Communication Studies M127
Applied Linguistics & TESL CM127/CM292
This course was taught at UCLA in Autumn 2000 to 44 students (half undergrad, half grad)
Animal
Communication
Instructor: Geoffrey Miller
Brief overview of information for
syllabus:
Communications Studies M127
Applied Linguistics & TESL CM127/CM292
Meeting Time: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 2:00 ó 3:50 pm
Required reading: Course reader, plus Marc Mauser's "The evolution of
communication" (Harvard U. Press, 1996, paperback, c. 40 dollars)
Evaluation: mid-term exam (30%), final exam (30%), term paper (40%)
Instructor:
Professor Geoffrey Miller
322 Kinsey Hall (310) 825-2456
Office hours: 10-12 am Wednesdays or by appointment
Email: send a message to matingmind@hotmail.com; include in the subject line the word ‘animal communication’, and the message will go into my mailbox for this course. Otherwise, it won’t reach me.
Short course description
The
evolution, functions, design, and diversity of animal communication systems
such as bird song, dolphin calls, whale song, primate social signals, and human
language.
Longer course description (for
syllabus)
How do animals communicate, and why do they bother? This multimedia lecture course will cover the evolution, functions, design, and diversity of animal communication systems such as bird song, dolphin calls, whale song, primate social signals, and human language. The focus will be on the principles of signalling to kin, allies, mates, competitors, and predators; the information conveyed by animal signals; and issues of signal honesty, deception, persuasion, and manipulation. Heavy use of in-class videos and tapes give the course an emphasis on visual and auditory signals, though we will also discuss olfactory, tactile, vibratory, and electrical signals. Implications of animal communication theory for understanding human language, art, music, culture, and media will be addressed.
Course web site: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/00F/anthrom127-1/
I will try to make active use of this website; check is regularly for announcements and revisions; please contribute to the discussion board if you have any questions or comments
Links that appear on the course web site:
·
Animal Behavior Society: http://www.animalbehavior.org/
·
Carl Bergstrom's animal communication site: http://calvino.biology.emory.edu/signalling/Comm.html
·
Cartoon explanation of signalling and sensory bias theory: http://ethology.zool.su.se/biases.html
·
Practice matching birds to their songs online: http://www.virtualbirder.com/vbirder/matcher/matcherDirs/SONG/
·
Bird song audio clips:http://eebweb.arizona.edu/faculty/hopp/song.html
·
World forum for acoustic ecology: http://interact/uoregon.edu/MediaLit/wfaeHomePage
Required course readings:
Optional course readings:
Grades, tests, and work:
Grades will be determined by a mid-term exam (30%), a final exam (30%), a term paper (30%), and a participation score (10%).
Exams: questions will usually ask for short answers (specifying from one to ten sentences). The mid-term will cover the first half of the course material (including provisionally readings 1-17 in the course reader); the final will cover only the second half (not cumulative; including provisionally readings 18-33 in the course reader). Do not miss these exams: any make-up exams will be much more difficult and will demand longer essays. The midterm and final dates will be announced soon.
Term papers are due in class (i.e. at 2:00 pm) Thursday November 30. They are to be concisely argued, well-researched essays of 8-12 pages (typed/printed, double-spaced, 12-point font, numbered pages, 3000 words maximum). I will offer a list of suggested topics soon, or you can pick a different topic by arrangement with me. Papers will be graded on composition as well as content, with higher marks given for clear organization, good critical thinking, strong evidence, thorough research, decisive conclusions, and a witty, engaging style. Students are encouraged to discuss outlines and drafts of their papers at least once with the instructor during office hours before turning in their final drafts. I will ask each student to write down their provisional term paper topic for class on October 24. I will grade on the assumption that students have been planning, researching, and writing conscientiously throughout the quarter. Plagiarism is extremely unlikely to succeed, given that most term paper websites will have very few offerings on the animal communication topics I will suggest. Late papers will be marked down automatically for every day late. No handwritten papers or email-only submissions. I may however ask for an email version to check the word count and the references, so save your paper on your computer, and save a hardcopy as well.
Participation score: This will depend on (1) asking questions in class, (2) posting questions, comments, and answers on the discussion board, (3) coming to office hours to discuss course material and your term paper topics, (4) suggesting interesting/useful links to add to the course website, (5) performing, with prior warning and approval, a good imitation of a difficult animal signal in class (e.g. a gibbon song, cricket stridulation, or cuttlefish threat display), (6) other extra-credit options to be announced soon.
