That changed around 40,000 years ago, when the archaeological record shows a sudden magnificent flowering of art and even musical instruments. Cultural evolution – which outpaces by orders of magnitude the superficially similar genetic evolution that had given rise to our big brains in the first place – went into overdrive.
from Dawkins in the Staggers
as if they were a luxury huh ..... what a mistaken idea Dawkins perpetuates in this casual dismissal as something peripheral .... as if none of the work on dance or ritual had ever been undertaken; as if the role of collaborative vocalisations [singing not talking] in forming social bonds and identities was an unknown fact in our history ...
music is quite fundamental to a social creature; i challenge Mr D to go through the records and find a society tribe or clan without musical instruments ... [he won't find one without a way of getting drunk!] and i challenge him to find a music less society that actually survives [cf the Taliban tried and were hated]
there is no art more essentially social than music in its very nature ... they play we listen/sing/clap/dance/march/stand in ritual &c ....
Mr Wright it seems to me is of the Dawkins school of musical appreciation; music is nice but not the point, it is the audience that matters ..... music is a mere toy, a plaything; not a fundamental social art that we should nurture and treasure as a sufficient good in itself .... no it is a mere toy, the cost must be met from Great Aunt's taxation .... never mind it can be replaced by that other social fundamental the talking empty head and its proper place on top of a totem pole
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