Why
do People Sing? Music in Evolution by Alexander Jikuridze,
Alexander Jordania
Summary
- “One
of the most important new questions that this book will try to answer is why
the most archaic parts of the human brain, which are only activated by the
critical survival needs, are activated when humans sing or listen to music. Is
it possible that singing really had a function of survival for our distant
ancestors? Despite the diversity of the approaches and models for the origins
of singing and music, the author of this book believes that singing and music
had much more important functions in the evolutionary history of our species
than has ever been suggested by any of the above mentioned scholars. The
central idea of this book is very simple yet very complex at the same time. The
author suggests that human singing had a tremendously important role in our
evolutionary past. It was singing that provided our ancestors with defense
against predators, provided our ancestors with food, gave rise to human
intelligence, morality, religion, formed the human body and facial morphology,
gave birth to human arts and the mystery of artistic transformation. That’s why
this book, dedicated to the origins of singing, is in fact a book about human
evolution. That’s why, in this book, we will be discussing many big issues that
you would not expect to be discussed in a book about singing. “
Key Takeaways
- Human
singing is one of the greatest mysteries of human evolution. Charles Darwin was
one of the first people to be puzzled by this phenomenon. in “The Descent of
Man” he wrote: “As neither the enjoyment nor the capacity of producing musical
notes are faculties of the least use to men in reference to his daily habits of
life, they must be ranked amongst the most mysterious with which he is endowed”
- There
is no human culture without singing, but singing plays a very different role in
various cultures.
- Generalizations
are always dangerous, but we could say that when people lose links with their
traditional culture, the role of singing decreases in a society. That’s why in
many western societies people generally sing less than people in more
traditional societies. Interestingly, together with the decline of singing in
the general population of Western cultures, there is also a contrasting
development: plenty of studies strongly suggest that singing in a choir is good
for your psychological and physical wellbeing. As a result, there is an
increasing popularity of singing and participation in community choirs in
western countries.
- The
exception – a scholar’s only true friend. Scholars formulate plenty of new
hypotheses to explain existing facts. In the process of creating a new
hypothesis, scholars are often carried away by the long list of facts that fit
comfortably into their hypothesis, and therefore neglect the facts which do not
fit their hypothesis. These ‘misfit’ facts are labeled ‘exceptions’. Understandably,
scholars usually dislike exceptions. Sometimes scholars push exceptions to
coerce into their hypothesis, in other times they try to discredit the fact or
the source where the fact came from. And if nothing helps, notorious sayings
like ‘no rule without exceptions,’ or even worse, ‘exception proves the rule,’
are always at hand. But of course, to a nonbiased person it is clear that an
exception cannot prove the rule, and that a rule with ‘exceptions’ is actually
a bad rule. My favorite literary hero, brilliant analytic Sherlock Holmes once
said: “I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule”. I agree with
Holmes and consider the saying ‘exception proves the rule’ as the last resort
for a wrong hypothesis. So what is in reality an exception? Exception is a
scholar’s best friend, the only true friend that tells the bitter truth. Do not
listen to the calming array of facts that prove your hypotheses, they are like
many flattering friends who are ready to lie to you in order to make you a
happier person. Listen to your only true friend – exception. And only if this
friend is silent, not complaining of any facts that do not fit your idea, you
can be truly happy. One exception can outweigh dozens of proving facts. There
is no greater proof for your hypothesis than the absence of an exception.
- Milk
Drinking Syndrome and origins of European Polyphony: Many readers of this book
might not be aware that different human populations differ drastically from
each other according to their ability to absorb milk. It was found, for
example, that African Americans have a much higher percentage of people who
cannot absorb milk compared to European Americans. later studies suggested that
the number of populations that have problems with milk is quite big, and
includes populations of sub-Saharan Africa, Arabs, most of the Jews, most Asian
populations, Australian aborigines and Melanesians. And finally, in the 1970s,
scholars came to the quite amazing conclusion that with some minor exceptions,
the only major population on our planet that can drink milk without
complications is the population of North and central Europe and their
descendants. If we take into account that most of these scholars were Europeans
themselves, and for them drinking milk was a very natural part of their life,
it is not difficult to understand this kind of initial unconscious ‘European
arrogance’ towards other populations of the world. From the end of the 1970s it
has been acknowledged that although very young children of every human
population naturally drink milk, it is a norm for most human populations that
as children grow, they lose the ability to absorb lactose and to drink milk.
