Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T16:17:24.385Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Why don't cockatoos have war songs?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2021

Cody Moser Open the ORCID record for Cody Moser [Opens in a new window] ,
Jordan Ackerman ,
Alex Dayer ,
Shannon Proksch  and
Paul E. Smaldino
Cody Moser
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA95343, USA. cmoser2@ucmerced.edujackerman2@ucmerced.eduadayer@ucmerced.edusproksch@ucmerced.edupsmaldino@ucmerced.edu; smaldino.com
Jordan Ackerman
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA95343, USA. cmoser2@ucmerced.edujackerman2@ucmerced.eduadayer@ucmerced.edusproksch@ucmerced.edupsmaldino@ucmerced.edu; smaldino.com
Alex Dayer
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA95343, USA. cmoser2@ucmerced.edujackerman2@ucmerced.eduadayer@ucmerced.edusproksch@ucmerced.edupsmaldino@ucmerced.edu; smaldino.com
Shannon Proksch
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA95343, USA. cmoser2@ucmerced.edujackerman2@ucmerced.eduadayer@ucmerced.edusproksch@ucmerced.edupsmaldino@ucmerced.edu; smaldino.com
Paul E. Smaldino
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA95343, USA. cmoser2@ucmerced.edujackerman2@ucmerced.eduadayer@ucmerced.edusproksch@ucmerced.edupsmaldino@ucmerced.edu; smaldino.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We suggest that the accounts offered by the target articles could be strengthened by acknowledging the role of group selection and cultural niche construction in shaping the evolutionary trajectory of human music. We argue that group level traits and highly variable cultural niches can explain the diversity of human song, but the target articles' accounts are insufficient to explain such diversity.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 44 , 2021 , e108
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Gamba, M., Torti, V., Estienne, V., Randrianarison, R. M., Valente, D., Rovara, P., … Giacoma, C. (2016). The indris have got rhythm! Timing and pitch variation of a primate song examined between sexes and age classes. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 10, 249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hobson, E. A. (2020). Differences in social information are critical to understanding aggressive behavior in animal dominance hierarchies. Current Opinion in Psychology, 33, 209–215.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keehn, R. J. J., Iversen, J. R., Schulz, I., & Patel, A. D. (2019). Spontaneity and diversity of movement to music are not uniquely human. Current Biology, 29(13), R621–R622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffett, M. W. (2019). The human swarm: How our societies arise, thrive, and fall. Basic Books.Google Scholar
Patel, A. D., Iversen, J. R., Bregman, M. R., & Schulz, I. (2009). Experimental evidence for synchronization to a musical beat in a nonhuman animal. Current Biology, 19(10), 827–830.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richerson, P., Baldini, R., Bell, A. V., Demps, K., Frost, K., Hillis, V., … Ross, C. (2016). Cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation: A sketch of the evidence. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 39, e30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roeske, T. C., Tchernichovski, O., Poeppel, D., & Jacoby, N. (2020). Categorical rhythms are shared between songbirds and humans. Current Biology, 30(18), 3544–3555.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smaldino, P. E. (2014). The cultural evolution of emergent group-level traits. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37(3), 243.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smaldino, P. E. (2019). Social identity and cooperation in cultural evolution. Behavioural Processes, 161, 108–116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thompson, B., Kirby, S., & Smith, K. (2016). Culture shapes the evolution of cognition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(16), 4530–4535.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turchin, P. (2016). Ultrasociety: How 10,000 years of war made humans the greatest cooperators on earth. Beresta Books.Google Scholar
Zefferman, M. R., & Mathew, S. (2015). An evolutionary theory of large-scale human warfare: Group-structured cultural selection. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 24(2), 50–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed