Somebody posted this to the Steve Earle list. I thought it was very
interesting and maybe some of you would like to see it.
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Scientists Debate Whether There Is a Music Gene
Some scientists argue music is in our genes.
By Matt Crenson
The Associated Press NEW YORK, July 17 - We hear it everywhere: in
shopping malls, concert halls, carpools and cathedrals. Even when there
is none playing, we
often hear it inside our heads. Because music occupies so much of our
lives, could it have
played an important role in the development of the species? Some
scientists have recently
proposed that music may have been an evolutionary adaptation, like
upright walking or spoken
language, that arose early in human history and helped the species
survive. "Of course it's utter
speculation," says David Huron, a professor of music at The Ohio State
University in Columbus.
Culture vs. Instinct Most experts still assume music was a cultural
invention, like cave painting or
writing, that humans invented to make their lives easier or more
pleasant. Yet Huron and many
of his colleagues wonder if music might have biological roots. The
"music gene" would have
arisen tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago, and conferred an
evolutionary advantage on
those who possessed it. Natural selection would have nurtured the gift
of music, favoring those
who possessed it with more offspring who were themselves more likely to
reproduce. There are
several things about music that suggest it has biological roots: For
one thing, music is ubiquitous.
From the tribal dances of the Amazon to the frenetic raves of
Amsterdam, every culture makes
music an essential part of its rituals. You simply can't find people
who don't sing, chant or beat
on drums. That music is everywhere suggests it arose early in the
history of the species, before
humans scattered across the globe and developed manifold cultures. In
fact, concrete evidence
of music's antiquity exists in the form of a carved bone flute found
recently in a cave in Slovenia.
The "Divje babe flute," as musicologists call it, is the oldest known
musical instrument. It dates
back 40,000 years, to a time when Europe and much of North America were
mantled in ice,
and humans lived side by side with Neanderthals. Wired For Song If the
oldest instruments
existed 40,000 years ago, then vocal music probably goes back twice as
far, Huron speculates
- perhaps even to the dawn of the species. Another line of evidence to
support music as an
evolutionary adaptation: Some people with brain damage to the right
temporal lobe can't
remember tunes. In one experiment, a man with right temporal lobe
damage could not name a
single tune played for him - but when he was read the lyrics to the
same songs he correctly
identified 24 out of 25. During a recent meeting at the New York
Academy of Sciences, Isabel
Peretz of the University of Montreal described several such people.
Researchers have also
shown with brain imaging studies that when most people hear music, the
right temporal lobe is
activated. "Brain specialization is not enough to claim that a function
is biologically determined,
but I think it is necessary," Peretz says. Finding one or more genes
for music would settle
theissue. If music is genetic, it is influenced by multiple genesacting
simultaneously. With the
recent completion of the human genome project, it may eventually be
possible to find a music
gene or two - if such genes exist. "If there are genes for music I
suspect that we'll find out about
them within our lifetimes," Huron said. Auditory Cheesecake Steven
Pinker doubts that will ever
happen. "Music is auditory cheesecake," he says. Music is one of those
wonderful things that
makes life worth living, Pinker says, but he doesn't believe it ever
contributed to the propagation
of the species. To a biologist, that is what counts. "As far as
biological cause and effect are
concerned, music is useless," Pinker wrote in his 1997 book How the
Mind Works.
"Compared with language, vision, social reasoning and physical
know-how, music could vanish
from our species and the rest of our lifestyle would be virtually
unchanged." Biologists use the
word "adaptive" to describe a trait that is cultivated by evolution.
Anything that increases an
individual's chances of passing its genes along to the next generation
is adaptive. Music, Pinker
argues, is not adaptive. He sees no evidence that having rhythm or
being a good singer ever
helped a person survive or generate more offspring. Pinker believes
that music is something
humans invented and then cultivated because it tweaks our brains and
bodies in a pleasurable
way. In other words, humans invented music because they enjoyed it.
Maybe humans first made
music simply because it makes us want to dance, tap our feet and clap
our hands. Maybe it
started as a way of painting an auditory picture of a pleasant
environment - birds singing, leaves
rustling, brooks babbling and the like. Perhaps we developed music
because it evokes
emotions. In language, emotional content is often tonal rather than
verbal. We moan, sigh, shriek
and giggle to express how we feel. So it's not too outlandish to
suggest that we started making
those sounds in rituals or performances to make ourselves feel better -
or worse. That practice
then developed into music. No evolution there. Calming Influence
"Cute," is how Sandra Trehub
of the University of Toronto responds to Pinker's assessment. "Cute,
but dead wrong." Trehub
travels the globe, studying mothers as they sing to their children. No
matter where she goes,
people sing to their infants the same way, at a high pitch, in a slow
tempo and in a distinctive
tone. Every culture has lullabies. They are so similar that you could
never mistake them for
anything else. "Even if you don't understand the language, even if you
know nothing about the
musical culture, they're recognizable," Trehub says. That suggests to
her that music is no human
invention. If we all use music to communicate with infants, maybe it
arose as an instinctual form
of communication between mother and child, a way of forging an
emotional connection. Music
would have been adaptive because mothers who were better musicians had
an easier time
calming their babies, Trehub suggests. A happy baby who fell asleep
easily and rarely made a
fuss was much more likely to survive to adulthood - expecially in
primitive societies. Their cries
would not attract predators, they and their mothers would get more
rest, they would be less
likely to be mistreated. So if a genetic predisposition to music
appeared early in human history,
those who had it would have produced more healthy offspring who
themselves reproduced. The
most musical of those children would have the same advantage, and they
would pass the music
genes to their children, and so on, each generation benefiting from the
gift of music. There are
other evolutionary possibilities as well. Perhaps music was adaptive
because it made us more
attractive to members of the opposite sex. Certainly the allure of
bands like Hanson and 'N
Sync among girls of a certain age support that notion. Darwin himself
favored such an
explanation for music, but many scholars dismiss the idea because most
biological traits
designed to attract mates - the peacock's tail, the moose's antlers,
the canary's song- are
displayed by the male of the species. Music is something that both men
and women make.
Musical Bonding OK then, perhaps music is something that pulls us
together into groups. As
individuals we are slow, clawless and hairless - easy prey for all
manner of vicious beast. But in
groups, Homo sapiens has conquered the globe. Music is all about groups
- choirs,
symphonies,ensembles and bands. Maybe people with a biological penchant
for music lived
more effectively in societies. "National hymns, military music, battle
songs of fans and
cheerleaders encouraging their favorite sports teams, or the strict
musical preferences of youth
gangs may serve as examples of this phenomenon, whose origin may go
back to the very
beginning of human evolution," Thomas Geissman of the Tieraerzlich
Hochschule in Hannover,
Germany, writes in The Origins of Music. We will never know exactly how
music arose, but
maybe all this speculation does have something to tell us. We know that
every culture has music
and humans have made it since the dawn of the species. The brain
dedicates valuable space to
it. Academics have dreamed up countless possible reasons for its
invention. Because of these
things, music must be a truly rare gift.
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Oh, if anyone made it to the Nag's Head shows (Teri?), please let us
know how they went. I'm going to see Leisure McCorkle tonight so I'll
ask them about last night's show (how horrible a trip was that for
them? It's 7 hours ONE WAY from Charlotte to the Outer Banks! I feel
sorry for them.)
=====
Dede
"You get what you pay for,
But I just had no
Intention of living this way."--The Counting Crows
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