Miscellaneous but important points:
Evaluation
Grades will be determined by a
mid-term exam (30%), a final exam (30%), and a term paper (40%). Graduate
Students: mid-term exam (20%), a final exam (20%), a final term paper (40%),
and 5 bi-weekly reading response papers (20%).
For Graduate Students:
Graduate
students taking this course for 200-level course credit are required to
complete 5 bi-weekly reading response papers. These papers are to be 400-500
word responses to a particular question posed by the instructor with regarding
to the assigned readings and should focus on the synthesis and analysis of
themes and ideas across the readings assigned for the week/s in question. These
reading response papers should carefully integrate the studentís knowledge of
communication and linguistic theory, vis a vis the subject matter at hand.
The exam
questions will ask for short answers (from one word up to two sentences) or
short essays (up to 10 sentences). The mid-term will cover the first half of
the course material; the final will cover only the second half (not
cumulative). Do not miss these exams: any make-up exams will be much more
difficult and will demand longer essays.
Term papers
are to be concisely argued, well-researched essays of 8-12 pages. Topics may be
chosen from a list of suggested questions, or by arrangement with the
instructor. Papers will be graded on composition as well as content, with
higher marks given for clear organization, good critical thinking, strong
evidence, thorough research, decisive conclusions, and a witty, engaging style.
Students are encouraged to discuss outlines and drafts of their papers at least
once with the instructor during office hours before turning in their final
drafts. Since students will have almost two months to write the paper, I will
grade on the assumption that students have been planning, researching, and
writing conscientiously throughout that period. The term paper will be due the
first class meeting of the ninth week of class. Late papers will be marked down
automatically; no paper will be accepted after the last class meeting of the
tenth week. Plagiarized papers (e.g. from a term paper web site) will be graded
"F" and may result in disciplinary action. Term papers must be
submitted as double-spaced, clearly printed hard-copy in a standard 12-point
font, with numbered pages. No handwritten papers or email-only submissions. I
may however ask for an email version to check the word count and the
references, so save your paper on your computer, and save a hardcopy as well.
The course will probably use the standard grading scale: 90% and above= A: 80-89%= B: 70-79%= C: 60-69%= D: below 60%= F.
Course schedule by general topic
Week 1: Introduction to the
diversity of animal signals. Communication systems in insects, amphibians,
fish, birds, and mammals (especially dolphins, whales, and primates). Visual,
auditory, olfactory, and other media for signalling. Misconceptions about
animal communication.
Week 2: Theory of animal
communication. Cooperative vs. manipulative views of signalling. Coordination
signals vs. persuasive signals. Issues of signal honesty. Costs and benefits of
communication.
Week 3: Functions of animal
signals. Signals in relation to survival and reproduction. Threat displays,
alarm calls, contact calls, begging displays, dominance and submission
displays, sexual displays, fitness indicators. The dearth of semantic content
in animal signals.
Week 4: Design of animal signals:
a non-technical introduction. The ecology of light and sound transmission, the
comparative anatomy of eyes and ears, and the design of visual and auditory
signals. Other media: vibration, touch, smell, and electric fields.
Week 5: Communication in insects,
frogs, and other species with rather small brains. How the design of nervous
systems influences the transmission, reception, and evolution of signals.
Week 6: Bird song. Territorial
defense and sexual attraction. Bird brains, ears, and syrinxes: song learning;
song imitation. Creativity and large song repertoires. The parrot language
controversy.
Week 7: Whale song, dolphin social
signals, and communication in other mammals.
Week 8: Primate social signals.
Dominance and status, grooming, estrus displays, alarm calls. The role of
communication in highly social species.
Week 9: Evolution and functions of
human language. Language vs. other animal communication systems: language as an
adaptation: different theories of language evolution: links from animal
communication to sociolinguistics.
Week 10: Implications of animal communication theory for understanding human culture, interpersonal communication, and mass communication. Art, music, fashion, and new media viewed as biological displays. The challenges of cross-species communication: from talking to your pets to communicating with extra-terrestrial intelligence.
