieć przyczyny specyfiki doświadczenia muzyki, trzeba odpowiedzieć na pytanie o genezę ludzkiej muzykalności. Tę ostatnią wyznacza zestaw zdolności poznawczych umożliwiających rozpoznawanie muzyki i aktywność muzyczną. Celem artykułu jest zarysowanie współczesnych poglądów na genezę muzykalności oraz wskazanie na możliwą rolę ewolucji muzykalności w powstaniu złożonej świadomości konceptualnej, jaka charakteryzuje współczesnych ludzi. W artykule zostały przedstawione prawdopodobne funkcje adaptacyjne muzyki oraz ich związek z kluczowymi dla doświadczenia muzyki zdolnościami poznawczymi, a także hipotetyczna rola ewolucji baldwinowskiej w powstaniu muzykalności. Procesy tej ewolucji mogły być przyczyną powstania cech generatywnych muzyki. Powstanie generatywności muzycznej w zaproponowanym scenariuszu ewolucyjnym stało się punktem zwrotnym ewolucji złożonej świadomości konceptualnej człowieka, umożliwiając wykorzystanie mechanizmu generatywnego do tworzenia złożonych relacji hierarchicznych pomiędzy istniejącymi wcześniej składowymi pierwotnej świadomości konceptualnej.
... Other researchers have proposed the null hypothesis that music is just a spandrel for human evolution, a useless byproduct of other evolved abilities with no adaptive function and not involving direct selection for musical ability (Pinker, 1997). However, other researchers believe that music is an important developmental condition in biological evolution, with a specific adaptive purpose, and propose other adaptive hypotheses, including sexual selection (Miller, 2000), advertising male coalitions (Hagen and Bryant, 2003), its role in mother-infant relationships (Fitch, 2006;Mehr and Krasnow, 2017), and its role in enhancing social cohesion in human populations (Wallin et al., 2001;Merker et al., 2009). Unlike scholars who believe that music has adaptive traits, some thinkers believe that human music is a cultural invention built on brain circuits that evolved for other reasons (Pinker, 1997). ...
Phylogenic evolution of beat perception and synchronization: a comparative neuroscience perspective. The study of music has long been of interest to researchers from various disciplines. Scholars have put forth numerous hypotheses regarding the evolution of music. With the rise of cross-species research on music cognition, researchers hope to gain a deeper understanding of the phylogenic evolution, behavioral manifestation, and physiological limitations of the biological ability behind music, known as musicality. This paper presents the progress of beat perception and synchronization (BPS) research in cross-species settings and offers varying views on the relevant hypothesis of BPS. The BPS ability observed in rats and other mammals as well as recent neurobiological findings presents a significant challenge to the vocal learning and rhythm synchronization hypothesis if taken literally. An integrative neural-circuit model of BPS is proposed to accommodate the findings. In future research, it is recommended that greater consideration be given to the social attributes of musicality and to the behavioral and physiological changes that occur across different species in response to music characteristics.
... Even before the appreciation of universals in musical form and function, researchers have proposed that human musicality may have been shaped by selective forces, in particular sexual selection. For example, Darwin (1871) and others proposed that music could function in a reproductive context in which males produce music to signal their quality to females and in which females assess potential mates based on their musical performance (Miller, 2000). The extent to which evidence supports this contention, however, remains unclear (Bowling, Hoeschele, & Dunn, 2021;Fitch, 2006a;Marcus, 2012;Mehr et al., 2021;Ravignani, 2018;Zentner, 2021). ...
Since Darwin (1871), researchers have proposed that musicality evolved in a reproductive context in which males produce music to signal their mate quality. The extent to which evidence supports this contention, however, remains unclear. Related traits in many non-human animals are sexually differentiated, and while some sex differences in human auditory perception have been documented, the pattern of results is murky. Here, we study melodic discrimination, mistuning perception, and beat alignment perception in 360,009 men and 194,291 women from 208 countries. We find that, in contrast to other non-music human traits, and in contrast to non-human traits, there was no overall advantage for either sex, and the observed sex differences were minuscule (Cohen`s d: 0.009 - 0.11) and of inconsistent direction. These results do not provide compelling support for human music perception being a sexually dimorphic trait, and therefore it is unlikely to have been shaped by sexual selection.
