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Group singing is globally dominant and associated with social context
Dor Shilton1, Sam Passmore2,3, Patrick E Savage4,5
1Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Royal Society Open Science
|September 8, 2023
Summary
Group singing is more prevalent than solo singing across diverse societies, particularly in communal activities like rituals and dance. This research highlights music's interactive role in social bonding, challenging theories of its decline in modern societies.
Area of Science:
- Anthropology
- Ethnomusicology
- Evolutionary Biology
Background:
- Music is theorized to have evolved as a participatory activity fostering social bonding.
- In post-industrial societies, music consumption has become more passive, with a shift towards solo singing.
- Previous research suggested music became less participatory with increasing societal size and differentiation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the prevalence of group singing versus solo singing globally.
- To examine the relationship between singing participation and social organization.
- To test hypotheses about music's role in social bonding across different societies.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of two large global song corpora: 5,776 audio recordings and 4,709 ethnographic texts.
- Coded data from 1,024 societies for audio recordings and 60 societies for ethnographic texts.
- Statistical analysis to compare singing prevalence and social contexts.
Main Results:
- Group singing is more common than solo singing across both corpora.
- Group singing is more frequent in specific social contexts such as religious rituals and dance.
- No consistent relationship was found between group singing and social structure (community size or differentiation).
Conclusions:
- The findings support the interactive nature of music and its role in sociality.
- Music's communal role and participatory nature persist across diverse societies.
- The complex relationship between music, social organization, and bonding warrants further investigation.
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