Statistical universals reveal the structures and functions of human music
Statistical universals reveal the structures and functions of human music
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1414495112
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发表时间：
2015-07-21
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Currie, Thomas E.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Savage, Patrick E.;Brown, Steven;Currie, Thomas E.
音乐被称为“人类的通用语言”。尽管当代音乐进化理论经常援引各种音乐共性，但这种共性的存在几十年来一直存在争议，而且从未得到实证证明。在这里，我们将音乐分类方案与统计分析（包括系统发育比较方法）相结合，以检查一组经过良好采样的全球 304 首音乐录音。我们的分析揭示了没有绝对的普遍性，但对许多统计普遍性的有力支持，这些普遍性在所有九个采样地理区域中都是一致的。这些共性包括 18 个单独常见的音乐特征以及由 10 个通常相互关联的特征组成的网络。它们不仅涵盖了与音高和节奏相关的特征（这些特征通常被认为是普遍存在的），而且还涵盖了很少被引用的领域，包括表演风格和社会背景。人类音乐的这些跨文化结构规律可能与促进群体协调和凝聚力的作用有关，例如在群体中随着简单、重复的音乐唱歌、演奏打击乐器和跳舞的普遍趋势。我们的研究结果强调了研究音乐进化的科学家需要扩大所考虑的音乐文化和音乐特征的范围。我们确定的统计普遍性代表了未来研究的重要候选者。
Music has been called "the universal language of mankind." Although contemporary theories of music evolution often invoke various musical universals, the existence of such universals has been disputed for decades and has never been empirically demonstrated. Here we combine a music-classification scheme with statistical analyses, including phylogenetic comparative methods, to examine a well-sampled global set of 304 music recordings. Our analyses reveal no absolute universals but strong support for many statistical universals that are consistent across all nine geographic regions sampled. These universals include 18 musical features that are common individually as well as a network of 10 features that are commonly associated with one another. They span not only features related to pitch and rhythm that are often cited as putative universals but also rarely cited domains including performance style and social context. These cross-cultural structural regularities of human music may relate to roles in facilitating group coordination and cohesion, as exemplified by the universal tendency to sing, play percussion instruments, and dance to simple, repetitive music in groups. Our findings highlight the need for scientists studying music evolution to expand the range of musical cultures and musical features under consideration. The statistical universals we identified represent important candidates for future investigation.