Mithen’s music mystery magnified!
Author of The Singing Neanderthals, Steven Mithen, is now ‘even more
mystified’ as to why singing arose
by David Catchpoole
Steven Mithen, University of Reading (UK) archaeologist and author of The Singing
Neanderthals, is an outspoken atheist and a particular favourite of the
evolutionary propaganda machine. (See e.g.
our rebuttal of statements he made in the anti-Christian documentary series ‘Testing
God’, first screened in 2004.)
For some time Mithen has pondered the origins of music—of course, from his
unquestioned starting point that evolution is true. We have earlier reported (see
Mithen’s music musings)
his suggestion that when we make music, ‘Perhaps what we are really doing
is exploring the evolutionary history of humankind: making sounds that are uncertain
memories of a shared ancestral past, a time when we communicated not with words
but with melody, pitch and rhythm.’
That’s a very inventive suggestion, but there is no factual basis to such
creative storytelling. So it’s not surprising that a deeper analysis of the
complexities of music, and the variable abilities of humans to perform and appreciate
it, raises some very awkward questions for evolutionists—as Steven Mithen
has himself recently discovered, and now admitted.
In his 2005 book The Singing Neanderthals, Mithen tried to answer the question:
‘Why should evolution have created a species [i.e. humans] that can sing with
such remarkable beauty?’
He said his research had persuaded him that ‘musicality is deeply embedded
in the human genome, with far more ancient evolutionary roots than spoken language.’
Yet Mithen himself, at the time of writing his book, admitted to being distinctly
unmusical, ‘unable to carry a tune or match a rhythm’.
When some friends suggested that he’d been ‘turned off’ music
as a child, and that some coaching in singing could help him find his voice, Mithen
decided to try it. For one year he subjected himself to singing lessons—and
got frustrated.
By understanding just how remarkably difficult it is to sing … I am
even more mystified as to why humans have evolved such an amazing ability.—Steven
Mithen, 2008
‘In The Singing Neanderthals I argued that singing is a means for
achieving well-being through social bonding,’ he wrote recently in New Scientist.1 ‘Sadly, that was not
my experience—I simply became cross, stressed and dissatisfied. My singing
wasn’t good for my family life either, as my children didn’t appreciate
the late night practising.’
What else did Mithen learn from a year of trying to sing? Mithen concludes: ‘By
understanding just how remarkably difficult it is to sing—to simultaneously
and unconsciously manage pitch, rhythm, timbre, tone and dynamics—I am even
more mystified as to why humans have evolved such an amazing ability.’
The answer, of course, is that they didn’t. It’s a gift, from
the Giver of life, breath and everything else (Acts 17:25).
Related articles
Further reading
References
- Mithen, S., The diva within, New Scientist, 197(2644):38–39;
23 February 2008. Return to text.
Published: 16 May 2008(GMT+10)
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