num_pages: 211
description: This book is dedicated to the research of the evolutionary origins of human music. The book consists of four chapters. The first chapter Singing Alone and Singing Monophony and Polyphony is a concise country-to-country region-to-region review of the world s musical cultures including both solo and choral singing traditions. The second chapter Singing in Human Cultural History is dedicated to the methodology of the comparative study of several singing styles and the search for the stable and mobile elements of musical language. The general conclusion is that choral singing is a very ancient phenomenon which is gradually disappearing all over the World. The third chapter Music and War is dedicated to the search for the evolutionary function of music in human and hominid prehistory. After a detailed review of the existing models of the music origins from the ancient times until today a new model of the origin of music is then suggested. The new hypothesis is based on the model of Audio-Visual Intimidating Display to defend hominids from ground predators to assist them in scavenging and also in confrontations with competing hominid groups. Special attention is paid to the factor of environmental change (from arboreal to terrestrial life) in terms of the origins of human singing behavior. The ability of synchronous group rhythmic singing to transfer humans into the altered state of consciousness a neurologically induced specific state a Battle Trance where humans do not feel pain and fear is discussed. The transformation of individual humans into a unit of warriors religiously dedicated to a common goal is suggested as the primary evolutionary function of music. The formation of human morphological and behavioral features in light of the suggested model is analyzed. Apart from singing such universal human behaviors as humming body painting and dancing are also discussed. The fourth chapter Singing and Thinking discusses the links of human singing behavior with cognitive processes (intelligence language speech). The ability of asking questions is suggested to be the defining element of human intelligence (as none of the trained apes in human-led experiments ever asked questions). Unlike a popular view of considering asking questions as a syntactic structure the author suggests it is primarily a cognitive phenomenon. Such widespread human conditions as stuttering and dyslexia are also discussed in the light of the suggested model. The altered state of consciousness induced by rhythmic music and movements is discussed in the light of the human ability to go into hypnosis and having two personalities in one brain is seen as an evolutionarily useful phenomenon. In Conclusions and Perspectives the aposematic (warning display) model suggested in this book is compared to the sexual selection model of human origins and the phenomenon of ritual confrontation in humans and the animal kingdom in order to avoid direct violence and confrontation is analyzed (including discussion on the alternative function of the peacock tail). The book also contains 16 color photos representing groups of singers from several regions of the World. The book was written on request from a Japanese publisher ARC Publishing after hearing the presentation made by Joseph Jordania during the award ceremony of the Fumio Koizumi Prize which Joseph Jordania was awarded for the recognition of his contribution to systematic analysis of folk polyphonies of the world proposing a new model for the origins of traditional choral singing in the broad context of human evolution. Japanese publisher gave Joseph Jordania exclusive rights to publish this book in any other languages. The Japanese version is coming out in 2011. Now there are discussions about Russian version as well.
language: English
title: Why Do People Sing? Music in Human Evolution
publisher: Logos