Knowledge songs as an evolutionary adaptation to facilitate information transmission through music

Behav Brain Sci. 2021 Sep 30:44:e105. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X20001090.

Abstract

I propose an adjunct to the two models presented in the target articles, a function of music that is ubiquitous and would have solved a clear adaptive problem, that of transmitting important survival information among pre-literate humans. This class of knowledge songs uniquely preserved cultural, botanical, medical, safety, and practical information that increased the adaptive fitness of societies.

Publication types

  • Comment

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Physiological
  • Biological Evolution
  • Humans
  • Knowledge
  • Music*