Therefore it is the North and central European adult population’s ability to absorb
milk, if we may say so, that is ‘out of the human norm’. after this fact became
known, the embarrassing earlier complaints from many parts of the world about
the ‘no quality food provision’ for the developing countries were understood,
and humanitarian aid programs correspondingly had to adjust their policy of
providing huge quantities of milk powder to the starving populations of third
world countries, who could not actually drink milk. This methodologically interesting case teaches us a very important
lesson – not to extrapolate European experience to other populations of the
world. In my 2006 book I suggested the term ‘Milk Drinking syndrome’ for
similar cases when European experience is unjustly extrapolated on the rest of
the world.
- Rise
of Andean Mountains and the origins of Polyphony: Just a week after his 26th
birthday, while resting in a forest, Charles Darwin experienced a major
earthquake that struck Chile on 20th February of 1835. Walking a few days after
the earthquake on the beach, Charles noticed that some mollusks that always
live on the rocks under the water were now on the rocks well above the water
level. Darwin made a correct conclusion that the recent earthquake was to blame
for this, and on a bigger historic scale he concluded that series of such
earthquakes during many millions of years were responsible for the actual rise
of the surface and the creation of the huge range of Andean mountains. Darwin correctly understood the historical
dynamics of landscape changes and the rest was a question of multiplying the
results of small time span changes (that humans can observe) into a large
evolutionary scale that humans cannot observe. Some things are incredibly slow.
For example both American continents are moving westwards about the same speed
as nails grow on your fingers. To notice and understand this kind of slow
developments, we need to study the historical dynamics. The question of
historical dynamics is absolutely crucial for the correct understanding of any
process that goes for centuries and millennia, including the process of the
origins of vocal polyphony.
- Singing
is so central for human cultures that no one ever questioned the universality
of singing. The question which we are going to address in this chapter is which
of the many functions of singing was possibly the initial core one that gave
music its unique position in the life of every human society. Was it possibly
the Mother-child relationship as Ellen Dissanayake proposed? Or charming the
opposite sex as Charles Darwin and Geoffrey Miller argued? Or establishing
cohesiveness in human society as John blacking suggested? Or possibly singing
is just an outgrowth of human language as Spencer thought? Or even simpler, was
singing just an evolutionarily useless tool invented for auditory pleasing our
ears as Steven Pinker suggested?
- During
the 20th century many new facts appeared pointing to the unique emotional and
psychological power of music. For
example, in the first world war it was found that playing music to patients
during the surgical operations allowed doctors to use almost half the regular
dosage of the painkillers; it was also found that music can help to
rehabilitate patients with strokes and severe mental disability. As a
result of such findings, music therapy deservedly became one of the quickly
developing spheres of musical research. Apart
from such practical findings, there were very interesting theoretical findings
as well. For example, it was found that music has unexpectedly deep roots in
the human brain, and that listening and making music involves deep and ancient
brain structures which are only activated for crucial for survival purposes; we
also learned that virtually all newborn babies have absolute pitch (which is
rare even among professional musicians), and the fact that all newborn babies
cry at the same pitch, at the pitch known to us as ‘A’.
- Charles
Darwin criticized Spencer’s idea of the music being an outgrowth of human
speech, and suggested that music predated the origin of language, serving the
needs of sexual selection through charming the opposite sex with musical
prowess. Maybe even more importantly, Darwin famously declared ‘as neither the
enjoyment nor the capacity of producing musical notes are faculties of the
least use to men in reference to his daily habits of life, they must be ranked
amongst the most mysterious [phenomenon] he is endowed.’
