You Are Reading the First 6 FREE Chapters (470 pages)
Group Dancing, Social Group Bonding, and the Evolution of Music in Humans
2. Social Bonding
Skinny little hominids would not have survived on the African savannah had they not banded together in larger and larger groups. By what mechanism did they achieve and maintain group cohesion in the absence of language? Music certainly looks like a good candidate.
Plenty of evidence indicates music and group dancing serve as bonding mechanisms, ways of intensifying group solidarity and coordinating emotional arousal.
For tens or hundreds of thousands of years, since humans acquired the music adaptation, the only way to listen to music was in a group of a minimum of two—usually more than two. The ability to listen to music in solitude did not become possible until the advent of recording technology in the late 19th Century.
Everywhere in the world, most music-making takes place in group contexts. Groups such as bands, choirs, orchestras, and sports crowds perform for audiences who not only listen but often participate.