Notes by Alan Dix on "The Singing Neanderthals"

Review

Notes

p.12

linguistics has neglected the "rhythms and tempos of verbal interaction" c.f. language as iambic pentameter ?????

p.15

bodily entrainment - I have heard (recently, but where?) that only humans & one other species (maybe a bird) do rhythmic entrainment added later - I thin it was a kind of frog, but also a lot about this in Sync

p.16

western musical development - is it that we are "unmusical" because of childhood exposure or more that western music is complex c.f. repetitive African rhythms?

p.17

recursion in language and music

p.17

rhythm to help turn taking

p.26

music and language a common origin "musilanguage"

p.28/29

on p.28 - 100 billion neurones; on p.29 10-15 billion!

p.69

infants - music precedes speech -- babytalk etc.

p.72

"melody is the message" - c.f. to babes or animals say nasty things in comforting voice and they are happy

p.73

Japanese infant-talk hard for western babies to understand (but otherwise language doesn't matter)

p.74

infants & rats spoken to the same

p.75

infants - statistical patterns in sound stream

p.76

but also for non-speech sound

p.77

infants have perfect pitch!!

p.81/82

the study of laughter :-D

p.87

Outley & Johnson-Laird in emotion/reason

p.96

- impact of mood on creativity & generosity

p,109

Wrang - alarm calls of vervet monkeys should not be regarded as referential, but 'manipulative' - intended to induce behaviours - c.f. speech-acts

p.115

duets and monogamy

p.117

early hominids ranged wider for food => need better spatial skills at navigational level

p.131

Broca's area related to mirror neurones c.f. one hour old infants mimic tongue stuck out

p.138

defn of Hmmmm

p.150

rhythm & walking

p.160

400,000 year old wooden spears

p.167

Merlin Donald "mimetic culture"

p.169

mime in the hunt

p.170

small vowels (e.g. 'i')for small things

p.171

onomatopoeic animal names

p.173

wholistic language is conservative c.f. p.172 - cross-modal combinations allow a form of recombination (me)

p.317

(notes) - 'displaced thought' - importance of imagination for pre-linguistics

p.182

body size ratios (discussion of Miller's suggestion that music/singing is result of sexual selection) (me) may also be related to 'eternal child' infantilism

p.185

humans as big as they can get before back injury - pressure to reduce sexual dimorphism

p.188

sexy stone axe hypothesis! (me) c.f. discus theory in The Ascent of Mind

p.192

Hmmmmm with 5ms!

p.194

hunting c.f. discus again

p.195

singing whilst working - c.f. ring at an anvil or sailors songs

p.196

upright walking encourages premature birth (small birth canal) - c.f infantilism

p.200

evolution of lice to ate appearance of clothes!

p.206

synchronised frogs - 2 speed dating

p.206

chimps do not synchronise sounds

p.207

human synchrony (me) ? necessary for face-to-face sexual intercourse

p.208/209

McNeill's book "Keeping Time"- 'boundary loss' when making music together

p.215

importance of 'we-ness' for social interaction (me) c.f. finger tapping extending sense of self

p.217

coupling oxytocin and social and sexual binding

p.221

redefinition of Hmmmmm - 5ms!!

p.240

Neanderthals "wooden hafts tipped with stone points" - appears to contradict Mithin's earlier book "The Prehistory of the Mind"

p.255/256

simulation of language development … universal grammar or artefact of learning bottleneck

p.259

children - talking helps complex behaviour

p.277

formulaic utterances - maybe also "rules" - large phrases with "holes" for objects/terms