Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31608 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-02
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
'An interesting attempt to probe the long-term history of feeling as well as of thought... [This] book is intelligent, important and clear. Anyone who likes to ask broad questions about intelligence, religion and experience, as well as anyone interested in long-term human history, will be able to read and argue with [this] book with enjoyment and profit.' (THES (3/3/06) )

'There is much illuminating and thought-provoking material.' (Ross Leckie THE TIMES )

'Wonderfully evocative... a highly original view of our musical origins.' (GUARDIAN (1/4/06) )

Synopsis
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.

About the Author
Steven Mithen is Professor of Early Prehistory and head of the School of Human and environmental Sciences at Reading University. Author of numerous books and articles, he has also consulted and appeared on TV and radio programmes about prehistory around the world. He has directed fieldwork in Western Scotland and is currently co-directing excavations in Wadi Faynan, southern Jordan.

Customer Reviews

the singing neanderthals
I loved this book- at last there is a literature emerging that examines music in its entirety- looking at neurological, anthropological, physilogical, sociological and artisctic perspectives to try to really grapple with what music is, why it has evolved and why it is so meaningful to us. The correlations with langauge development especially fscinating. This book is accessible to non -experts but not in the least simplistic- it is written in a very readable style- excellent.

Music is fundamental to be being human
What is music and why does it have such an effect upon us? And why, despite songbirds, whalesong and the singing gelada monkeys of Ethiopia, is music, like language, unique to humans?

In 1997, the influencial linguist Steven Pinker, dismissed music as being "useless" in evolutionary terms, a mere by-product of evolution: that premise triggered this book. Mithen argues that music was not only 'useful,' it was vital for human evolution. Mithen is an anthropologist and along side reviewing the paleoarcheological record he draws on many areas of science, from neurology to musicology, to refute Pinker. In the process he demolishes Pinker, and shows convincingly that music is as fundamental to the human condition as language. An absolutely brilliant book!