The biological roots of music and dance: Extending the credible signaling hypothesis to predator deterrence

Abstract

After their divergence from chimpanzees, hominins evolved an increasingly committed terrestrial lifestyle that exposed them to increased predation pressure from Africa’s formidable predator guild. In the Pleistocene, Homo transitioned to a more carnivorous lifestyle that would have further increased predation pressure. An effective defense against predators would have required a high degree of cooperation by the smaller and slower hominins. It is in the interest of predator and potential prey to avoid encounters that will be costly for both. A wide variety of species, including carnivores and apes and other primates, have therefore evolved visual and auditory signals that deter predators by credibly signaling detection and/or the ability to effectively defend themselves. In some cooperative species, these predator deterrent signals involve highly synchronized visual and auditory displays among group members. Hagen & Bryant (2003) proposed that synchronized visual and auditory displays credibly signal coalition quality. Here, this hypothesis is extended to include credible signals to predators that they have been detected and would be met with a highly coordinated defensive response, thereby deterring an attack. Within-group signaling functions are also proposed. The evolved cognitive abilities underlying these behaviors were foundations for the evolution of fully human music and dance.

Nocturnal selective pressures on the evolution of human musicality as a missing piece of the adaptationist puzzle

“…The proposed evolutionary hypotheses are focused on different recurrent adaptive problems that human (proto)musicality possibly solved on ancestral environments: mate attraction/bonding and intrasexual competition (e.g., Darwin, 1871 ; Zahavi and Zahavi, 1999 ; Miller, 2000 ; Varella et al, 2017 , 2022 ), group cohesion and social bonding (e.g., Brown, 2000 ; Dissanayake, 2008 ; Launay et al, 2016 ; Savage P. et al, 2021 ), mother–infant bonding (e.g., Trehub, 2003 ; Dissanayake, 2008 ; Mehr et al, 2021 ; Savage P. et al, 2021 ), mood/emotional induction/regulation and synchronization ( Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1989 ; Snowdon et al, 2015 ), coalitional signaling ( Hagen and Bryant, 2003 ; Mehr et al, 2021 ), territorial/predator defense ( Hagen and Hammerstein, 2009 ; Jordania, 2011 ; Hagen, 2022 ), group effort, perceptual and motor skill development, safe time-passing, transgenerational communication ( Huron, 2001 ), conflict reduction, and social tolerance ( Huron, 2001 ; Fukui and Toyoshima, 2023 ). Twenty years ago, there was a ‘lack of empirical evidence’ and ‘little basis’ on which to distinguish among the various evolutionary hypotheses about human musicality ( Hauser and McDermott, 2003 ).…”

“…Different accounts for the evolution of musicality rely on one or a few major factors influencing the hominin evolution (i.e., since the Pan and human lineage separated 6–8 Ma [ Megaanni ; million years] ago, Langergraber et al, 2012 ). Miller (2000) stressed the increase in brain size and monogamy; Merker (1999 , 2021) , the necessity of attracting exogamously migrating females; Dissanayake (2008) , Mehr et al (2021) and Leongómez et al (2022) , the increase in immaturity and dependence of human offspring; Launay et al (2016) , Fink et al (2021) , and Savage P. et al (2021) , the increase in group size and a ‘bonding gap’ in human sociality; Jordania (2011) and Hagen (2022) emphasized the increase in predation risk and intergroup conflict; and Benítez-Burraco and Nikolsky (2023) focused on self-domestication. Because those factors were recurrent and ancient enough during hominin evolution, their effects are likely complementary.…”

“…Therefore, the tree-to-ground nest transition, predation, and fire were recurrently enough to have converged and acted as selective pressures ( Rolland, 2004 ; Coolidge and Wynn, 2006 ; Roebroeks and Villa, 2011 ; Twomey, 2013 ; Dunbar and Gowlett, 2014 ; Gowlett, 2016 ; Wrangham, 2017 ; Fruth et al, 2018 ; Samson, 2021 ; Hagen, 2022 ), expanding the ape-like flexible nocturnal niche in humans ( Samson and Nunn, 2015 ; Tagg et al, 2018 ). The derived/efficient human sleep has allowed more nocturnal activities and higher exposure to nocturnal selective pressure ( Samson and Nunn, 2015 ; Nunn et al, 2016 ; Nunn and Samson, 2018 ), which, I argue, could lead the ape-like protomusicality (including long-distance nocturnal vocalizations) to be refined into human musicality.…”

“…Even baboons are more vulnerable to leopard attacks at night ( Isbell et al, 2018 ). Hominin ancestors were preyed by a diversity of large diurnal and nocturnal carnivores, such as hyaenids and felids ( Lee-Thorp et al, 2000 ; Barrett, 2005 ; Treves and Palmqvist, 2007 ; Hagen, 2022 ). In current night-times, humans in small-scale African societies still suffer from lion attacks ( Packer et al, 2011 ), and in industrial societies, there are more personal contact crimes ( Averdijk and Bernasco, 2015 ).…”

Surfing uncertainty with screams: predictive processing, error dynamics and horror films

“…Thus, it is reasonable to believe that humans have evolved some perceptual and behavioural response tendencies in response to high levels of predation (see e.g. [40][41][42][43][44]). Even young children, for example, demonstrated prepared social learning about dangerous animals [45].…”