Abstract:

A robust body of evidence supports the group-functionalist view of music. According to this view, music evolved as a participatory group activity, whose adaptive functions include strengthening and/or signaling social cohesion. Yet examples of small-scale societies in which collective music-making is rare are multiple. What kind of challenges do these examples pose to group-functionalist theories? We find that, in terms of geographical distribution, many such cases originate from Siberia and South America. We therefore take a closer look at several case studies from these regions, and consider hypotheses for the relative paucity of collective music making. We suggest that the frequency and scale of collective action, the role of expertise, variation in musical style, and cultural loss due to Western transgression, are all important explanatory factors. Nevertheless, in all the cases we consider, episodes of some form of collective music-making do (or historically did) occur during important social events, a fact which supports the group-functionalist view. Our findings also point to the centrality and ubiquity of religious function — whether supported by group or solo music-making — and suggest this aspect of musical behavior needs to be better addressed by evolutionary theories of music.

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Twitter: @dorshilton