1 “The surprise, predawn attack was a gruesome innovation in prehistoric warfare.”
I don’t mean to imply that all invasions were motivated by unbridled aggression—they were often the result of the same sorts of forces that cause conflict today, such as unequal distribution of resources. Two tribes may have coexisted peacefully for centuries, when one loses its source of water—a stream could dry up. They will die without water, and the neighboring tribe is unwilling to share theirs. The waterless tribe has to choose between dying and attacking the selfish neighbors.
2 “Rhythm in music provides the input to the human perceptual system that allows for the prediction and synchronization of different individuals’ behaviors.”
Condon, W. S. (1982). Cultural microrhythms. In Interaction Rhythms, edited by M. Davis. New York: Human Sciences Press, pp. 53–77.
3 “Singing together releases oxytocin, a neurochemical now known to be involved in establishing bonds of trust between people.”
Kosfeld, M., M. Heinrichs, P. Zak, U. Fischbacher, and E. Fehr (2005). Oxytocin increases trust in humans. Nature 435: 673–676.
4 “‘Without rhythmical coordination of the muscular effort … famous monuments could not have been built.’”
McNeill, W. (1995). Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 55.
5 “Track lining songs …”
I thank Dennis Drayna for this example and its wording. p. 54
6 “… psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.”
Pronounced Mee-high Cheek-sent-mee-high-yee.
7 “What I remember now, years afterwards, is that I rather liked strutting around …”
McNeill, W. (1995). Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 2.
8 “… some people … enjoy eating dirt.”
This practice is known as geophagy, but the benefits described here are made up.
9“The cats with this mutation were less likely to get sick or to spread disease to their offspring, facilitating this mutation’s rapid spread through the genome.”
This example and much of its wording comes from my colleague Jim Plamandon, to whom I am grateful.
10 “… those who enjoyed singing, dancing, and marching together so much that they were drawn to it, attracted to it, and practiced it for thousands of hours were those who were the victors in any battles in which such drill conferred an advantage.”
Of course in many cases, people were conscripted to service and forced to march. But the example still works; those who derived no enjoyment from such drill were not likely to practice on their own time, and so didn’t become as expert. Further, those who enjoyed it were more likely to be good at it, and to demonstrate skill and enthusiasm on the battlefield. In fact, it has been noted that natural selection could conceivably, in the long run, tend to favor aggressive murderous psychopaths to the extent that they are able to wipe out passive, peace-loving peoples.
11 “‘Away from the cover of trees, safety can only be found in numbers ….”
Mithen, S. (2005). The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 126.
12 “Those individuals who were better able to predict the behavior of others because they could ‘read their minds’ would have had a competitive advantage within the group.”
A point made by Mithen using similar wording.
Mithen, S. (2005). The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 128.
13 “The rappers … ‘interpret and articulate the fears, pleasures, and promises of young black women whose voices have been relegated to the margins of public discourse.’”
Rose, Tricia. (1994). Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, p. 146.
14 “One band, the Plastic People of the Universe (PPU), … is widely regarded as having spurred a revolution in Czechoslovakia.”
This story and the quotes from Ivan Bierhanzl come from the review of Tom Stoppard’s play Rock ’n Roll appearing in The New York Times. Parales, J. (November 11, 2007). Rock ’n Revolution. The New York Times.
15 “… the protests, women’s lib, and improved race relations were all bound up into one big cause, into us against them.”
And it seemed so simple: if you had long hair, you were for these things. If you had short hair, many long-haired people assumed you were in favor of napalming innocent babies in a country that we weren’t even at war with (Cambodia), you believed the white race to be superior to others, and you hated rock music.
16 “‘As I said earlier, good music can leap over language boundaries, over barriers of religion and politics and hit someone’s heartstrings somehow.’”
See Chapter 1.
17 “Bruce Cockburn wrote an antiwar song, ‘If I Had a Rocket Launcher.’”
The quotes from Cockburn come from an article appearing in the Washington Post. Harrington, R. (October 19, 1984). The Long March of Bruce Cockburn: From Folkie to Rocker, Singing About Injustice. Washington Post.