1 Thurs Sept 28 introduction none
2 Tues Oct 3 evolution, comm. basics 1, 2 (pp. 3-19)
3 Thurs Oct 5 comm basics, games 3, 4 (pp. 21-39)
4 Tues Oct 10 sexual selection 5, 6, 7 (pp. 41-63)
5 Thurs Oct 12 chemical signals 8, 9 (pp. 65-81)
6 Tues Oct 17 honeybees 10, 11 (pp. 83-98)
7 Thurs Oct 19 electric, cuttlefish 12, 13 (pp. 99-120)
8 Tues Oct 24 acoustics, sounds 14, 15 (pp. 121-
term
paper topics due
9 Thurs Oct 26 guest lecture 16, 17
10 Tues Oct 31 midterm exam in-class
covers
lectures 1-9, readings
1-17 (pp. 3-164)
11 Thurs Nov 2 bird song 18, 19 (pp. 165-181)
12 Tues Nov 7 song repertoires 20, 21 (pp. 183-202)
13 Thurs Nov 9 dolphins, whales 22, 23 (pp. 205-220)
14 Tues Nov 14 humpback whales 24 (pp. 221-236)
15 Thurs Nov 16 primates 25, 26 (pp. 237-253)
16 Tues Nov 21 gibbons, chorusing 27, 28 (pp. 255-282)
Thurs Nov 23 No lecture: Thanksgiving holiday
17 Tues Nov 18 human music 29 (pp. 283-311)
18 Thurs Nov 30 begging, alarms 30, 31, 32 (pp. 315-334)
19 Tues Dec 5 human language 33 (pp. 335-360)
20 Thurs Dec 7 revision
Tues Dec 12 Final Exam 11:30 am – 2:30 pm
covers
lectures 11-20, read’gs 18-33 (pp.
165-360)
Important dates:
November 30: Term papers due in-class
December 12: Final exam (11:30 am – 2:30 pm)
Note: The midterm will cover readings 1-17; the final
will cover 18-33
For research papers, many other optional readings will be available on reserve in the college library
Class format
Each
two-hour class will be divided into two parts with a 10-15 minute break between
them. Often I will lecture for just one of these parts, with the other part
devoted to a video or a guest lecture. Please be punctual; I would rather start
on time and end early.
Expectations of students
Class
attendance is very important for this multimedia course, because lectures will
be supplemented by in-class videos, tape recordings, and presentations from
guest lecturers. Without attending the classes regularly, good performance on
the exams is very unlikely. Readings should be completed before each class:
please do not fall behind. Select your term paper topic by the third week of
the term, and begin your outline and research shortly after that.
Please do:
·
raise your hand if you have a question in class
·
check the class web site regularly, follow the links, and
suggest new links to me by e-mail
·
come to office hours if you want to find out more about
anything, if anything was unclear in a lecture, or if you want to discuss your
term paper plans
·
visit zoos, listen to birds, pay attention to the signalling
behavior of cats and dogs, etc.
Please do not:
·
miss exams or turn in late term papers
·
come to class late or leave early
·
eat, drink, chew gum, talk to neighbors, or make
chimpanzee-style "pant-hoots" in class (unless specifically requested
to do so)
·
leave your cell-phone on in class
Choose one
of the following topics for your term paper:
·
Provisional
term paper topics should be reported to me (in writing in class, or by email)
on or before October 24.
·
Please
read these instructions carefully and repeatedly – at least once now, once
before submitting your topics, and again before submitting your term
paper! Careful attention to these
instructions is your best investment of time to get a good grade.
The papers should be concisely argued, well-researched essays of 8-12 pages (typed/printed, double-spaced, 12-point font, numbered pages, 3000 words maximum). Make sure there is a cover sheet that clearly states your name, Bruin ID number, paper title, topic (from above list, if appropriate), and class name ‘Animal Communication’. No handwritten papers or email-only submissions please. I may however ask for an email version to check the word count and the references, so save your paper on your computer, and save a hardcopy as well.
Please choose from the suggested topics above, or arrange a different topic with me (by email, phone, or visiting during office hours.) For each of the topics above, you don’t necessarily need to answer the precise questions posed. It’s OK to raise and address other issues; just be clear about what the paper’s focus is and what your argument is, and make sure you support your argument with some sort of evidence. Or, don’t be shy about suggesting a different topic if you like! Term paper topics can be submitted by email or on hardcopy; they are easily revisable with prior approval from me (just email, phone, or come to office hours if you want to change topic).
