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Music and the Meeting of Human Minds
Over tens of thousands of years of human genetic and cultural evolution, many types and varieties of music and language have emerged; however, the fundamental components of each of these modes of communication seem to be common to all human cultures and social groups. In this brief review, rather th...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5964593/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29867703 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00762 |
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author | Harvey, Alan R. |
author_facet | Harvey, Alan R. |
author_sort | Harvey, Alan R. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Over tens of thousands of years of human genetic and cultural evolution, many types and varieties of music and language have emerged; however, the fundamental components of each of these modes of communication seem to be common to all human cultures and social groups. In this brief review, rather than focusing on the development of different musical techniques and practices over time, the main issues addressed here concern: (i) when, and speculations as to why, modern Homo sapiens evolved musical behaviors, (ii) the evolutionary relationship between music and language, and (iii) why humans, perhaps unique among all living species, universally continue to possess two complementary but distinct communication streams. Did music exist before language, or vice versa, or was there a common precursor that in some way separated into two distinct yet still overlapping systems when cognitively modern H. sapiens evolved? A number of theories put forward to explain the origin and persistent universality of music are considered, but emphasis is given, supported by recent neuroimaging, physiological, and psychological findings, to the role that music can play in promoting trust, altruistic behavior, social bonding, and cooperation within groups of culturally compatible but not necessarily genetically related humans. It is argued that, early in our history, the unique socializing and harmonizing power of music acted as an essential counterweight to the new and evolving sense of self, to an emerging sense of individuality and mortality that was linked to the development of an advanced cognitive capacity and articulate language capability. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5964593 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-59645932018-06-04 Music and the Meeting of Human Minds Harvey, Alan R. Front Psychol Psychology Over tens of thousands of years of human genetic and cultural evolution, many types and varieties of music and language have emerged; however, the fundamental components of each of these modes of communication seem to be common to all human cultures and social groups. In this brief review, rather than focusing on the development of different musical techniques and practices over time, the main issues addressed here concern: (i) when, and speculations as to why, modern Homo sapiens evolved musical behaviors, (ii) the evolutionary relationship between music and language, and (iii) why humans, perhaps unique among all living species, universally continue to possess two complementary but distinct communication streams. Did music exist before language, or vice versa, or was there a common precursor that in some way separated into two distinct yet still overlapping systems when cognitively modern H. sapiens evolved? A number of theories put forward to explain the origin and persistent universality of music are considered, but emphasis is given, supported by recent neuroimaging, physiological, and psychological findings, to the role that music can play in promoting trust, altruistic behavior, social bonding, and cooperation within groups of culturally compatible but not necessarily genetically related humans. It is argued that, early in our history, the unique socializing and harmonizing power of music acted as an essential counterweight to the new and evolving sense of self, to an emerging sense of individuality and mortality that was linked to the development of an advanced cognitive capacity and articulate language capability. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-05-16 /pmc/articles/PMC5964593/ /pubmed/29867703 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00762 Text en Copyright © 2018 Harvey. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Harvey, Alan R. Music and the Meeting of Human Minds |
title | Music and the Meeting of Human Minds |
title_full | Music and the Meeting of Human Minds |
title_fullStr | Music and the Meeting of Human Minds |
title_full_unstemmed | Music and the Meeting of Human Minds |
title_short | Music and the Meeting of Human Minds |
title_sort | music and the meeting of human minds |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5964593/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29867703 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00762 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT harveyalanr musicandthemeetingofhumanminds |