- Whether singing is
dangerous or not depends on where you live. For the animal species who live in
the trees, for some reason, singing does not seem to be dangerous, but for
species who reside on the ground singing is deadly dangerous. If you do not
believe this assertion look at the statistics: almost all of the singing
species that we know today live high on the treetops, such as birds and
gibbons. Not a single animal species that lives on the ground sings. There is only one exception, only one
species which lives on the ground and sings: humans. Yes, let us repeat one
more time: we are the only species on our planet who live on the ground and can
sing. Even amongst animal species that live in the water there are at least a
few singers like whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions, but not among ground
living species.
- I
suggest that this is the main reason why tree-dwelling species feel more secure
to sing or to communicate with a wide range of vocal signals. A leopard or a
wild dog can hear the singing of the birds and smaller monkeys from the higher
branches of the trees very well, but the singers are well out of their reach.
- Apparently,
humans are very weak compared not only to animals of a similar size, but even
much smaller animals. For example, if you put together photos of a common
chimpanzee and the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger, it will be quite difficult to believe the fact that the much smaller
chimpanzee is several times stronger than this powerfully built sportsman.
Humans look much bigger and stronger than chimpanzees, no questions about that,
but when it comes to actual physical strength, chimpanzees and even smaller
baboons are much stronger than humans. Therefore, we need to remember that
during the course of evolution humans became bigger, but they lost big part of
their physical strength.
- Rhythmic
unity brought a few new important features into human defensive singing and
made it much more efficient: (1) singing/shouting is physically louder if it is
precisely organized rhythmically; (2) rhythmically well-organized group
vocalizations send a strong message to the predator about the unity and
determination of the group; and (3) doing repetitive rhythmic physical actions
in a big group (working, marching) is an extremely effective way to create a
strong bond between the members of a human group. But most importantly, I suggest that loud rhythmic chanting-singing
shouting, apart from the external function (scaring away predators) had a
crucially important internal, psychological function as well.
- According
to recent research by Jonathan Presoak, many American soldiers confess that it
would have been impossible for them to get into the required combat spirit if
they did not listen to heavy and rhythmic rock music. I hope we all can agree
that, when a combat unit goes out for a combat mission, it is of paramount
importance that they all are feeling the strength of their unity and an utmost
trust towards each other. This feel comes
from being in a state of collective identity, in a state of battle trance, and
rhythmic music and dance are the best means to put soldiers in the state. I
propose that the central function of the rhythmic loud singing was to put our
distant ancestors into a very specific altered state of consciousness which I
call the ‘Battle Trance.’ This is a very specific state of mind designed by
evolution for the most critical moments of life, when the total commitment of
every member of the group was needed for a life-or-death fight. This state has
several characteristics: (1) humans in a state of battle trance do not feel
pain. This state is known as ‘analgesia’; (2) in this state humans also do not
feel fear. This state can be called as ‘phobia’; (3) in this state humans may
totally neglect their individual survival instincts as they are fighting for
something bigger and more important than their own life; (4) in this state
humans sometimes demonstrate supernatural strength; lifting cars and doing
other things that are beyond their usual physical capabilities; (5) in this
state humans lose their individual identity and acquire a different, collective
identity, and as a result every member is acting in the best interests of the
group, even neglecting the powerful instincts of self-survival. (6) Going into
the battle trance may happen instantly, fully instinctively, or can be induced
by special ritual-like activities.
- Among
humans this motherly instinct of utmost dedication towards the offspring turned
into something different: the total
dedication of all members of the group to the interests of the Group they
belong to. Like in a well-established combat unit, where in the heat of the
battle one can sacrifice his own life to save friend’s life, human ancestors
developed the feel of group identity. The feel of group identity is based on
the total trust and dedication of each member of the group to the common
interest. Group identity kicks in when there is a critical situation, a mortal
danger for survival of the group or any of its members. In such moments the
noble principle of ‘one for all, all for one’ rules any individual
self-preserving instinct, fear and pain. Such human sentiments, like patriotism
or religious belonging, are primarily based on this ancient instinct, and the
feelings of group identity are becoming particularly strong in the moments of
big national or religious upheavals, wars, natural disasters. Going into the
battle trance and acquiring group identity can be viewed as a classic example
of altruistic behavior, although I want to maintain that humans go into group
identity not because of their feeling of duty towards others, but mostly
because the powerful forces of evolution designed this mechanism as a better
survival strategy for a group and every member of the group. Evolution supplied
powerful neurological mechanisms to make this feeling a positive experience.