Papers can approach the topic in a variety of ways, but they should all make an argument, and advance a thesis. That is, you should make a case for a particular point of view, way of thinking about the evidence, or conclusion. Don’t spend six pages wandering around a topic, then state a claim, and then spend the last two pages trying to argue for it. Your claim should be in your first few sentences, preferably your very first sentence – then the rest of the paper should make the argument. For example, a good opening sentence would be ‘Song repertoire size in sedge warbler birds correlates positively with the health of the singer’s offspring, but, surprisingly, not with the singer’s own health.’ (I don’t know if this is true, but it’s just an example.) A bad opening sentence would be ‘This paper will examine whether repertoire sizes in some birds might reveal some aspects of their quality.’ The good opening advances a specific claim; the bad opening does not.
In grading papers, I will be assessing composition, content, and research. I will be looking for (1) clear and interesting arguments, (2) evidence of decent scholarly research in the topic area, (3) use of facts in supporting arguments, (4) understanding and applying the principles of animal communication to the topic, (5) clear writing style and (6) good organization. I will grade on the assumption that students have been planning, researching, and writing conscientiously the term paper throughout the quarter. Plagiarism is extremely unlikely to succeed, and will be taken seriously according to UCLA’s established disciplinary procedures. Late papers will be marked down automatically for every day late. The only exceptions will be for medically certified illness or other extreme and documentable contingencies.
Students are encouraged to discuss outlines and drafts of their papers at least once with me during office hours before turning in their final drafts. Students who take the trouble to do this are very likely to score higher on their paper grades, because they will be more likely to avoid common pitfalls, to get useful pointers to reference sources, and to improve their argument structure.
References should be included at the end of the term paper. Please don’t include more than about 15-20 references. They should follow standard scientific reference format, e.g.
For books:
Miller, G. F. (2000). The mating mind: How sexual choice shaped the evolution of human nature. New York: Doubleday.
For journal papers:
Miller, G. F., & Todd, P. M. (1998). Mate choice turns cognitive. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2(5), 190-198.
For chapters in edited books:
Miller, G. F. (2000). Evolution of human music through sexual selection. In N. L. Wallin, B. Merker, & S. Brown (Eds.), The origins of music, pp. 329-360. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Please don’t cite sources unless you’ve actually read them (avoid ‘Author, date, cited in … Some Other Author, some other date).
For grad students only (everybody else ignore this paragraph): Graduate students taking the course for graduate credit should write longer, better-researched papers appropriate to their level of knowledge, scholarly ability, and writing skill. Aim for about 4500 words maximum, no more than 30 references, same formatting instructions as above. Feel free to include figures, charts, data, if appropriate. Obviously, you may find it convenient to write the term paper in such a way that it could be submitted for journal publication as a review or commentary piece, if you are motivated to get some publications.
In preparing term papers on particular topics, the following supplemental texts may be useful:
Aitchison, J. (1996). The seeds of speech: Language origin and evolution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge U. Press.
Alcock, J. (1998). Animal
behavior: An evolutionary approach (6th Ed.). Sunderland, MA: Sinauer.
Andersson.M. (1994). Sexual
selection.PrincetonU. Press.
Deacon, T. (1998). The symbolic
species: The co-evolution of language and the human brain. London: Penguin
Books.
Dawkins, R. (1982). The extended
phenotype: The gene as the unit of selection. Oxford: Freeman.
Dawkins, R. (1986). The blind
watchmaker. New York: W. W. Norton.
Dunbar, R. (1996). Grooming,
gossip, and the evolution of language. London: Faber and Faber.
Hersey, G. L. (1996). The
evolution of allure: Art and sexual selection from Aphrodite to the Incredible
Hulk. MIT Press.
Hurford, J., Studdert-Kennedy, M.,
& Knight, C. (Eds.). (1998). Approaches to the evolution of language.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge U. Press.
Pinker, S. (1994). The language
instinct. London: Alien Lane.
Savage-Rumbaugh, S., & Lewin,
R. (1994). Kanzi: The ape at the brink of the human mind. New York:
Wiley.
Veblen, T. (1899). The theory
of the leisure class. New York: Macmillan. Reprinted by Dover.
Wallin, N. L., Merker, B., &
Brown. S. (Eds.). (2000). The origins of music. MIT Press.
Details
on the mid-term exam
Below are some example questions and answers to
illustrate how short your answers can
be to get full credit. These
questions will not appear on the midterm.
Explain the
handicap principle.
Zahavi’s
handicap principle says that when there is any incentive to lie, a signal must
be costly in order to be reliable. This
applies especially to signals of a signaller’s own quality or fitness. If a signal was cheap, even an unhealthy
animal could afford to produce it, so receivers would have no reason to trust
the signal’s information.
Apart
from exocrine glands, how can animals release chemical signals into the
environment?
Chemical signals can also be released through larger body orifices such as the mouth, anus, penis, vulva, or cloaca. For example, many mammals use urine to carry their scent for marking territory.
Why
do weakly electric fish tend to have long tails?
The long tails contain the electric organs, which generate the electric organ discharge (EOD) that the fish use for electrolocation and electrocommunication. Longer electric organs allow for stronger EODs.
What
determines whether a honeybee will do a round dance or a waggle dance?
A foraging bee that has encountered a good nectar patch relatively far away (roughly, more than 75 meters from the hive) will do a waggle dance, whereas a closer patch will provoke a round dance. The distance threshold varies in different types of honeybees.
Why
are low-frequency sounds often better for mate attraction than high-frequency
sounds?
Mate attraction requires a signal that carries over a long distance. High-frequency sounds tend to get absorbed more by vegetation, and do not travel so well around obstacles, so they are less useful for long-distance mate attraction.
Why do so few animals produce signals that help other animals know where to find food? (open question)
Honeybees produce signals that point other bees towards food because they have shared genetic interests – their genes get passed on only if the hive as a whole prospers. In most species though, animals do not cluster together into ‘superorganisms’ like honeybees do, and there is much less shared interest. So, most animals are competing for food, and keep quiet about any food that they do find.
Below are the questions that may appear on the mid-term:
Details
on the final exam
Please read this carefully before my office hours on Wednesday
December 6 and try to ask any questions about the exam by then.
The final exam will be on Tuesday December 12, 11:30 to 1:30. The room is booked for another hour beyond
that, but I do not think we will need more than two hours. The location will be 3175 Bunche (our normal
classroom) unless I discover that UCLA has scheduled it somewhere else for some
reason.
The final exam will consist of 25 short-answer questions selected
from the list below. You will be asked
to answer 20 questions out of 25. You
can skip the other five, by crossing them out.
Each of the 20 questions that you choose to answer will be worth 5
points, adding up to 100. There will be
no extra credit for answering more than 20 questions.
There will not be any questions on the final that do not appear on
the list below. If you prepare brief,
clear, correct answers to all the questions below, and if you remember them,
you will do very well on the final.
However, the questions below may be re-worded or clarified if they
prove to be ambiguous or hard to understand.
I reserve the right to improve them, but I won't change them substantially. If I do improve them, I will try to give you
the improved versions before the final.
For most questions, two or three sentence answers should be
enough. Some questions could be
answered by one word (e.g. yes or no), but I'm looking for a little more information
and explanation. There is no need to go
into great detail. You will have some
blank space after each question to write your answer; please try to stay within
this space. The example questions and
answers below should give you some idea how much is enough (of course, the
examples will not be asked on the final.)
Some of the questions ask for definitions, explanations of key
ideas, and factual knowledge. Other
questions are more open-ended, and may not have a 'right' answer, but allow you
to show your mastery of principles and your criticial-thinking ability.
The final will be closed-book.
Please do not bring the course reader, class notes, or other study
materials to the exam. You may bring
backpacks etc containing materials for your other classes.
Bring a couple of pens with blue or black ink for writing
answers. Please write very
clearly. If your cursive is not easy to
read, please print. I cannot grade what
I cannot read.
The final will cover all the class lectures after the final, and
the course readings numbered 18 through 33.
Important reassurance note: lectures 9, 10, and 13 do not appear on the
Classweb for the following reasons.
Lecture 9 was the guest lecture by Amy Parish on bonobo sexual behavior
and communication. Lecture 10 didn’t
happen because that was the date of the midterm. Lecture 13 was the day I was ill and cancelled class.
Below are some example
questions and answers to illustrate how short your answers can be to get full credit. These questions will not appear on the
final.
Explain the
handicap principle.
Zahavi's handicap principle says that when there is any incentive
to lie, a signal must be costly in order to be reliable. This applies especially to signals of a
signaller's own quality or fitness. If
a signal was cheap, even an unhealthy animal could afford to produce it, so
receivers would have no reason to trust the signal's information.
Why do weakly
electric fish tend to have long tails?
The long tails contain the electric organs, which generate the
electric organ discharge (EOD) that the fish use for electrolocation and
electrocommunication. Longer electric
organs allow for stronger EODs.
What determines
whether a honeybee will do a round dance or a waggle dance?
A foraging bee that has encountered a good nectar patch relatively
far away (roughly, more than 75 meters from the hive) will do a waggle dance,
whereas a closer patch will provoke a round dance. The distance threshold varies in different types of honeybees.
Why are
low-frequency sounds often better for mate attraction than high-frequency
sounds?
Mate attraction requires a signal that carries over a long
distance. High-frequency sounds tend to
get absorbed more by vegetation, and do not travel so well around obstacles, so
they are less useful for long-distance mate attraction.
Below are the
questions that may appear on the final exam:
1.
In what ways is a
bird’s syrinx better than a mammal’s larynx for producing complex sounds?
2.
If a starling
lived in your house, what would be the most common sounds it would
imitate? Explain why.
3.
Describe two ways
that birds can produce a wide variety of songs despite being poor at
improvisation.
4.
How do we know
that female nightingales must have a pretty good memory for the songs that they
have heard a male sing?
5.
Nightingales and
sedge warblers each produce a great variety of songs, but they do so in very
different ways. Explain the
difference.
6.
How did
Mesonychids evolve into whales?
7.
Bottlenose
dolphins have larger brains than humans.
Do you think this suggests that dolphin communication is more complex
than we realize? Give some reasons why or why not.
8.
Describe how
dolphins echolocate.
9.
Dolphin
echolocation signals do not just bounce off other dolphins’ skins, but may
penetrate into their bodies and bounce off their internal organs. If so, how might sexual selection affect the
evolution of dolphin anatomy?
10. Why did humpback whales evolve such large
flippers? Support your answer with
examples of whale behavior.
11. Describe male-male competition between
humpback whales.
12. Describe the structure of humpback whale
songs, ranging from notes to song sessions.
13. How are the changes in whale song over
years similar to the changes in human languages over centuries?
14. If whale song evolved through female
choice, why do you think all the males in an area appear to sing the same
song? Describe some differences between
male singers that might be more apparent to female humpbacks than to us.
15. List the following primates in order of
their evolutionary distance from humans, starting with the most distant (most ancient common ancestor) and
ending with the most similar (most recent common ancestor): bonobos,
orangutans, gorillas, (common) chimpanzees, and gibbons. Which two are equally distant from us?
16. How does the social and mating system of
bonobos differ from that of common chimpanzees?
17. What do you think are the two best
hypotheses for the function of primate copulation calls? Why?
18. Why do female chimpanzees make louder
copulation calls when mating with dominant males, whereas female elephant seals
make louder copulation calls when mating with subordinate males?
19. How could copulation calls promote sperm
competition? Why would a female want to
promote sperm competition to fertilize her eggs?
20. In what ways might sexual swellings serve
the same function as copulation calls?
21. How could sexual swellings increase
paternity certainty? How could they
decrease it?
22. Describe gibbon duetting.
23. Describe two similarities and two
differences between lar gibbon singing and human singing.
24. Identify two kinds of primates other than
gibbons that sing duets. How do their
mating systems resemble those of gibbons?
25. How do chimpanzee pant-hoots resemble
female gibbon great calls?
26. Why would Bjorn Merker’s theory explain
the Backstreet Boys more easily than the Spice Girls?
27. How could female exogamy have favored the
evolution of synchronous drumming by male groups?
28. Why would the ability to play African
polyrhythms on djembes make a good fitness indicator?
29. How did the early 19th century
natural theology view of bird song differ from the late 19th century
natural history view?
32. What are some reasons for thinking that
music may be a genetically evolved adaptation in humans?
33. Why are some scientific problems with the
hypothesis that music evolved to let people go into trance states so they can
gain supernatural powers?
34. What do you think was the most important
cost of making music? Explain why.
35. Define: idiophone, membranophone, and
aerophone. Include one example of
each.
36. What do you think are the two strongest hypotheses
about the adaptive functions of music in prehistory? Why?
37. Explain some ways in which the costs and
benefits of producing music in front of large groups might have been different
for males versus females during human evolution