The Singing Neanderthals. The Origin of Music, Language, Mind and Body

Along with the concepts of consciousness and intelligence, our capacity for language sits right at the core of what makes us human. But while the evolutionary origins of language have provoked speculation and debate, music has been neglected if not ignored. In The Singing Neanderthals, Steven Mithen redresses the balance, drawing on a huge range of sources, from neurological case studies, through child psychology and the communication systems of non-human primates to the latest paleoarchaeological evidence. The result is a fascinating and provocative work - a succinct riposte to those who have dismissed music as a functionless and unimportant evolutionary by-product. " Mithen's rich, dispassionate study of the origins of music, language and mime goes back to music-making among primates as the basis for understanding what role music might play in the human mind " Evening Standard.