Dor Shilton

interesting research on the history of music and religion

Book cover by Simon Kirby

Delighted to announce the publication of a collaborative effort, co-led by @limorraviv.bsky.social @mpi-nl.bsky.social, showcasing the ways in which researchers have made language evolution an empirical issue: A handbook of experimental approaches to the fascinating problem of language evolution 🧪

New postdoc positions at the (DISI-affiliated) Center for Possible Minds at Indiana University.

Looking for scholars interested in interdisciplinary research on the nature of biological, artificial, and collective intelligence.

Please share widely!

indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/29547

Kostas Kampourakis' "Darwin Mythology" book is a very interesting read. A strong cast of authors deconstruct myths and misunderstandings about Darwin. I particularly appreciated historian Erik Peterson's analysis of why Darwin's dislike of slavery does not equate to a belief in racial equality.

I am especially proud of this paper because it involved so many people sharing information and ideas together in an open and inquisitive manner.
It is a conversation that began somewhere in 2018 and blossomed into an accessible information resource about musical diversity. Cheers to that!

One important takeaway from this study is that music evolution theories need to look more deeply into religion. While music can benefit social well-being, it is evidently not essential. It could be that the religious function of music is a big missing part of the puzzle.

Our findings suggest that the scale and religiosity of collective action may be the most important explanatory factors for the prevalence of collective music-making, but other factors, like cultural loss and religious expertise, also play a role (see table for a summary of findings)

We aimed to create a detailed portrait of each society through a combination of ethnographic materials and first-hand reports. The latter came from Chris von Rueden, who worked with the Tsimane since 2005, Kim Hill, who worked with the Ache from 1977 to 2020, and many other correspondents.

We look at four societies in which collective music-making is rare:
the Tsimane of lowland Bolivia,
the Ache of eastern Paraguay,
the Ayoreo of Bolivia and Paraguay,
and the Tuvans of the Russian Republic of Tyva.

Why collective music-making is sometimes rare: A study of four indigenous societies Current prominent music evolution theories suggest music evolved as a participatory group activity, whose adaptive functions were strengthening and/or…

Many think that music evolved to promote social cohesion - but group singing and dancing is extremely rare in some societies. Why is that the case, and what does it mean?

Check out the new paper by me, Aniruddh Patel, Kim Hill, and @chrisvonrueden.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

My book SHAMANISM: THE TIMELESS RELIGION will be out on May 20, 2025! Shamanism characterized the earliest religions, echoes in often unappreciated ways in the world around us, and will long outlive us.

Pre-order it here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/730339...

Why collective music-making is sometimes rare: A study of four indigenous societies Current prominent music evolution theories suggest music evolved as a participatory group activity, whose adaptive functions were strengthening and/or…

Two new music papers by @dorshilton.bsky.social et al. (www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...) and by Steingo & Ghazanfar (doi.org/10.1177/2059...). Together with @manvir.bsky.social and Hill's recent paper (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...), an interesting (partial) push back against musical universals...

How are humans able to make sense of time? Not with special biology but with “time tools”—ideas, practices, and artifacts that render time more concrete.

My new paper explores this vast, varied toolkit—one that makes use of knots, nuts, hands, flowers, mountains, shadows, and much more.

(link 👇)

My baby daughter is happy & apparently developing normally, yet, according to pediatric growth curves, she has been “wasted,” indicating severe malnourishment. In my new @newyorker.com essay, I argue that universal health benchmarks need to better account for biological variation.

Any chance you can DM a PDF? (my son is also in the very low percentiles and I was having similar thoughts)

If you're interested in this study by Manvir and Kim be sure to check out our forthcoming comparative study of four cultures (inc. Ache) in which collective music-making is rare:
osf.io/preprints/so...
Full thread once it's published...

Exciting stuff! And great cover.

Handy man In praise of the humble tool belt!

"Considering its common use across nomadic hunter-gatherer societies, and what it represents—as a tool to enable the carrying of more tools—the belt may be a bit of an unsung hero of human history." traditionsofconflict.substack.com/p/handy-man

AI as Normal Technology

In a new essay from our "Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Freedoms" series, @randomwalker.bsky.social & @sayash.bsky.social make the case for thinking of #AI as normal technology, instead of superintelligence. Read here: knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a...

New episode!! 📣📣

A chat w/ @arikkershenbaum.bsky.social about vocal communication in animals.

The tree of life is a noisy place, bursting with howls, grunts, whines, snorts, and songs. What does it all mean? Does any of this hubbub merit the label of "language"?

Listen: disi.org/howl-grunt-s...

Introducing my new project… Your Wrong (yourwrong.co.uk). It’s all about the language rules and judgements that appear in different forms of popular culture. Films, series, podcasts, music, books, even graffiti!

I’d love your help to find examples!

et tu, NZ?

Where do moralizing religions come from? Useless cognitive by-products?Cultural group selection for complex societies?

Our Psych Review paper argues: neither. Let’s rethink their cognitive & evolutionary origins🧵
w/ @manvir.bsky.social @nbaumard @jbaptistandre.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1037/rev0...

Watch lectures from the best researchers. On-demand video platform giving you access to lectures from conferences worldwide.

For those who missed the @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social conference in Durham last September, the recorded talks are now freely available to watch here:

underline.io/events/456/l...

MacaqueNet: Advancing comparative behavioural research through large‐scale collaboration We present MacaqueNet, a global community of macaque researchers who developed the first publicly searchable, standardised database on affiliative and agonistic behaviour. This cross-species database...

So exciting to see MacaqueNet out into the world! 🤩

Learn about our global community & database centralizing standardized affiliative & agonistic data from 61 populations across 14 macaque species: doi/10.1111/1365...

Explore >600 networks & request data: macaquenet.github.io/database/

Men Are More Prepared for Fatherhood Than We Think — Scientific American In many cultures, men are not involved with hands-on childcare. But biology tells us we are perfectly capable of doing so Biology I like to tell my undergraduates that hormones predispose organisms, i...

Time for fatherhood, courtesy of James Rilling and his new book. #fatherhood #testosterone #oxytocin #dad apple.news/ALmCPtGhtTb2...

📣📣📣

Applications for the 2025 Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute (DISI) are now open!!

Are you interested in intelligence, mind, and cognition in all its forms? Early-career scholars from any discipline—and storytellers in any medium—are encouraged to apply!

More info: disi.org

Enjoyed this one!

In which we discuss:
- the curse of knowledge & illusion of explanatory depth
- why chain-of-thought prompting works (or doesn't)
- "Explain Like I'm Five"
- the Tower of Pisa thought experiment
- representational re-description
- learning by writing, talking, & presenting
- etc.!

Terrific review by Eva Jablonka of @kevinlala.bsky.social and colleagues new book Evolution Evolving!!!

Has Bluesky replaced X for scientists? Take Nature’s poll The research community has flocked to the social-media platform Bluesky. Tell us about your experience.

Has Bluesky replaced X for scientists? Take Nature’s poll www.nature.com/articles/d41...