... Broadly, claims regarding this subject are divided into two categories: evolutionary adaptiveness (survival value) and evolutionary by-product (Pinker, 1997). Theories have ascribed a survival value to music, citing its benefits for social bonding and group cohesion (Brown, 2000), sexual selection (Darwin, 1874;Miller, 2000) or caregiving (mother-child interactions; Trehub and Trainor, 1998). However, these hypotheses are inconclusive (Beccacece et al., 2021). ...
Since the time of Darwin, theories have been proposed on the origin and functions of music; however, the subject remains enigmatic. The literature shows that music is closely related to important human behaviours and abilities, namely, cognition, emotion, reward and sociality (co-operation, entrainment, empathy and altruism). Notably, studies have deduced that these behaviours are closely related to testosterone (T) and oxytocin (OXT). The association of music with important human behaviours and neurochemicals is closely related to the understanding of reproductive and social behaviours being unclear. In this paper, we describe the endocrinological functions of human social and musical behaviour and demonstrate its relationship to T and OXT. We then hypothesised that the emergence of music is associated with behavioural adaptations and emerged as humans socialised to ensure survival. Moreover, the proximal factor in the emergence of music is behavioural control (social tolerance) through the regulation of T and OXT, and the ultimate factor is group survival through co-operation. The “survival value” of music has rarely been approached from the perspective of musical behavioural endocrinology. This paper provides a new perspective on the origin and functions of music.
... Competitivist: theories which posit that music evolved through competition between individuals. The most familiar example of this is the sexual selection theory of music [58], which states that males attracts females with their music performance ability, music being here an honest indicator of cognitive ability. ...
The recent advance of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that can generate musical material.
Background Music is known to be a powerful tool for social bonding, but its role in romantic relationships remains poorly understood. The present study investigated the relevance of music to three core aspects of love (intimacy, passion and commitment) across relationship stages: attraction, building, and maintenance. Methods Using a mixed-methods approach, 174 participants responded to self-report ratings assessing the role of music for the three aspects of love across the three relationship stages, as well as open-ended questions reflecting on their music-related experiences at each relationship stage. Results Results from quantitative ratings showed that music promotes intimacy and passion, particularly during the attraction and building phases, with less impact on commitment and during the maintenance phase. Participants with greater musical expertise and reward reported greater overall importance of music, suggesting that musical ability and preference may be used as a tool to assess compatibility between partners, rather than being generally attractive traits. Qualitative analysis of 351 coded open responses revealed a set of 55 key musical actions (e.g., listening, sharing and making music) and outcomes (e.g., bonding, (re)connecting and assessing compatibility) related to participants’ use of music throughout the three relationship stages. Themes such as signalling attraction and emotional communication were most prominent in the attraction phase, whereas bonding through shared musical activities was more common in later phases. Conclusion The present study provides a first systematic investigation of the role of music for different phases and aspects of romantic relationships. The findings provide valuable insights for music research, relationship studies, and therapeutic practice, highlighting the role of music in fostering connection and intimacy in romantic relationships.
In Chap. 1 it was argued that the co-occurrence of autism and exceptional musicality cannot be legitimately explored in a framework that conceptualises music as a ‘rule based’ or ‘closed’ system of structured sounds, and musicality as a restricted set of perceptual, cognitive and memory skills. In this chapter, current thinking about music and musicality will be explored in the context of a biomusicology framework that conceptualises musicality as a species-typical trait of humans that may be studied using similar methods to those used to explore complex behaviours in other species.
The paper investigates the evolutionary origins of music, focusing on its adaptive function and phylogeny. We compares theories such as Steven Pinker's, who sees music as a non-adaptive by-product, Charles Darwin's ideas that music evolved through sexual selection as a signal of intelligence and fitness, and Herbert Spencer's, who argued that music evolved from emotional expression rather than reproduction. Other perspectives highlight the role of music in social cohesion and emotional expression. The paper also examines modern research that questions whether sexual selection is the sole driver of evolution, suggesting a complex and multidisciplinary understanding of the role of music in human evolution.
