The Origins of Musicality [Response to Ghazanfar & Steingo (2025)]

Open Access
Authors
  • H. Honing ORCID logo
  • W. Tecumseh Fitch
  • Marisa Hoeschele
  • Hugo Merchant
Publication date 07-04-2026
Edition v1
Number of pages 4
Publisher PsyArXiv
Organisations
  • Interfacultary Research - Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC)
Abstract Ghazanfar and Steingo open their Perspective by asserting that, because no fossil or archaeological record of early music-making exists, modern researchers “rely as much on conjecture as they did in Darwin and Spencer’s time.” This characterization is inaccurate. The evolution of musicality can be reconstructed using methods from comparative biology, genetics, and cross-cultural analyses, empirical domains that were unavailable to Darwin and Spencer. Contact: honing@uva.nl
Document type Preprint
Note Version v2 (2026) also available on PsyArXiv
Language English
Published at
https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/nhvwe_v2 (Final published version)
Downloads
nhvwe_v1 (Final published version)
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