Access
This article is part of Nature's premium content.
Published online 10 December 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2007.359
News
Music is in our genes
African cultures that sing alike tend to be genetically similar.
A study of 39 African cultures has shown that their genetics are closely linked to the songs they sing. Music, it seems, could reveal deeper biological connections between people than characteristics, such as language, that change rapidly when one culture meets another, says Floyd Reed, a population geneticist at the University of Maryland in College Park, who led the study.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Comments
Reader comments are usually moderated after posting. If you find something offensive or inappropriate, you can speed this process by clicking 'Report this comment' (or, if that doesn't work for you, email redesign@nature.com). For more controversial topics, we reserve the right to moderate before comments are published.
This seems interesting on the surface, but there are major caveats that must be controlled for. Genetic diversity accumulates over the time elapsed since a society or culture split to become two with limited or no interbreeding. With this in mind, the conclusion of this study seems rather obvious; the longer two cultures have been separate, without interacting with eachother (and interbreeding), the greater the difference in their music styles. I'm not sure this report adds much to the study of our etiology, as it tells the same story as genetic approaches, but less quantitatively. If indeed language and other traits vary within cultures that are genetically close, this at least can give us a hint about whence these cultures came, and whom they interacted with.
Why Music Touches Us Nov 11 2005, in biologicalEvolution forum My conjecture about music 'touching/moving' us: Music is a human cultural-artifactual elaboration of creatures' vocal communication which is an extension-elaboration of >24 wks-old in-womb fetus' and of newborns' intimate safe/coddle/sooth experiences. Both 'touch' and 'hear' senses are founded on mechanical sensing processes involving in-cell ions leakage forming electrical action potentials interpreted neurologically. I suggest/conjecture that the same neurological constellation may be handling both 'touch' and 'hear' senses, being of commom mechanisms and differing essentially only in switch-on modes, and that this evolves in all vocal creatures in conjunction with in-womb safe-feeling, and later with baby codling/handling and vocal soothing/communicating, and later also with intimate emotional implications. Hence music has 'engulfing-touching-emotional' connotation and personal music orientation has childhood-ethnic rootings. Dov Henis
Leonardo (da Vinci( said that Music was mathematics rendered invisible. As a musician/composer/writer who has majored in Ethnology I would like to say that Music like Mathematics built itself complex pyramids which are resilient and constantly changing and flowing. I think anyone who has listened to the Congolese Misa Luba sang in Latin but with African musical instruments and the eternal heartbeats of their drums can attest to the magical powers of Music. We owe much to Africa and the Middle East. Our own so- called classical music is very similar as well, with each great composer building upon the works of the past composers. I draw the line on techno-pop and rock and roll. I have difficulty calling that music. Rap instead , if done well follows a certain musical progression. Again, the ones from the Congo are superb. Contessa Isabella Vacani