This is the introductory chapter of the volume submitted as “habilitation” at Universität Innsbruck. It gives some definitions and ideas about ethnomusicology, auditory anthropology, and musicology, describes the scope of the volume, and relates three aspects of decolonising hearing and knowing in the context of the volume’s chapters and the author’s work.
This is the outlook section of the volume “Time To Listen”, submitted as habilitation text at University of Innsbruck, Austria. It summarizes some thought on the author’s work and its effects and ponders how to overcome problems of decolonisation, inter-species research, and pluriepistemology.
How did our distant ancestors defend themselves from lethal African predators after they moved from the trees to the ground and started sleeping in the open?
Strangely, this important question of human evolutionary history has been largely ignored by scholars. For Charles Darwin, humans did not need to defend themselves from predators, as they evolved via sexual selection in a predator-free environment; For Raymond Dart human ancestors were ruthless killers and cannibals, the apex predators of their entire environment, so the need for a defense from predators seemed irrelevant; Charles Brain proposed that, on the contrary, our ancestors were weak prey species, vulnerable to a large number of predators in Africa. Contemporary scholars mostly argue over two paradigms: (1) our ancestors were big game hunter-gatherers (partly modified Dart’s “Killer Ape” hypothesis), and (2) our ancestors were fearless aggressive scavengers (this idea was developed within the “new archaeology” paradigm of the 1980s, but the questions like how our ancestors managed to take kill away from powerful African predators and sleep on the ground at night, still remain open).
On June 23-26, 2023, an international muti-disciplinary conference “Defense Strategies in Early Human Evolution” took place at the Jim Corbett International Research Centre at the Grigol Robakidze University, Tbilisi, Georgia. The conference brought together behavioural ecologists, primatologists, biologists, cognitivists, philosophers, evolutionary musicologists, and conservationists, who were discussing various issues of this vast topic. The book that you hold in your hands is the result of this meeting.
Bu makale, popüler müziğin biyokültürel analizine odaklanarak, müzik biliminin disiplinlerarası bir yaklaşımını sunar. Müziğin biyoloji, psikoloji, sinirbilim ve karmaşıklık bilimi gibi alanlarla bütünleşmesini sağlayarak, müzikal tercihlerin ardındaki sosyal ve biyolojik süreçleri inceler. Makale, müziği yalnızca bir kültürel fenomen olmaktan öte, biyolojik boyutlarıyla ele alır ve biyokültürel yaklaşımı kullanarak, biyolojik ve kültürel etmenlerin karşılıklı etkileşiminin altını çizer. Bu çerçevede, popüler müzikteki benzerliklerin ve tekrar eden motiflerin üretim ve seçim süreçlerindeki etkileri, bireylerin müzikteki tanıdık unsurlara olan yatkınlıkları ile ilişkilendirilir ve bu bağlamda önemli hipotezler geliştirilir. Araştırmanın metodolojisi, nitel ve nicel veri analizlerinin birleşimini içerir, bilişsel ve biyolojik süreçlerin müzik tercihleriyle olan etkileşimini derinlemesine inceler. Ayrıca, benzerliklerin müzik endüstrisindeki stratejik kullanımını ve ekonomik verileri, endüstrinin dinamiklerini anlamak amacıyla değerlendirir. Bulgular, popüler müzik eserleri arasındaki benzerliklerin ve tekrar eden motiflerin, eserlerin yapısını ve dinleyiciler üzerindeki etkisini belirleyen kritik unsurlar olduğunu ortaya koyar. Bu bulgular, biyokültürel hipotezler ile desteklenir ve bilimsel araştırmalara dayanarak, zaman içinde ve farklı müzik türleri arasında bu benzerliklerin nasıl etkileşime girdiği analiz edilir. Çalışma, müzikal eserlerin tasarımı ve pazarlamasında dinleyici kitlesinin bilgi ve beklentilerinin önemini vurgular ve bu bilgilerin stratejik kullanımının müzik endüstrisinin başarısında kritik bir rol oynadığını gösterir. Sonuç olarak, makale, müzikolojinin geleneksel yaklaşımlarının ötesine geçerek, müziğin biyolojik, ekolojik ve sosyal yönlerinin entegrasyonunun önemini vurgular. Araştırma, besteleme, düzenleme, yayımlama, tüketme ve popüler müzik eserlerini pazarlama süreçlerine yenilikçi bir bakış açısı getirmeyi hedefler. Bu karmaşık sistem temelinde yükselen bilimler arası kapsamlı bakış açısı, gelecekteki müzikoloji çalışmalarında ve müzik endüstrisinin çeşitli alanlarında uygulanabilecek stratejilerin geliştirilmesine katkıda bulunacak, müzikal eserlerin daha geniş bir kitleye ulaşmasını sağlayacak yenilikçi yaklaşımlar sunar.