Going into group identity brings the most exhilarating feelings to every member
of the group. Every member of the group feels bigger, feels stronger, and
virtually feels immortal. You can only become truly immortal if you do not fear
death. Group members in such an altered state of mind, when they share total
trust with each other, emotionally believe that the group cannot be defeated
- I
am proposing that the mechanism of the battle trance has been designed by the
forces of evolution as the highest ranking instinct in the entire hierarchy of
human instincts, the instinct that rules our behavior in the most critical
situations of life.
- Want
to suggest that our ancestors became very skillful competitors at scavenging
opportunities. They were very slow and bad hunters, and they lacked natural
weapons to kill a prey, but they became excellent at scaring away all other
competitors, including the strongest of the African predators, the lion. So I
am suggesting that aggressive or confrontational scavenging was the central
means of obtaining food for early hominids. I propose that our distant
ancestors were targeting lions and waiting for them to make a kill. As the kill
was made, after some special preparation (we will talk about the nature of this
‘special preparation’ very shortly), hominids would approach the feasting pride
and would start scaring them away from the kill with the display of loud
rhythmic group sound, stomping on the ground, drumming, clapping, threatening
body movements, and stone throwing.
- So
we came to the conclusion that the evolutionary function of music was directly
connected to the physical survival of our species. It was loud rhythmic music
that was preparing humans for confrontations with powerful African predators,
instilling boundless bravery into virtually unarmed hominids with only rocks in
their hands, turning separate individuals into a unit of dedicated and
self-sacrificing warriors, and giving predators a strong message that behind
our ancestor’s rhythmic war cry there was a fanatic unity and an absolute
dedication from every fighter towards a common goal. As this fanaticism was
also supported by the heavy rocks thrown at the closest possible range, no
wonder that after countless bloody confrontations on the African savannah,
lions started avoiding these kamikaze-style warriors. Lions did not need
hominids, as it was too much trouble for them to hunt hominids or to eat them
if they managed to kill some of them (about this see later). on the other hand,
humans needed lions as ‘professional killers’ and hunters of the big game, who
could kill a decent meal for the whole group
- Even
if hominids could stand their ground against the biggest predators during the
day, sleeping in the open savannah for the badly armed hominids must have been
a very serious challenge. Some insightful ideas were expressed. Adrian Cortland
made a brilliant suggestion that one of the ways to secure night time sleep was
to organize a loud evening ‘concert’ to scare away potential predators. I would
like to suggest that there were at least four more factors to make night time
less dangerous for the hominids: (1) reclaiming the dead bodies, (2)
cannibalism, (2) the use of eyespots, and (4) smell of the human body
- When
a predator kills its prey, it intends to eat the kill. Prey animals, even after
defending their family members with ferocity, usually stop fighting if the
attacked member of their group is already dead. Therefore, as soon as the kill
is made, there is no more confrontation – the predator got what it wanted, the
fight is over and now the predator can enjoy the meal. It was totally different
with hominids and humans: being superb masters of intimidation as a group, if
their member was killed and taken by a predator, they would follow the predator
and reclaim the dead body from the predators. What is the aim of such crazy bravery?
Of course, you cannot bring to life the dead member of your group, but with
this behavior you can give a strong message to the predator: every time it
attacks your group and kills someone, you are not going to give them a chance
to eat the dead body in peace. This behavior, repeated generation after
generation, would teach predators the lesson that preying on humans was
unprofitable. Of course, individual humans are among the worst armed animals,
so tracking and killing a human for a leopard, tiger or a lion is much easier
than killing an antelope or zebra, but it is a totally different story when it
comes to eating the kill. Antelope or zebra family members do not start a
massive attack on the predator after the kill is made, much unlike humans. Therefore,
from a predator’s point of view, humans are easy to kill but very hard to eat.
- These
two options had different, short-run and long-run consequences. In short run,
if you do not eat the dead body, then predators will eat it. You might think
this does not matter as the person was already dead, but it did matter in the
long run, because if predators can easily obtain and eat human/hominid corpses,
there is a good chance that they will become habitual man-eaters.
