The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body

Mithen, Steven

ISBN 10: 0674025598 / ISBN 13: 9780674025592

Editore: Harvard University Press (edition Illustrated), 2007

It's a well-cared-for item that has seen limited use. The item may show minor signs of wear. All the text is legible, with all pages included. It may have slight markings and/or highlighting. Codice articolo 0674025598-11-1

Riassunto:

The propensity to make music is the most mysterious, wonderful, and neglected feature of humankind: this is where Steven Mithen began, drawing together strands from archaeology, anthropology, psychology, neuroscience--and, of course, musicology--to explain why we are so compelled to make and hear music. But music could not be explained without addressing language, and could not be accounted for without understanding the evolution of the human body and mind. Thus Mithen arrived at the wildly ambitious project that unfolds in this book: an exploration of music as a fundamental aspect of the human condition, encoded into the human genome during the evolutionary history of our species.

Music is the language of emotion, common wisdom tells us. In The Singing Neanderthals, Mithen introduces us to the science that might support such popular notions. With equal parts scientific rigor and charm, he marshals current evidence about social organization, tool and weapon technologies, hunting and scavenging strategies, habits and brain capacity of all our hominid ancestors, from australopithecines to Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis and Neanderthals to Homo sapiens--and comes up with a scenario for a shared musical and linguistic heritage. Along the way he weaves a tapestry of cognitive and expressive worlds--alive with vocalized sound, communal mimicry, sexual display, and rhythmic movement--of various species.

The result is a fascinating work--and a succinct riposte to those, like Steven Pinker, who have dismissed music as a functionless evolutionary byproduct.

Product Description: The propensity to make music is the most mysterious, wonderful, and neglected feature of humankind. In this book, Mithen explores music as a fundamental aspect of the human condition, encoded into the human genome during the evolutionary history of our species.

Dati bibliografici

Titolo: The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of ...
Casa editrice: Harvard University Press (edition Illustrated)
Data di pubblicazione: 2007
Legatura: Paperback
Condizione: Very Good
Edizione: Illustrated.