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Music as a coevolved system for social bonding
Patrick E Savage1, Psyche Loui2, Bronwyn Tarr3
1Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University, Fujisawa252-0882, Japanpsavage@sfc.keio.ac.jp; http://PatrickESavage.com.
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences
|August 21, 2020
Summary
Humans create music primarily to enhance social bonding, enabling larger group cohesion than primate grooming. This theory integrates various adaptive contexts, suggesting music
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Neuroscience
- Anthropology
- Musicology
Background:
- Existing theories on music evolution focus on specific adaptive contexts like mate selection and group cohesion.
- These theories lack a unifying framework to explain the broad adaptive value of musicality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a unified theory for the evolution of musicality, emphasizing social bonding as an overarching function.
- To integrate evidence from diverse disciplines into a comprehensive framework for music's biological and cultural evolution.
Main Methods:
- Synthesizing cross-disciplinary evidence from archaeology, anthropology, biology, musicology, psychology, and neuroscience.
- Developing a gene-culture coevolution model for musicality.
- Reviewing empirical evidence on the links between musical elements (rhythm, pitch) and social reward.
Main Results:
- Social bonding is identified as the overarching function unifying various adaptive theories of music.
- Musicality facilitated social bonding at scales exceeding primate grooming mechanisms.
- Gene-culture coevolution explains how cultural musical behaviors influenced biological evolution through social bonding.
Conclusions:
- The Music and Social Bonding Hypothesis offers a comprehensive explanation for the evolution of music.
- Musicality's deep links to perception, prediction, and social reward are supported by neurobiological and behavioral evidence.
- Future research should explore neurobiological bases and interconnections between human music, language, and animal song.
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