Tim,
I’d like to push you further along these lines, if you will allow:
Song is certainly not the only method, you might use words, or tattoos, or other things, but song could have been effective, and thus been a survival benefit.
Would it be possible to explicate an idea whereby traits that enhance tribal cohesion could become inherited over time? Music is one such area, but what would be the broader characteristics of these traits? How big of an advantage is required to start the process?
I have read that once women lived long enough to help raise their own grandchildren, this gave early “man” a 1% or 2% survival advantage over other hominids (Neanderthals). This was supposedly the inflection point that allowed a much more rapid population increase and hence, accelerated the decline of other hominids. The point is that a tiny advantage accumulates over thousands of years. From an evolutionary standpoint, the beak features of different bird species came from specialized feeding habits. How fast do these differences occur? How fast can punctuated equilibrium work?
My thesis is that we have both genetic traits and cultural commonalities where they provide direct survival benefits or improve the probability of survival via group cohesion. These accumulate over thousands of years and affect both our genetics and culture, but of course, at much different rates. I feel that music fits well in this view.
As means to invite a discussion, I would posit that cooperation during hunting is critical for group survival. Dissent, in any form, needs to be minimized or eliminated because it lowers the chance of a successful hunt. When we feel rushed, we are much less likely to tolerate dissent, as we would during a hunt; at rest, we are more open to debate. This feature also applies in combat situations for obvious reasons.
This next point is a crude generality to seed the discussion: On the FADG board, it posted that modern men will shop like we previously hunted, and women will shop like they previously ‘gathered.’ Men are focused on one specific task, and return home soon after completing the task; whereas women will search (scour) an area for resources and return to a site when needed. These “tendencies” still serve humans in hunter/gatherer societies and remain encoded in all of us.
Any thoughts? |
