Rationales for Music in Evolution
Iain Morley · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2013
This chapter examines selective benefits of musical behaviours and the role of music in human evolution. It discusses the differences between selection for the capacities for the behaviours and selection for musical behaviours as a whole in the context of their cultural practice. It also describes two different aspects of music in evolution: the adaptive rationales for the practice of musical behaviours and the role of musical behaviours in models of cognitive evolution. This chapter suggests that musical behaviours could be valuable not only as means of exploring social interactions, but also as a vicarious stimulus and exercise of those capacities, in a more indirect way.