A fascinating and well-written look at music and its role in evolution (both human and nonhuman). As I mentioned in a comment, though, this book demanA fascinating and well-written look at music and its role in evolution (both human and nonhuman). As I mentioned in a comment, though, this book demands a soundtrack. I'm not familiar enough with music to be able to "hear" the things he describes in the evidence he discusses. I'd love to be able to read a sentence - "X is an example of Y" - alongside an auditory example.
That aside, I highly recommend this book.
[Yes, I know. It's 2021 and I could google or search YouTube and find literally millions of samples of myriad styles of music but it would be nice if future editions were accompanied by a flash drive keyed to follow along with the book. And/or the e-book edition could come with samples.]
Favorite quote:
The musical human is music minus nature. Reducing music to fractal self-similarity profiles a remainder, everything that is left out. And what is left is everything that is not mindless or dispassionate, the elements of music that depend on our bodies, minds, energies and emotions. A musical pattern doesn't move from statement to repetition like a mathematical theorem, just through its internal logic, it requires all our efforts, desires and intentions.... (p. 364)
2.5 stars - Solid enough science, of course, even if it's 20+ years out of date (I'm commenting on the 1996 edition) but it's overlong and downright t2.5 stars - Solid enough science, of course, even if it's 20+ years out of date (I'm commenting on the 1996 edition) but it's overlong and downright tedious at times.
Which is no excuse not to read it. Dawkins expertly makes the case for evolution though the people who refuse to accept it are, generally speaking, not the type to be swayed by evidence and logic and not the audience for this book....more
In The Smart Neanderthal, Clive Finlayson argues for a re-evaluation of how we perceive modern humans vis-à-vis the other hominins who shared the planIn The Smart Neanderthal, Clive Finlayson argues for a re-evaluation of how we perceive modern humans vis-à-vis the other hominins who shared the planet with them until relatively recently, particularly the Neanderthal. He sets out to show that Neanderthal exhibited many of the same behaviors that, till now, have been attributed solely to modern humans, including the exploitation of a wide variety of food sources (including birds and fish), and the use of ornamentation and the presence of ritual.
Finlayson does this by closely examining a variety of Neanderthal and modern human sites across Europe and into western Asia, incorporating both his and other’s research.
If you’re interested in evolutionary biology and archaeology, then I recommend this book. ...more
My goal is to show that membership in a society is as essential for our well-being as finding a mate or loving a child....
The evidence presented in this book points to societies being a human universal. Human ancestors lived in fission-fusion groups that evolved, by simple steps, from individual recognition societies to societies set apart by markers. The ingroup-outgroup boundaries of society membership would have made it through this transition unaltered. That means that humans have always had societies. There was no original, "authentic" human society, no time when people and families lived in an open social network before deciding to set themselves apart into well-defined groups. Being in a society - indeed, multiple, contrasting societies - is more indispensable and ancient than faith or matrimony, having been the way of things from before we were human. (p. 13, 353)
Well written account theorizing that humans domesticated themselves, reducing their reactive aggression and becoming capable of long-term social coopeWell written account theorizing that humans domesticated themselves, reducing their reactive aggression and becoming capable of long-term social cooperation. The potential downside turns out to be that the hominin propensity for proactive aggression was given greater scope. While it made humans capable of extraordinary achievements both material and intellectual, it also made them capable of things like concentration camps, murder, and any other evil one cares to mention.
A few quotes convey the gist of Wrangham's argument:
The revolution that first brought down the alpha bullies...had given the new leaders extraordinary power. By discovering that they could control even the most imposing fighter, the previously subordinate males found they could further their goals in other ways, too.... Some 300,000 years ago, males discovered absolute power. They had surely been individually dominant to females before the onset of capital punishment.... Afterward, however, the dominance of males...took a new form. It became a patriarchy in the special sense of male dominance based on a system. The system was a network of mature males protecting their mutual interests. (p. 215)
[T]he new mentality of which humanity is rightly proud had darker origins than we normally like to think. The force that bred conscience and condemnation into our ancestors began in the revolution of males competing for a new kind of power. It ended in the tyranny of the cousins with two major kinds of social effect.... It constrains society to follow moral principles that promote cooperation, fairness, and protection from harm....
[I]t also brought a new kind of dominance, because the limited power of a single alpha became the absolute power of a male coalition. (p. 221)
Coalitionary proactive aggression is responsible for execution, war, massacre, slavery, hazing, ritual sacrifice, torture, lynchings, gang wars, political purges, and similar abuses of power. It permits sovereignty as a right over life, caste as a system of casual domination, and guards who make prisoners dig their own graves. It makes kings out of wimps, underlies fidelity to groups, and gives us long-term tyrannies. It has battered our species since the Pleistocene....
It is therefore cheering to remember that in sane individuals proactive aggression is a highly selective behavior that is delicately attuned to context.... Proactive aggression is not produced by individuals in a fit of rage, or in an alcoholic haze, or out of a testosterone-induced failure of cortical control. It is a considered act by an individual or coalition that takes into account the likely costs. It has a strong tendency to disappear when it does not pay. (p. 246)
This is a collection of Dr. Lee's columns written for a Korean general science publication. As such, they're very short and not very informative. If yThis is a collection of Dr. Lee's columns written for a Korean general science publication. As such, they're very short and not very informative. If you're looking for in-depth looks at particular topics in evolution and paleoanthropology, this is not your book. There's a Further Reading section that offers some suggestions, but I wish it were more extensive.
All that said, the articles are well written and engaging and raise questions about hominin evolution that may lead a motivated reader to investigate further. I was particularly interested in the columns about the ever-changing view on where modern humans came from and the rapidly advancing science of DNA research. (For example, the physical evidence of the Denisovans is a handful of bone fragments. We only know they were a population distinct from humans or Neanderthal based on their DNA.)...more
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