Religion has been a subject of study for centuries, with scholars approaching this topic from a plethora of perspectives. Applying an evolutionary perspective to the study of religion represents a relatively new approach, and yet the last few decades have seen an impressive collection of hypotheses developed and empirical findings gathered from this perspective. Given the multiple facets and overall complexity of religion, these theoretical and empirical contributions are disparate and even isolated from one another. Some researchers have focused on the cognitive systems and mechanisms that produce religious thoughts and behaviors, others on examining possible adaptive (or maladaptive) functions that religion may serve, and still others on the evolutionary history of specific organized religions and the interaction between evolved psychological mechanisms and the development of specific religious beliefs and behaviors. The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Religion offers a comprehensive and compelling review of research in religious beliefs and practices from an evolutionary perspective on human psychology. The chapters explore a number of subtopics within one of three themes: (1) the psychological mechanisms of religion, (2) evolutionary perspectives on the functionality of religion, and (3) evolutionary perspectives on religion and group living. This handbook unites the theoretical and empirical work of leading scholars in evolutionary psychology, religious studies, cognitive science, anthropology, biology, and philosophy to produce an extensive and authoritative review of this literature, summarizing existing work and serving as a guide to the problems that remain to be solved and the debates that remain to be resolved.
This Handbook offers an overview of the thriving interdisciplinary field of Western music and philosophy. It seeks to represent this area in all its fullness, including a diverse array of perspectives from music studies (notably historical musicology, music theory, and ethnomusicology), philosophy (incorporating both analytic and continental approaches), and a range of cognate disciplines (such as critical theory and intellectual history). The Handbook includes, but does not confine itself to, consideration of key questions in aesthetics and the philosophy of music. Each essay provides an introduction to its topic, an assessment of past scholarship, and a research-driven argument for the future of the research area in question. Taken together, these essays provide a current snapshot of this field and outline an abundance of ways in which it might develop in the future.
Bu makale, popüler müziğin biyokültürel analizine odaklanarak, müzik biliminin disiplinlerarası bir yaklaşımını sunar. Müziğin biyoloji, psikoloji, sinirbilim ve karmaşıklık bilimi gibi alanlarla bütünleşmesini sağlayarak, müzikal tercihlerin ardındaki sosyal ve biyolojik süreçleri inceler. Makale, müziği yalnızca bir kültürel fenomen olmaktan öte, biyolojik boyutlarıyla ele alır ve biyokültürel yaklaşımı kullanarak, biyolojik ve kültürel etmenlerin karşılıklı etkileşiminin altını çizer. Bu çerçevede, popüler müzikteki benzerliklerin ve tekrar eden motiflerin üretim ve seçim süreçlerindeki etkileri, bireylerin müzikteki tanıdık unsurlara olan yatkınlıkları ile ilişkilendirilir ve bu bağlamda önemli hipotezler geliştirilir. Araştırmanın metodolojisi, nitel ve nicel veri analizlerinin birleşimini içerir, bilişsel ve biyolojik süreçlerin müzik tercihleriyle olan etkileşimini derinlemesine inceler. Ayrıca, benzerliklerin müzik endüstrisindeki stratejik kullanımını ve ekonomik verileri, endüstrinin dinamiklerini anlamak amacıyla değerlendirir. Bulgular, popüler müzik eserleri arasındaki benzerliklerin ve tekrar eden motiflerin, eserlerin yapısını ve dinleyiciler üzerindeki etkisini belirleyen kritik unsurlar olduğunu ortaya koyar. Bu bulgular, biyokültürel hipotezler ile desteklenir ve bilimsel araştırmalara dayanarak, zaman içinde ve farklı müzik türleri arasında bu benzerliklerin nasıl etkileşime girdiği analiz edilir. Çalışma, müzikal eserlerin tasarımı ve pazarlamasında dinleyici kitlesinin bilgi ve beklentilerinin önemini vurgular ve bu bilgilerin stratejik kullanımının müzik endüstrisinin başarısında kritik bir rol oynadığını gösterir. Sonuç olarak, makale, müzikolojinin geleneksel yaklaşımlarının ötesine geçerek, müziğin biyolojik, ekolojik ve sosyal yönlerinin entegrasyonunun önemini vurgular. Araştırma, besteleme, düzenleme, yayımlama, tüketme ve popüler müzik eserlerini pazarlama süreçlerine yenilikçi bir bakış açısı getirmeyi hedefler. Bu karmaşık sistem temelinde yükselen bilimler arası kapsamlı bakış açısı, gelecekteki müzikoloji çalışmalarında ve müzik endüstrisinin çeşitli alanlarında uygulanabilecek stratejilerin geliştirilmesine katkıda bulunacak, müzikal eserlerin daha geniş bir kitleye ulaşmasını sağlayacak yenilikçi yaklaşımlar sunar. Bu çalışma, müzik biliminin ve endüstrisinin geleceğine yönelik önemli bir adım olarak hem akademik hem de uygulamalı alanlarda yeni araştırmalar için temel oluşturur.
