Individuals vary in their endowment of these different features, and individual cultures vary in the importance they give to a particular musical feature.
Whether or not one is convinced by Mithen's concluding hypothesis, his book is a treasure trove of information and analysis relevant to understanding the evolution of music. Anyone who subsequently proposes another hypothesis will not be able to neglect the knowledge and questions set forth by Mithen, nor can his conclusions be ignored.
Mithen rightly pays tribute to his predecessors in the study of the evolution of music, including John Blacking (1973) and Nils Wallin (1991). Although both contributed important insights and were themselves musically trained, they did not (and at the time could not) command the resources Mithen brings to bear.
Mithen makes the further point that the emotional power of music indicates a long evolutionary history, not a recent invention aimed at pleasure: 'We don't have emotions for fun.'
Mithen suggests that the evolution of language has inhibited the musical abilities that modern humans have inherited from the common ancestor that we share with Neanderthals. Yet here I think he slips into the Westernized assumptions about music that he decries elsewhere and reveals his own weak spot—insufficient acquaintance with the ethnomusicological literature.
Questions
1. The importance given to certain musical features
2. Mithen's contribution to the study of the evolution of music
3. The contribution of previous researchers to the study of the evolution of music
4. Mithen argues that the strong emotional impact of music
5. The reviewer disagrees with Mithen's belief that musical ability