Challenges facing theories of music and language co-evolution 1

Abstract

This article discusses several general problems that are encountered in the field of evolutionary musicology, with particular reference to theories that postulate an evolutionary link between musical and linguistic ability. Before addressing some of the most pressing theoretical problems in the field, the article acknowledges the potentially unique contributions that researchers situated in Africa can make to the discussion of the origins of music, given their unique relation to the rich abundance of African palaeo-anthropological, archaeological and ethnographic data. Some of the issues raised include the definition of the term ‘music’, the status of music as some sort of communicative medium for the expression of emotion, musical meaning, musical universals and grammars, and the issue of empirical evidence from other disciplines. 1 This article is based on part of my BMus (Hons) dissertation, completed at Stellenbosch University under the supervision of Winfried Lüdemann, to whom I am indebted for valuable commentary and much assistance in preparing this article. I would also like to thank Stephanus Muller for his assistance with proofreading of the article in its initial stages.