- Although
this has never been suggested before, I propose we have eyespots, but we fail
to notice them because of two reasons: (1) humans are generally not good at
noticing eyespots, and also, (2) because we only have them when we sleep. If
the reader asks friends or family members to close eyes and looks at their
‘sleeping’ faces, they may notice, that the eyebrows, arched upwards, and
eyelashes, arched downwards, form quite visible oval eyespots on a ‘sleeping’
human face.
- I
suggest that the birth of questioning behavior was the birth of human
intelligence. We can look at the entire evolution of the human species and the
development of human society and civilization from the point of view of an
exchange of information and the means available in a society to ask each other
questions. The ability to ask questions
was the first and truly revolutionary change in the quest to exchange
information via direct communication. Human dialogical language, intelligence,
mental cooperation and a self-developing brain emerged together with the
ability to ask questions. After this we never stopped inventing different ways
of asking each other or ourselves questions. At some point we started asking
questions using speech (do not forget – we started asking questions before the
advance of fully articulated speech!). Then came written language, so our
questions could survive time and could be transferred to other places.
- I hope the readers of
this book remember that, according to my model, early humans had two mental states:
the ‘ordinary’ state, or the state which was present in everyday non-critical
situations, and much more rare ‘critical’ state, which was appearing only when
the total dedication of the whole human group was necessary for the physical
survival of the group. Although instances of the appearance of the ‘critical’
state were rare, it was crucial for the physical survival of our ancestors.
Evolution provided powerful neurological mechanisms to promote the interests of
the group over the individual interests when it mattered the most. That’s why
in this state our ancestors had a neurochemically-created uplifting feeling, a
spiritual disregard of earthly needs including feelings of fear and pain, and
had the intoxicating feeling of obtaining a super-personality. In order to achieve this state when it was
needed, our ancestors developed elaborate rituals, mostly based on strong
rhythms: loud drumming, group singing, group dance, use of verbal formulas or
mantras, together with visual elements of personality change: body and face
painting, use of clothing and most likely the use of masks. The central goal of
human (and even hominid) rituals was to affect the mental state of the
participating individuals, to turn their mental state from individual, or
‘everyday’ state into the collective, or ‘critical’ state of mind. This was an
amazing transformation of mental state, nothing short of the changing of
identity of a whole group of people, turning them from separate individuals
into the members of a common single super-personality. Most importantly for
us, as physical survival was the biological priority, the orders of the
collective or ‘critical’ state of mind were overriding any opposition from the
‘ordinary’ state of mind. The phenomenon known as ‘common sense’ is obviously a
product of logical thinking of an individual in ‘ordinary’ state, but the
‘critical’ state of mind produces set of behaviors that often contradict the
logic of common sense. In this state a person can do both deeply moral and
extremely immoral things, from sacrificing his own life in order to save
somebody else’s life on one hand, to doing horrible atrocities during battle on
the other hand. Such atrocities, committed in a state of a battle trance (and
usually together with the members of the combat unit), are difficult to
comprehend from the point of view of common sense, often even for those who
actually committed them. Most importantly, I am maintaining that these two
‘ordinary’ and ‘critical’ states of mind are present in the brain of every normal
and healthy individual. These two states can be quite independent from each
other, similar to two different personalities residing in one brain. In a way,
we all have a ‘split personality’ in our healthy brain, but our second
personality takes charge only in the most critical moments of our life. So let
us remember, in the critical moments of life our ‘critical’ state of mind takes
over and overrides all other orders coming from our logical mind. In such
moments we go into the extremely focused state of mind, where we instinctively
follow either the group behavior (if we are in a group), or follow the orders
coming from the external source (for example, a group leader, or a hypnotist),
or some other, instinctive and mostly unknown impulses from inside of our own
brain.