Efforts to integrate music into healthcare systems and wellness practices are accelerating but the biological foundations supporting these initiatives remain underappreciated. As a result, music-based interventions are often sidelined in medicine. Here, I bring together advances in music research from neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry to bridge music’s specific foundations in human biology with its specific therapeutic applications. The framework I propose organizes the neurophysiological effects of music around four core elements of human musicality: tonality, rhythm, reward, and sociality. For each, I review key concepts, biological bases, and evidence of clinical benefits. Within this framework, I outline a strategy to increase music’s impact on health based on standardizing treatments and their alignment with individual differences in responsivity to these musical elements. I propose that an integrated biological understanding of human musicality—describing each element’s functional origins, development, phylogeny, and neural bases—is critical to advancing rational applications of music in mental health and wellness.
First described by Schachter & Singer (1962), the phenomenon of misattributed arousal (arousal perceived as coming from a wrongly presumed source and irrelevantly influencing evaluations of it) has been widely documented, with two recent studies, Marin, Schober, Gingras, & Leder (2017) and Chang et al. (2021), providing suggestive evidence of music as a source of misattributed arousal with an enhancing effect on sexual attraction. The aim of the present study was to provide more unambiguous evidence of such a musical arousal effect. In an online experiment simulating a face-to-face dating event, participants (41 females and 43 males) rated the attractiveness of opposite-sex faces in a series of slideshows presented twice, once accompanied by a high-groove drum track and the other time by a low-groove drum track. They then rated the drum tracks for groove. While whole-sample analyses yielded no significant findings, subsample analyses showed that the groove ratings of the male participants, though not the female participants, positively predicted their attractiveness ratings, in partial support of the arousal hypothesis. We discuss possible reasons for the pattern of findings, including sex differences in groove response and more generally in the evaluation of cues of physiological arousal.
Music is a human communicative art whose evolutionary origins may lie in capacities that support cooperation and/or competition. A mixed account favouring simultaneous cooperation and competition draws on analogous interactive displays produced by collectively signalling non-human animals (e.g. crickets and frogs). In these displays, rhythmically coordinated calls serve as a beacon whereby groups of males ‘cooperatively’ attract potential female mates, while the likelihood of each male competitively attracting an actual mate depends on the precedence of his signal. Human behaviour consistent with the mixed account was previously observed in a renowned boys choir, where the basses—the oldest boys with the deepest voices—boosted their acoustic prominence by increasing energy in a high-frequency band of the vocal spectrum when girls were in an otherwise male audience. The current study tested female and male sensitivity and preferences for this subtle vocal modulation in online listening tasks. Results indicate that while female and male listeners are similarly sensitive to enhanced high-spectral energy elicited by the presence of girls in the audience, only female listeners exhibit a reliable preference for it. Findings suggest that human chorusing is a flexible form of social communicative behaviour that allows simultaneous group cohesion and sexually motivated competition.
