Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T09:24:55.642Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Pre-hunt charade as the cradle of human musicality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2021

Szabolcs Számadó*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Communication, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Egry J. u. 1., Budapest, 1111, Hungary Centre for Social Sciences (TK CSS) “Lendület” Research Center for Educational and Network Studies (CSS-RECENS), Tóth Kálmán u. 4, Budapest, 1097, [email protected]; [email protected] Evolutionary Systems Research Group, Centre for Ecological Research, Klebelsberg Kuno u. 3, Tihany8237, Hungary

Abstract

Human language and human music are both unique communication systems that evolved in the human lineage. Here, I propose that they share the same root, they evolved from an ancestral communication system yet to be described in detail. I suggest that pre-hunt charade was this shared root, which helped organize and coordinate the hunt of early hominins.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bickerton, D. (2009). Adam's tongue: How humans made language, how language made humans. Macmillan.Google Scholar
Deacon, T. W. (1993). Confounded correlations, again. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16(4), 698699.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunbar, R. I. (1993). Coevolution of neocortical size, group size and language in humans. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16(4), 681694.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falk, D. (2004). Prelinguistic evolution in early hominins: Whence motherese?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27(4), 491.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N., & Fitch, W. T. (2002). The faculty of language: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?. Science, 298(5598), 15691579.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hurford, J. R. (2011). The origins of grammar: Language in the light of evolution II. OUP Oxford.Google Scholar
Knight, C. (1998). Ritual/speech coevolution: A solution to the problem of deception. Approaches to the Evolution of Language, 6891.Google Scholar
Miller, G. (2011). The mating mind: How sexual choice shaped the evolution of human nature. Anchor.Google Scholar
Számadó, S. (2010). Pre-hunt communication provides context for the evolution of early human language. Biological Theory, 5(4), 366382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Számadó, S., & Szathmáry, E. (2006). Selective scenarios for the emergence of natural language. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 21(10), 555561.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zachar, I., Szilágyi, A., Számadó, S., & Szathmáry, E. (2018). Farming the mitochondrial ancestor as a model of endosymbiotic establishment by natural selection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(7), E1504E1510.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed