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The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body
Along with the concepts of consciousness and intelligence, our capacity for language sits right at the core of what makes us human. But while the evolutionary origins of language have provoked speculation and impassioned debate, music has been neglected if not ignored. Like language it is a universal feature of human culture, one that is a permanent fixture in our daily lives. In The Singing Neanderthal, Steven Mithen redresses the balance, drawing on a huge range of sources, from neurological case studies, through child psychology and the communication systems of non-human primates to the latest paleoarchaeological evidence. The result is a fascinating and provocative work, and a succinct riposte to those, like Steven Pinker, who have dismissed music as a functionless and unimportant evolutionary byproduct.
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First published January 1, 2005
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About the author
Steven Mithen
22 books89 followersSteven Mithen is Professor of Early Prehistory at the University of Reading, having previously served as Pro Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor. He received a BA in prehistory and archaeology from Sheffield University, a MSc degree in biological computation from York University and a PhD in archaeology from Cambridge University.
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October 28, 2008
Despite the title, Mithen is not arguing that bands of Neanderthal were roaming the tundras of Northern Europe 100,000 years ago breaking out in Gilbert & Sullivan tunes. Rather, he's taking up the incredibly complex relationship between our physical evolution and our capacities for language and music. And, here, "music" is not just the structured compositions of a Bach or (even) a Brittney Spears but is, instead, the propensity among primates for rhythmic movement and pitch- and tone-based vocalizations.
I read After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5000 BC a couple of years ago. There Mithen took the reader on a tour of archaeological sites around the world, exploring how early humans coped with the vicious climate swings that accompanied the end of the last ice age and propelled the advent of agriculture and the world as we know it. He's an engaging author who can weave a multitude of threads together into a coherent argument.
In the present volume, he masterfully accomplishes the feat of bringing together the evidence of physical evolution with brain studies and archaeology to show how they all worked together to, first, evolve a capacity for music (as defined above) and then the related capacity for language. The first part of the book is taken up with research among modern humans and some of our primate cousins like the vervets that establishes the existence of separate but overlapping faculties for music and language. While necessary for his arguments in part two, I found this part the least interesting section (though only in a relative sense). Of far greater interest to me was part two, where Mithen begins to look at the evolutionary and archaeological evidence for music and language in the hominids (ranging as far back as 2 million years).
The following is a gross oversimplification of Mithen's argument; at best, a poor reproduction of his "tapestry." The hapless reader is strongly encouraged to go directly to the source.
Our earliest hominid ancestors, the australopithecines, probably had a limited capacity for tone- and pitch-based vocalizations, a faint echo of which is found in the "infant-directed speech" (IDS) of human mothers. A communication that is nonlinguistic (even though it may utilize words) and depends on rhythm, tone & pitch to convey meaning.
As australopithecines gave way to the more human-like homo strains like habilis and ergaster, the range and complexity of this nonlinguistic communication grew. Mithen calls this prelinguistic speech "Hmmmmm," which stands for holistic, manipulative, multi-modal, musical, mimetic. The most important component of Hmmmmm is the "holistic" part. Mithen argues that prelanguage hominids communicated in whole, inalterable phrases composed not just of vocalizations but also gestures. For example, there may have been a meaning unit for "hunt," and then others for the various animals suitable for hunting. Or there might have been a phrase that meant "sabertooth tiger attacks camp," similar to the vervet monkey's unique call and posture signaling a snake is in the neighborhood. In the most advanced hominids (the Neanderthal, particularly), there may even have been a rudimentary grammar; i.e., you could say/gesture "hunt" + "moose" + "you" + "me" but you couldn't say/gesture "you" + "me" + "moose" + "hunt."
Approximately 170,000 years ago, however, a random mutation in some group of archaic, prelanguage homo sapiens gave them a capacity for what Mithen calls "cognitive fluidity" - the ability to combine one's natural intelligence with one's social and/or technical intelligences. For the first time (as far as we know), someone associated the phrase "gluk" with "deer" and "mama" with "mother"; words and language were born (and Adam tasted the forbidden fruit, more of that later). Language was a far more powerful tool than Hmmmmm for conveying information and manipulating the world, and it opened the possibility for rapid, technical advance and cultural change. Mithen points out that the spoken/gestural components of Hmmmmm were fiercely resistant to change over time because you couldn't explain to your neighbors what a new phrase meant (at least not easily). That, the physical isolation of hominid groups and (perhaps) the sheer physical inability of the brain to fully process compositional language, retarded technical and cultural innovation for hundreds of thousands of years. The Neanderthals, for all their otherwise human-like characteristics, used essentially the same tool kit from the time they appeared in the fossil record (450-500,000 ya) to their extinction c. 40,000 ya. The only evidence for innovation comes late and only in relation to proximity to modern human sites - Neanderthal was intelligent enough to imitate but not innovate.
One of the most interesting images Mithen invokes is that the first "mutants" with the language gene probably talked to no one but themselves. Because they could talk, however, these original soliloquists were more successful than their mute neighbors and passed on their genes. Eventually, a critical threshold was passed and all successful human groups carried it out of Africa, overwhelming and driving to extinction all of our cousin hominids.
Hmmmmm communications remained a part of our repertoire but the purely musical and manipulative aspects predominated. What resulted was the modern human's capacity for language and music - related but distinct forms of communication.
And I still haven't discussed the physical changes that promoted first Hmmmmm and then language such as bipedalism. I will leave those aspects of Mithen's argument alone and again invite the reader to check out the book.
Not directly related to Mithen's argument but of personal interest is the mental state that Mithen's Hmmmmm speakers must have enjoyed. It sounds remarkably like the state mystics of every religion describe when they meditate - timeless and wordless. It reminds me that (for Christians, anyway) human history didn't start until God uttered the Word, or the Taoist notion of the The Ten Thousand Things of human perception. Language ushered in self-awareness and moral quandaries, and it appears that we've always hankered for a return to the innocent, unknowing state of our prelanguage ancestors.
I read After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5000 BC a couple of years ago. There Mithen took the reader on a tour of archaeological sites around the world, exploring how early humans coped with the vicious climate swings that accompanied the end of the last ice age and propelled the advent of agriculture and the world as we know it. He's an engaging author who can weave a multitude of threads together into a coherent argument.
In the present volume, he masterfully accomplishes the feat of bringing together the evidence of physical evolution with brain studies and archaeology to show how they all worked together to, first, evolve a capacity for music (as defined above) and then the related capacity for language. The first part of the book is taken up with research among modern humans and some of our primate cousins like the vervets that establishes the existence of separate but overlapping faculties for music and language. While necessary for his arguments in part two, I found this part the least interesting section (though only in a relative sense). Of far greater interest to me was part two, where Mithen begins to look at the evolutionary and archaeological evidence for music and language in the hominids (ranging as far back as 2 million years).
The following is a gross oversimplification of Mithen's argument; at best, a poor reproduction of his "tapestry." The hapless reader is strongly encouraged to go directly to the source.
Our earliest hominid ancestors, the australopithecines, probably had a limited capacity for tone- and pitch-based vocalizations, a faint echo of which is found in the "infant-directed speech" (IDS) of human mothers. A communication that is nonlinguistic (even though it may utilize words) and depends on rhythm, tone & pitch to convey meaning.
As australopithecines gave way to the more human-like homo strains like habilis and ergaster, the range and complexity of this nonlinguistic communication grew. Mithen calls this prelinguistic speech "Hmmmmm," which stands for holistic, manipulative, multi-modal, musical, mimetic. The most important component of Hmmmmm is the "holistic" part. Mithen argues that prelanguage hominids communicated in whole, inalterable phrases composed not just of vocalizations but also gestures. For example, there may have been a meaning unit for "hunt," and then others for the various animals suitable for hunting. Or there might have been a phrase that meant "sabertooth tiger attacks camp," similar to the vervet monkey's unique call and posture signaling a snake is in the neighborhood. In the most advanced hominids (the Neanderthal, particularly), there may even have been a rudimentary grammar; i.e., you could say/gesture "hunt" + "moose" + "you" + "me" but you couldn't say/gesture "you" + "me" + "moose" + "hunt."
Approximately 170,000 years ago, however, a random mutation in some group of archaic, prelanguage homo sapiens gave them a capacity for what Mithen calls "cognitive fluidity" - the ability to combine one's natural intelligence with one's social and/or technical intelligences. For the first time (as far as we know), someone associated the phrase "gluk" with "deer" and "mama" with "mother"; words and language were born (and Adam tasted the forbidden fruit, more of that later). Language was a far more powerful tool than Hmmmmm for conveying information and manipulating the world, and it opened the possibility for rapid, technical advance and cultural change. Mithen points out that the spoken/gestural components of Hmmmmm were fiercely resistant to change over time because you couldn't explain to your neighbors what a new phrase meant (at least not easily). That, the physical isolation of hominid groups and (perhaps) the sheer physical inability of the brain to fully process compositional language, retarded technical and cultural innovation for hundreds of thousands of years. The Neanderthals, for all their otherwise human-like characteristics, used essentially the same tool kit from the time they appeared in the fossil record (450-500,000 ya) to their extinction c. 40,000 ya. The only evidence for innovation comes late and only in relation to proximity to modern human sites - Neanderthal was intelligent enough to imitate but not innovate.
One of the most interesting images Mithen invokes is that the first "mutants" with the language gene probably talked to no one but themselves. Because they could talk, however, these original soliloquists were more successful than their mute neighbors and passed on their genes. Eventually, a critical threshold was passed and all successful human groups carried it out of Africa, overwhelming and driving to extinction all of our cousin hominids.
Hmmmmm communications remained a part of our repertoire but the purely musical and manipulative aspects predominated. What resulted was the modern human's capacity for language and music - related but distinct forms of communication.
And I still haven't discussed the physical changes that promoted first Hmmmmm and then language such as bipedalism. I will leave those aspects of Mithen's argument alone and again invite the reader to check out the book.
Not directly related to Mithen's argument but of personal interest is the mental state that Mithen's Hmmmmm speakers must have enjoyed. It sounds remarkably like the state mystics of every religion describe when they meditate - timeless and wordless. It reminds me that (for Christians, anyway) human history didn't start until God uttered the Word, or the Taoist notion of the The Ten Thousand Things of human perception. Language ushered in self-awareness and moral quandaries, and it appears that we've always hankered for a return to the innocent, unknowing state of our prelanguage ancestors.
August 6, 2014
Mithen is addressing several issues in this book, but his main thesis is that homo sapiens and our nearest ancestors have an innate preference for singing and music making. Mithen presents many compelling arguments for this hypothesis, and especially one argument, concerning how a mother would keep a newborn child calm with song, is an interesting one. Basically, ape babies can stay close to the mother all the time by holding on to her hair. A human ape has lost so much hair, so there's nothing for the baby to hold on to. Therefore, if the mother wants to do work, it has to put the baby away, and a different way to soothe the baby which is now a couple of meters away would be with early forms of nursery rhymes.
There are a lot of well-founded arguments like these in Mithen's book. For me, he sometimes goes a bit too far when trying to remake the scenes of Neanderthal gatherings by the hearth and so on. He might be right in his descriptions, who knows really, but they went on for a bit too long. The book is at its strongest when discussing recent research in anthropology, music, linguistics and psychology, and tying this up with a theory of human evolution. It certainly made me more interested in this interdisciplinary field, especially since I am both a linguist and a musician/composer.
There are a lot of well-founded arguments like these in Mithen's book. For me, he sometimes goes a bit too far when trying to remake the scenes of Neanderthal gatherings by the hearth and so on. He might be right in his descriptions, who knows really, but they went on for a bit too long. The book is at its strongest when discussing recent research in anthropology, music, linguistics and psychology, and tying this up with a theory of human evolution. It certainly made me more interested in this interdisciplinary field, especially since I am both a linguist and a musician/composer.
February 5, 2015
Just the title of this book sets the mind spinning with possibilities. Mr. Mithen provides the reader with a unique perspective, suggesting that early man may very well have learned to "sing" before he learned to speak or walk.
Singing requires a certain knowledge of rhythm and cadence, as does walking. Man's brain had to be ready to process singing. When early man began to hum songs, conveying emotions and messages through his voice, he was also probably ready for bipedalism, too. Sexual attraction may also have been given a hand through the use of voice and song. Music may not only have entertained early man, but it may also have been featured as a vital part in religious ceremonies, too.
Excellent reference.
Singing requires a certain knowledge of rhythm and cadence, as does walking. Man's brain had to be ready to process singing. When early man began to hum songs, conveying emotions and messages through his voice, he was also probably ready for bipedalism, too. Sexual attraction may also have been given a hand through the use of voice and song. Music may not only have entertained early man, but it may also have been featured as a vital part in religious ceremonies, too.
Excellent reference.
September 2, 2007
The title is misleading. It should have been the Hmmming Neanderthals. (Hmmming is the author's mnemonic for humming).
I learned a great deal about early humans that I really hadn't thought about. The author's theory is that music & language occupy different parts of the brain. (Which is why some stroke patients can remember the music but have no concept of the words or know words but absolutely no concept of music -- not just forget but no concept). Music came first and was present in Neanderthals and indeed was a shared trait in the human species.
While this book was very hard to read (both the printing & the subject matter),the subject was so interesting to me I wouldn't give up.
I learned a great deal about early humans that I really hadn't thought about. The author's theory is that music & language occupy different parts of the brain. (Which is why some stroke patients can remember the music but have no concept of the words or know words but absolutely no concept of music -- not just forget but no concept). Music came first and was present in Neanderthals and indeed was a shared trait in the human species.
While this book was very hard to read (both the printing & the subject matter),the subject was so interesting to me I wouldn't give up.
January 6, 2019
A must-read for musicians. One of the best books I've read on the connection between music and language.
"Ethnomusicologist John Blacking recognizes the very intimate link between music and body movement, so much so that he suggested that all music begins as a stirring of the body and that to feel with the body is probably as close as anyone can ever get to resonating with another person. So by getting into the body movement of the music, one can feel it very nearly as the composer felt it."
"Ethnomusicologist John Blacking recognizes the very intimate link between music and body movement, so much so that he suggested that all music begins as a stirring of the body and that to feel with the body is probably as close as anyone can ever get to resonating with another person. So by getting into the body movement of the music, one can feel it very nearly as the composer felt it."
October 6, 2025
this was an awesome combo of human psychology, anthropology, evolutionary studies, music theory and even philosophy. published in 2005 so i’m really curious about new archaeological or genetic evidence discovered since that might support these theories. So fun to read. Much love to our ape ancestors
September 6, 2007
Ambitious, highly speculative, and sometimes rambling/vague/repetitive pondering on whether or not music evolved before language. Interesting theories, but unsure what value there is, alone, in establishing primacy (because that does not necessarily establish causality).
August 1, 2022
Un libro muy interesante sobre el posible origen común de la música y el lenguaje. Basado en evidencias arqueológicas y en el estudio del lenguaje dirigido a niños.
Interesante, bien escrito, quizás demasiado especulativo.
Interesante, bien escrito, quizás demasiado especulativo.
September 29, 2024
Did this make some interesting points about anthropology and the development of language in hominids and humans? Yes, it did. Did this also discuss the role of music in human societies over time? Yes. However it did not convince me of what the author was trying to claim, that music specifically has had the importance in human history for the wide range of reasons discussed. I just wasn't at all persuaded by the stance the author was trying to make that music can be thought of in the same terms as language, as being vital in why/how humans have evolved the complex societies that they have.
The writing style also frequently bored me. The book came over more like a thesis - a review of various researchers' work in linguistics, anthropology, cognition, zoology, archaeology, sociology, neuroscience and music theory. Lots of interesting factual bits strung together in what didn't really for me make for a coherent and compelling argument for the importance of music in human evolution. Perhaps it's the field of science I am more rooted in, I just felt most of the foundations were a little flimsy - few paradigms involving small amounts of data.
The writing style also frequently bored me. The book came over more like a thesis - a review of various researchers' work in linguistics, anthropology, cognition, zoology, archaeology, sociology, neuroscience and music theory. Lots of interesting factual bits strung together in what didn't really for me make for a coherent and compelling argument for the importance of music in human evolution. Perhaps it's the field of science I am more rooted in, I just felt most of the foundations were a little flimsy - few paradigms involving small amounts of data.
September 3, 2025
I really loved what this author was trying to do but I didn’t really get all that much from this book. I thought the evidence was scant and he was speculating too much. Also I thought the name of his proposed communication system was annoying. Maybe I’m just being a hater though.
I understand that there isn’t a large amount of stuff you can definitively say about these older human species and you have to be drawing conclusions from the evolutionary history and small archaeological finds, and I think he did that the right way, but something about it really rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I just didn’t like the authors voice idk. Sometimes he was annoying and speculative and it made me take a long time to finish this book.
I understand that there isn’t a large amount of stuff you can definitively say about these older human species and you have to be drawing conclusions from the evolutionary history and small archaeological finds, and I think he did that the right way, but something about it really rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I just didn’t like the authors voice idk. Sometimes he was annoying and speculative and it made me take a long time to finish this book.
November 26, 2022
This is a fascinating dive into the evolutionary relationship between language and music. The work is speculative in some respects, owing to the gaps in the genealogical record of humanity, but there are some stunning conclusions, often supported a great deal by the work of Alison Wray (among others). Highly recommended if you share an interest in music and anthropology.
February 19, 2010
This is one of those books that are so outside the bounds of any particular genre it's hard to place. It's a totally engrossing book of (pre)history, anthropology, consciousness study (by way of psychology and neuroscience), musicology, and biology! Steven Mithen is Professor of Early Prehistory and Head of the School of Human and Environmental Sciences at the University of Reading. He is also a music lover, and with this book has dived deep into the relationship between biology, language and music.
Mithen in not without passion and humor, making this well-argued, deeply detailed book an absolute joy to read. Like a good novel, at times I found myself deliberately slowing down my reading in order to savor the piling on of ideas, speculation and factoids. It has also re-inspired me to just 'make music,' and not worry about the 'art' of it!
Mithen in not without passion and humor, making this well-argued, deeply detailed book an absolute joy to read. Like a good novel, at times I found myself deliberately slowing down my reading in order to savor the piling on of ideas, speculation and factoids. It has also re-inspired me to just 'make music,' and not worry about the 'art' of it!
May 14, 2016
some of Mithen's arguments rest on rather slender evidence, but his premise is nevertheless elegant and satisfying. unsurprisingly i took greatest exception to the chapter on music as product of sexual selection, since, like all straight anthropolodudes, Mithen gives short shrift to the characteristic primate enthusiasm for nonreproductive sex in all its varied forms and uses.
June 17, 2020
I read Steven Mithen's Prehistory of the Mind years ago and I felt very excited about the conclusions he drew about the effect language had on the development of human intelligence and awareness. In a way, this book is a continuation of his earlier work as he examines to what extent music and language are related, and which came first. Professor Mithen draws on evidence from a lot o f specialisms including - studies of living primates, anthropological studies of modern hunter\gatherer societies, infant development, neurological studies including brain imaging, and evidence from the fossil record. He builds this into a compelling argument about how important musical elements are in the development of language, but at some point, he believes about 40,000-50,000 years ago, language became sufficiently developed to take over as the prime means of conveying information, leaving music to develop as the means for expressing emotion and building a sense of community.
Although I loved this book, I must add that the kindle version is so badly in need of proof reading that it prompted me to do something I've never done before, I emailed the author to let him know. The mistakes are so odd that they feel less lije bad writing than a glitch in a computer programme (and I know from his earlier book, he does write well). Errors include random punctuation marks and capital letters, and odd word substitutions such as herd instead of hero. I got a nice reply to my email saying he will contact the publishers. I do hope it can be put right as this work deserves a much better presentation.
Although I loved this book, I must add that the kindle version is so badly in need of proof reading that it prompted me to do something I've never done before, I emailed the author to let him know. The mistakes are so odd that they feel less lije bad writing than a glitch in a computer programme (and I know from his earlier book, he does write well). Errors include random punctuation marks and capital letters, and odd word substitutions such as herd instead of hero. I got a nice reply to my email saying he will contact the publishers. I do hope it can be put right as this work deserves a much better presentation.
January 7, 2023
This book provides a thoughtful review of paleoanthropology as it relates to the development of language as well as other abilities of both Homo sapiens and earlier Hominids. The archaeological record for the development of speech and complex language contains more gaps than hard evidence and therefore invites speculation. Mithen proposes that song was something of an add-on to informational speech and came later than complex language. It seems to me that the reverse might be true: song--the use of variations in pitch, rhythm, tempo, and other aspects of music--may have been necessary to the development of complex language.
Consider how many words a 5 year old can memorize if the words are set to music--far more than a teenager can memorize in a speech not set to music. This demonstrates the enhancement of memory that song provides. Perhaps Homo sapiens made the fantastic leap into complex language precisely because of their ability to memorize so many words, using song as their medium. Aboriginal peoples memorized and shared complex pathways over long distances so they could tell their cohorts how to travel from Point A 1,000 miles to Point B. That compendium of information required song. The Iliad and Odyssey were sung. Song is a tool of communication.
Nonetheless, despite my belief that song was a building block and not an add-on, I found Mithen's book a fascinating look at the evidence that exists on language and song.
Consider how many words a 5 year old can memorize if the words are set to music--far more than a teenager can memorize in a speech not set to music. This demonstrates the enhancement of memory that song provides. Perhaps Homo sapiens made the fantastic leap into complex language precisely because of their ability to memorize so many words, using song as their medium. Aboriginal peoples memorized and shared complex pathways over long distances so they could tell their cohorts how to travel from Point A 1,000 miles to Point B. That compendium of information required song. The Iliad and Odyssey were sung. Song is a tool of communication.
Nonetheless, despite my belief that song was a building block and not an add-on, I found Mithen's book a fascinating look at the evidence that exists on language and song.
December 28, 2018
3.5/4 - This book was a bit of a bear for me to get through, but I have to give credit to the amount of multi-disciplinary research, thought, and creativity that went into this publication. As a musician, I thoroughly appreciated part I of this book, which focuses on the present interaction between language and music. Part two dug into the history and evolution of homo sapiens and Neanderthals, allocating fair amounts of time to the archaeological finds relating to said history and the interpretation that Mithen proposes for the relationship between the archaeological finds and our current propensity for music and language as a species. That said, the last 200 pages-ish (i.e. part II) were much less captivating for me. The amount of time spent on hypothesis and details of things such as using flint to make pear or ovate shaped axes was taxing, but that could be due to the fact that I was expecting more of a musical emphasis. All in all it was well done, if not a tiresome read. I'd only suggest this book to people who enjoy archaeology/evolutionary history/ or have a deep desire to know how evolution may have influenced our current musical environment.
March 15, 2025
Steven Mithen is an accomplished synthesiser of evidence and research from different fields. Principally an archaeologist himself, he brings together findings from developmental and evolutionary psychology, from linguistics and musicology, as well as from the fossil records. The theory he supports with this evidence is that music and language evolved from a common source, an holistic, multi-modal, mimetic (i.e. gestural), musical, manipulative form of communication, with the cleverly onomatopaeic acronym HMMMMM. Both neanderthals and the ancestors of homo sapiens used this communication as a means of building trust within groups and nurturing infants. But it was only homo sapiens that developed from it, as they adopted the more powerful, word-based languages to communicate (with a consequent atrophy of purely musical aptitude). The writing style is breezy, so you're unlikely to get bogged down in it, though perhaps few will be interested in all the details that Mithen goes into.
July 20, 2018
A good read for those interested in the origins of human language and music. Now, 11 years old, some of the evidence has been overtaken by events in field research it nonetheless proposes provocative ideas. Specifically, that music (prosody in speech) and holistic phrases rather than individual words evolved first in our distant Homo ancestors. As the world and our groups became more complex this communication also changed to allow more use of discrete words rather than phrases. Very interesting ideas. I do think his analysis of the Neanderthals is not so strong. Given some dated ideas about Neanderthals group size and absence of art, the author proposes that their language abilities were limited - in spite of their large brain size. With that caveat, I enjoyed the read. The author writes well and entertainingly. Recommended for the serious student of our origins.
September 24, 2017
A fascinating tour through the deep musical past of people. The first part of the book examines some of the neurological aspects of the link between language and music, moving into developmental ideas like Infant Directed Speech, and into evolutionary advantages of music making. This is all very much opposed to Steven Pinker's comments that music is simply auditory cheesecake, quite devoid of any evolutionary purpose.