Human musicality exhibits the necessary hallmarks for biological adaptations. Evolutionary explanations focus on recurrent adaptive problems that human musicality possibly solved in ancestral environments, such as mate selection and competition, social bonding/cohesion and social grooming, perceptual and motor skill development, conflict reduction, safe time-passing, transgenerational communication, mood regulation and synchronization, and credible signaling of coalition and territorial/predator defense. Although not mutually exclusive, these different hypotheses are still not conceptually integrated nor clearly derived from independent principles. I propose The Nocturnal Evolution of Human Musicality and Performativity Theory in which the night-time is the missing piece of the adaptationist puzzle of human musicality and performing arts. The expansion of nocturnal activities throughout human evolution, which is tied to tree-to-ground sleep transition and habitual use of fire, might help (i) explain the evolution of musicality from independent principles, (ii) explain various seemingly unrelated music features and functions, and (iii) integrate many ancestral adaptive values proposed. The expansion into the nocturnal niche posed recurrent ancestral adaptive challenges/opportunities: lack of luminosity, regrouping to cook before sleep, imminent dangerousness, low temperatures, peak tiredness, and concealment of identity. These crucial night-time features might have selected evening-oriented individuals who were prone to acoustic communication, more alert and imaginative, gregarious, risk-taking and novelty-seeking, prone to anxiety modulation, hedonistic, promiscuous, and disinhibited. Those night-time selected dispositions may have converged and enhanced protomusicality into human musicality by facilitating it to assume many survival- and reproduction-enhancing roles (social cohesion and coordination, signaling of coalitions, territorial defense, antipredatorial defense, knowledge transference, safe passage of time, children lullabies, and sexual selection) that are correspondent to the co-occurring night-time adaptive challenges/opportunities. The nocturnal dynamic may help explain musical features (sound, loudness, repetitiveness, call and response, song, elaboration/virtuosity, and duetting/chorusing). Across vertebrates, acoustic communication mostly occurs in nocturnal species. The eveningness chronotype is common among musicians and composers. Adolescents, who are the most evening-oriented humans, enjoy more music. Contemporary tribal nocturnal activities around the campfire involve eating, singing/dancing, storytelling, and rituals. I discuss the nocturnal integration of musicality’s many roles and conclude that musicality is probably a multifunctional mental adaptation that evolved along with the night-time adaptive landscape.
This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs.
Evolutionary aesthetics (EA) is often associated with the rise of evolutionary psychology, from roughly the 1980s until the 2010s. Yet that was neither the beginning nor the end of the field but rather a middle wave after the first and before the third. How has the field evolved? What are the epistemic and methodological problems it has addressed, and how? What is the field heading towards in the current scholarly environment? A self-reflexive conception of the history of EA is still lacking, although EA research is acquiring more and more perspectives from different disciplinary viewpoints. I will present a bird’s-eye view of EA by identifying and positioning three of its major currents in relation to each other. This state-of-the-art article also serves as an up-to-date introduction to the field for the non-initiated.
Evolutionary social science is having a renaissance. This volume showcases the empirical and theoretical advancements produced by the evolutionary study of romantic relationships. The editors assembled an international collection of contributors to trace how evolved psychological mechanisms shape strategic computation and behavior across the life span of a romantic partnership. Each chapter provides an overview of historic and contemporary research on the psychological mechanisms and processes underlying the initiation, maintenance, and dissolution of romantic relationships. Contributors discuss popular and cutting-edge methods for data analysis and theory development, critically analyze the state of evolutionary relationship science, and provide discerning recommendations for future research. The handbook integrates a broad range of topics (e.g., partner preference and selection, competition and conflict, jealousy and mate guarding, parenting, partner loss and divorce, and post-relationship affiliation) that are discussed alongside major sources of strategic variation in mating behavior, such as sex and gender diversity, developmental life history, neuroendocrine processes, technological advancement, and culture. Its content promises to enrich students’ and established researchers’ views on the current state of the discipline and should challenge a diverse cross-section of relationship scholars and clinicians to incorporate evolutionary theorizing into their professional work.
This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs.
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