- The
phenomenon of the post-hypnotic suggestion also proves that the conscious brain
cannot resist orders coming from the ‘higher authority’ – the unconscious
brain. A person who receives an order while still under the hypnosis (so the order
is received by the second identity), will carry out the order after receiving
the triggering signal, already in full consciousness, after the session, even
if following the order causes a fully conscious person great embarrassment or
even some personal danger. Although today hypnotic trance is mostly (although
not always) induced to individuals, group hypnosis must have been the original
environment for the emergency of this state. I propose that the origins of
hypnotic trance must be found in the primordial state of the battle trance,
when for the sake of survival a group of individuals were acting as a single
organism, with united single conscience and single aim. So I suggest that the individual unconscious was designed by the forces
of evolution as a part of a united ‘collective conscience’, to promote the
survival of a species. And here let us remember one more time, that loud
rhythmic music and loud drumming were the central elements of inducing trance
in our ancestors several millions of the year ago in African savannah, and the
same method can be used today as well, not only in the shamanic rituals in the
native peoples of North Asia or America, but in the comfortable lounge of the
hypnotist as well.
- These
two states of mind also refer to two sides of our human nature: individual and
social. Like two masks of the ancient tragedy, happy and sad masks, we all have
two personalities in a single brain, personalities that might not even know
each other very well. Finding the balance between them is crucially important
for a healthy and happy mental life. As Jung proposed, music and other arts
help us keep the healthy balance between these two sides of our personality. Arts
can connect us with our second, hidden, or ‘critical’ identity. I suggest that
this mysterious power of different arts, including music, dance, painting, the
use of masks, clothing, leading to the artistic transformation and the virtual
change of our identity, originate from the ancient ritualistic exhilarating
rhythmic dance and song, designed by the forces of evolution during the
millions of the years in order to physically survive.
- Another
fascinating side of the ancient ‘critical’ state is that for the normal
functioning of our brain in the long run, we need to activate our ‘critical’
state from time to time, in order to feel our ‘second identity’ and to have a
healthy relationship between the two sides of our selves. The millions of years
of everyday battle and going into the ‘critical’ state of mind, where our
ancestors were ready to fight for the higher aim, left us with a legacy where
we crave the exhilarating feel of dedication to a higher aim, higher than one’s
own life. To experience this feeling, we use very different techniques. With our
profoundly social nature, our interdependence on each other, and as a result we
are today searching for venues to feel our collective identity in the
individualized world. We are all still humans, and we all still crave to
experience the same spiritual feeling of being a part of something larger than
ourselves. If our personal life is the only thing we are left with, even with
all the comfort of contemporary life, but without experiencing ourselves as a
part of a something bigger, then we may experience feeling of losing the
meaning of life, and this feeling can be the most effective way to induce this
feeling
- Music,
dancing, abusing our health with chemical substances, and endangering our life
with different activities (climbing mountains, swimming with sharks, doing
bungee jumping, petting tigers and lions, running on the tracks in front of the
racing cars, and even paying handsome sums of money to arrange our own
kidnapping as a newly established service in Paris offers). From the point of
view of the common sense some of these activities simply do not make sense. Extremely
different in their actual forms and results (from reckless and life-endangering
behavior to altruistic religious and community based behavior), these
activities are directly or indirectly connected to the activation of our deep
brain structures, and involving our ‘second identity’, the ‘critical’, or
collective state of our mind.
- In
the new model presented in this book, the role of human singing in human
evolution is seen in a very different light. According to the new model, group
singing was a crucial factor of hominid physical survival, the central means of
defense from predators for our ancestors, and the central means for obtaining
food through ‘confrontational scavenging’. It was group singing, together with
loud, rhythmic drumming and vigorous body movements that would put our
ancestors into a battle trance, create an unseen but powerful mental network
between individual humans, and turn all of them into a single, collective super
personality through which each member of the unity was religiously dedicated to
common interest. Music was creating a mental web for the groups of hominids, or
as Benzon brilliantly expressed in his 2001 book, ‘music is a medium through
which individual brains are coupled together in shared activity.’ it was the
state of battle trance that allowed our distant ancestors to dominate African
savannah and made them feared arch-enemies for the kings of the savannah – the
mighty lion. Altruistic drive, self-sacrificial dedication, human morality and
religion are all the descendants of the ancient battle trance and of the
important human principle ‘strength is in unity’. According to this model the
birth of human altruistic behavior was not a well calculated ‘you help me and
I’ll help you’ mechanism, but it was a necessary psychic state, created by the
power of natural selection, for the physical survival of our ancestors.
