The (Co)Evolution of Language and Music Under Human Self-Domestication

Abstract

Together with language, music is perhaps the most distinctive behavioral trait of the human species. Different hypotheses have been proposed to explain why only humans perform music and how this ability might have evolved in our species. In this paper, we advance a new model of music evolution that builds on the self-domestication view of human evolution, according to which the human phenotype is, at least in part, the outcome of a process similar to domestication in other mammals, triggered by the reduction in reactive aggression responses to environmental changes. We specifically argue that self-domestication can account for some of the cognitive changes, and particularly for the behaviors conducive to the complexification of music through a cultural mechanism. We hypothesize four stages in the evolution of music under self-domestication forces: (1) collective protomusic; (2) private, timbre-oriented music; (3) small-group, pitch-oriented music; and (4) collective, tonally organized music. This line of development encompasses the worldwide diversity of music types and genres and parallels what has been hypothesized for languages. Overall, music diversity might have emerged in a gradual fashion under the effects of the enhanced cultural niche construction as shaped by the progressive decrease in reactive (i.e., impulsive, triggered by fear or anger) aggression and the increase in proactive (i.e., premeditated, goal-directed) aggression.

Keywords: Cultural niche construction; Language evolution; Music evolution; Music transmission; Self-domestication.

Fig. 1

Evolutionary development of operational functions of music. Fourteen operational functions are placed along two axes: temporal (vertical) and social (horizontal). The former (on the left, in pink) reflects the operational dependencies between all functions, which is generally representative of the ontogenetic pattern of acquisition of music skills throughout childhood. On the right (in purple), the corresponding phylogenetic line of development is outlined. The horizontal axis shows the gradual social expansion in the use of functions throughout childhood. The ellipsis after the name of a function indicates that this function keeps developing toward engaging a greater number of participants, the extent of which is reflected by the relative length of the surrounding box after the ellipsis. Black arrows show the derivative relations between functions. A blue rectangle at the bottom encloses functions that are undifferentiated from verbal communication and characteristic for the “musilanguage.” A green rectangle marks the functions that are differentiated from verbal communication but are not autonomous from it, representative of protomusic and earliest forms of “personal music.” Darker green distinguishes more biologically dependent functions from more culturally varied ones. A yellow rectangle encloses functions specific to music. Darker yellow distinguishes functions based on informal, orally transmitted, and implicit musical grammars from formally learned, notation-based, and explicit grammars

Fig. 2

The timeline of the coevolution of music and language. The figure reflects the evolution of types of music vis-à-vis the evolution of types of languages in regard to the changes in human socialization patterns under the effects of increased HSD (reproduced from Nikolsky & Benítez-Burraco, , Fig. 7)