2009-2010 Special Issue. Music and Evolution
Recent Submissions
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From great man to fittest survivor: Reputation, recapitulation and survival in Victorian concepts of Wagner s genius
(2009)The transposition of the Great Man into the Fittest Survivor is at the very root of an endemic interchange between the sciences and the arts in late Victorian culture, giving rich metaphoric substance to more heavily ... -
From maladaptation to competition to cooperation in the evolution of musical behaviour
(2009)We propose a model of how a maladaptive and competitive system of musical interaction, based on a notion of enchantment, can evolve towards a cooperative system. This model supports our position that social competitive ... -
Evolution of rhythm as an indicator of mate quality
(2009)Regular rhythmic repetition is a basic element of music in all human cultures and appears in numerous animal courtship signals. We propose that rhythm can function in courtship displays as an indicator of underlying mate ... -
The pulse of symmetry: On the possible co-evolution of rhythm in music and dance
(2009)Darwin proposed that music and dance may be part of courtship display leading to reproduction, and hence preservation of genes. Sexual selection could act on either or both music and dance, but we argue it may act ... -
Towards an ethology of song: categorization of musical behaviour
(2009)This paper deals with the differentiation and adaptive significance of musical, particularly singing behaviour. We discuss the relationship of speech and song and define song as a musical mode of speech. We argue for a ... -
Did Neanderthals and other early humans sing? Seeking the biological roots of music in the territorial advertisements of primates, lions, hyenas, and wolves
(2009)Group defence of territories is found in many gregarious mammalian carnivores, including lions, canids, and hyenas. In these taxa, group members often mark territory boundaries and direct aggressive behaviour towards ... -
Individual emotional reactions towards music: Evolutionary-based universals?
(2009)Music can elicit strong feelings and physiological arousal in listeners. However, it is still under debate as to whether these reactions are based on universal reaction patterns or are acquired during a process of ... -
The emotional antecedents to the evolution of music and language
(2009)The emotional power of music may have strong linkages to the evolution of basic motor and emotional systems of the brain. Most movements have distinct rhythms and basic emotions are characterised by distinct ... -
Some parallels between language and music from a cognitive and evolutionary perspective
(2009)Parallels between language and music are considered as a useful basis for examining possible evolutionary pathways of these achievements. Such parallels become apparent if we compare clauses and syllables in language ... -
The evolutionary nature of musical meaning
(2009)The paper will draw on ethnomusicological, cognitive and neuroscientific evidence in suggesting that music and language constitute complementary components of the human communicative toolkit. It will start by outlining ... -
Musical elements in human infants cries: In the beginning is the melody
(2009)Crying is the earliest sound production of human infants on their long way toward language. Here, we argue that infants' early crying contains melodic constituents for both musical and prosodic structures. This view ... -
Prenatal and infant conditioning, the mother schema, and the origins of music and religion
(2009)Existing theories of the origins of music and religion fail to account directly and convincingly for their universal emotional power and behavioural costliness. The theory of prenatal origins is based on empirically ... -
The emergence of music from the Theory of Mind
(2009)It is commonly argued that music originated in human evolution as an adaptation to selective pressures. In this paper we present an alternative account in which music originated from a more general adaptation known ... -
The fundamental function of music
(2009)This article examines some of the functions of music in human society, and argues for a restructuring of the current taxonomies, as driven by Martindale s psychobiological theory of aesthetic preference. The realignment ... -
Music's "design features": Musical motivation, musical pulse, and musical pitch
(2009)This paper focuses on the question of what music is, attempting to describe those features of music that generically distinguish it from other forms of animal and human communication - music's "design features". The ... -
The origins of the aesthetic enjoyment of music A review of the literature
(2009)Listeners attribute a positive or negative value to music. This aesthetic experience is known to be observable over the individuals entire life span, from early childhood to old age, and in every culture. It is then ...
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