The core of the book lies in the second half, though it is quite interpretative, as Mithen looks at the fossil records and how they point to our distant ancestors as music makers. He offers a fascinating look at how language may have arisen from musical holistic communication.
A must for anyone interested in music and the origins of language.
The core of the book lies in the second half, though it is quite interpretative, as Mithen looks at the fossil records and how they point to our distant ancestors as music makers. He offers a fascinating look at how language may have arisen from musical holistic communication.
A must for anyone interested in music and the origins of language.
September 22, 2019
Una premessa importante: se sei un musicista sappi che questo libro parla sopratutto di antropologia. Rimarrai deluso se pensi che sia un libro dedicato alla musica. Tuttavia se hai la pazienza di leggerlo tutto troverai diversi spunti per riconsiderare la musica come linguaggio e dare un significato del tutto nuovo a questo concetto. Detto ciò, non è un libro facile e non si legge sempre volentieri, sopratutto perché è molto prolisso (i concetti vengono ripetuti più e più volte, potrebbe essere lungo la metà). Ottime documentazioni e ottima bibliografia. Cercatevi un riassunto se non avete tempo di leggerlo tutto, in ogni caso può valerne la pena.
May 6, 2021
It is often suggested that language and music are more alike than different in many respects, such as their internal structures and processes they undergo. However, accounts for the evolution of each do not seem to converge; did language evolve as a spandrel of the evolution of music, or vice versa, or did each evolve independently of the other? The answer to these questions touches upon various interdisciplinary topics. Reading this book taught me a lot about not only language and music but also about archaeology, paleontology, biology, and neuroscience. I recommend reading this book to those that are particularly interested in the evolution of language and music.
September 24, 2023
There are some interesting ideas in here and he’s an engaging writer, but ultimately he falls into the same trap a lot of academics do when crossing over into more accessible work - a lot of it feels like padding to hit a page count. A lot of repetition and very vaguely related tangents.
It’s also a frustrating read as a musician. Props to the writer for stating outright that he has no musical experience, but you can feel that lack. There are parts of this that will make anyone with even a basic understanding of music theory raise an eyebrow
It’s also a frustrating read as a musician. Props to the writer for stating outright that he has no musical experience, but you can feel that lack. There are parts of this that will make anyone with even a basic understanding of music theory raise an eyebrow
August 24, 2023
Interesting book. The author did a great research citing several investigators presenting us this massive piece of work. I mean MASSIVE and that is the only reason why I don't give it 5 stars, because sometimes it felt too dense reading. Nevertheless, if you're into this subject, I recommend reading it patiently :)
January 24, 2018
If popular archaeology is a thing then this is it. Entertaining. But often prone to sweeping statements and beliefs which lack credible authoritative sources. Quite a difficult topic to write on nevertheless.
August 25, 2018
I really struggled to get through this book. The concept is fascinating, but I found Mithen’s writing dry and repetitive and the evidence he presents tenuous. An interesting theory, but not as engaging as I’d hoped.
June 4, 2019
A remarkable book. I rate it 5 stars due to its complexity that never becomes complicated: like a gigantic puzzle (and the commitment it needs), every chapter fell in its proper place and left me with a pleasantly enlightened ending.
Highly suitable for "the bigger picture" fanatics like me.
Highly suitable for "the bigger picture" fanatics like me.
August 17, 2023
It took me awhile to read this book and I have no idea if the ideas are all valid, however it was a very satisfying read, especially the parts on the development of music and language abilites, how they overlap, and how they may have played a role in the success of homosapiens.
May 31, 2025
Man if you are an academic you are sleeping on this book. I find this to be one of the most enriching reads of my life in terms of linguistics and musical studies. Very short review but frankly give it a read.
May 8, 2017
A fascinating and detailed read describing our various anscestors and close cousins the great apes and how our language and music have evolved to allow us to communicate in the manner we do today.
September 15, 2018
There's a lot of material in it, but much of it seems to pad out a sensible and straightforward path with a few key, well-researched points. The payoff is diluted somewhat by that padding.
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