Musicality in human evolution, archaeology and ethnography: Iain Morley: The prehistory of music: Human evolution, archaeology, and the origins of musicality. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013

Anton Killin*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This essay reviews Iain Morley's The Prehistory of Music, an up-to-date and authoritative overview of recent research on evolution and cognition of musicality from an interdisciplinary viewpoint. Given the diversity of the project explored, integration of evidence from multiple fields is particularly pressing, required for any novel evolutionary account to be persuasive, and for the project's continued progress. Moreover, Morley convincingly demonstrates that there is much more to understanding musicality than is supposed by some theorists. I outline Morley's review of the archaeological and ethnographic literature, and then go on to critique his assessment of philosophical and evolutionary theories, offering some alternative perspectives that might better benefit his project.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)597-609
Number of pages13
JournalBiology and Philosophy
Volume29
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2014
Externally publishedYes

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