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Where they sing solo: Accounting for cross-cultural variation in collective music-making in theories of music evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2021

Aniruddh D. Patel Open the ORCID record for Aniruddh D. Patel [Opens in a new window]  and
Chris von Rueden Open the ORCID record for Chris von Rueden [Opens in a new window]
Aniruddh D. Patel
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02445, USA a.patel@tufts.edu; https://ase.tufts.edu/psychology/people/patel/ Program in Brain, Mind, and Consciousness, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Toronto, ON MG5 1M1, Canada
Chris von Rueden
Affiliation:
Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23173, USA cvonrued@richmond.edu; https://sites.google.com/site/chrisvonrueden/home
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Abstract

Collective, synchronous music-making is far from ubiquitous across traditional, small-scale societies. We describe societies that lack collective music and offer hypotheses to help explain this cultural variation. Without identifying the factors that explain variation in collective music-making across these societies, theories of music evolution based on social bonding (Savage et al.) or coalition signaling (Mehr et al.) remain incomplete.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 44 , 2021 , e85
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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