- ‘Aposematism’
is the complete opposite strategy of Crypsis. Aposematic species do not try to
stay unnoticed. On the contrary, they try to be clearly seen and heard by
everyone. Their bodies are decorated in the brightest possible colors to be
clearly seen, and they make sounds to let everyone know that predators must
keep away from them. The principle of aposematic animals is ‘here I am, I am
not afraid, and I am warning everyone to stay away,’ very much like a person
singing loudly while walking at night in the forest.
- Why
do we need such a detailed discussion on the principles of aposematism? What
does it have to do with human ancestors or with human singing? I am proposing
that aposematism was the central defense strategy for our distant ancestors. I
am proposing that the elements of Audio-Visual intimidating Display, which we
already discussed in the third chapter, constituted a classic set of tools for
a multi-channel aposematic display: audio elements (loud rhythmically united
singing in harmony and drumming), visual elements (tall bipedal body on long
legs, head hair, painted body, use of animal pelts on shoulders), and the
olfactory element (body odor). Ironically, if we add the olfactory element to
the initial set of audio and visual signals, instead of AViD (Audio-Visual
intimidating Display) we will have AVoiD (Audio-Visual-olfactory intimidating
Display). With their fierce look, big painted bodies, bipedal threatening
posture, threatening movements, loud and rhythmically united sounds, and
ability to go into the battle trance and fight fearlessly with heavy and sharp
stones, our hominid ancestors were truly a species to avoid.
- We
must remember, that sexual selection has two very different strategies: (1)
female choice, and (2) male to male competition (usually known as a ‘male to
male combat’). Apart from this well-known division I suggest that we must also
differentiate between two related but very
- No method can provide
a scholar with a guaranteed problem solution receipt, but I want to recommend
to readers a method that I often use when I am facing a difficult problem. Here
is the method: if you are searching for the solution of a problem, at some
point try to look at the existing facts from a greater distance, take a wider
scope of facts into your account.
- We
are profoundly social, and we are profoundly musical. Our musicality and social
nature had been together for millions of years. Unlike many other species who
mostly use music as a means of competition, for us music was primarily a tool
for cooperation. That’s why the harmony made together in a group of singing
humans is possibly the best symbol of our social nature. Of course, as with
every cooperation, musical cooperation was also made as a tool for more
successful competition on a bigger, group level. Today we are searching for the
factors uniting humanity, and if we manage to find uniting music it will be a
big step towards reaching the unity of humanity. The main argument of this book
is that the extraordinary strength of musical emotions and the amazing depths
of musical centers in our brain comes from our evolutionary past, when singing
was crucial for the physical survival of our species for the millions of years.
The evolutionary choice that our distant ancestors made, when they did not stop
singing on a predator-infested ground, a place where no other species dare to
sing, triggered a chain of long transformations leading to Homo sapiens. I
suggest that continuing singing was the first crucial evolutionary step towards
becoming a homo sapiens, possibly even before our ancestors committed
themselves to bipedal locomotion. Through the unique model of behavior, based
on living on the ground and trying to be as visible as possible and as loud as
possible,
- Our
ancestors developed most of the morphological features we still carry around:
bigger body, longer legs, long head hair, hairless skin, eyebrows, small teeth,
low male voice. The same model of survival, based on the Audio-Visual-olfactory
intimidating Display, triggered plenty of other important behavioral features:
bipedalism, making stone tools, dancing, singing in dissonant harmonies, use of
body painting, use of clothes, altruistic behavior, prehistoric cannibalism,
fanatic dedication to group ideals and aims, strive towards morality and
religion, ability of asking questions, appearance of human cognition, intelligence,
language, and speech. As a species, we are all the children of our singing
ancestors, and with the great evolutionary lullaby for many millions of the
years we gradually obtained virtually all of our morphological and behavioral
features that make us humans.
What I got
out of it
- A
mind-blowing book which gives an alternate view as to why people started
singing and how it has impacted human’s evolution. Battle trances, protection,
aposematism, so much more. Worth reading in its entirety