Alessandra Anastasi

THE SINGING OF PRIMATES

The study of the melodic expressions of other animals arises questions and as many lines of research that help us to understand better, through different (but not necessarily complementary) perspectives of investigation, the origins of the musical ability of our kind. To avoid confusions it is necessary to distinguish the matters inherent in the basic mechanisms involved in the musical ability (evolutionary change, neurophysiological substratum), from those of evolutionary function (adaptive significance) and history (phylogenesis). One of the matters on which the research efforts are assembled is to understand if birds, whales, gibbons and human beings uses same neural network and comparable neurochemical balance when they sing, and in particular if this ability may influence their reproductive performances (fitness) and therefore the propagation of the genes in the generations to follow. Probably, the understanding and the resolution of these issues could lead to a better overall view for the evaluation of the characteristics of the evolutionary history of music systems (Hauser 2001).

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