The Evolution of Music and Religion [feat. Dr. Connor Wood]

Dr. Connor Wood is a scholar of religion. He studies religious and cultural phenomena using the tools of the cognitive and behavioral evolutionary sciences. His research interests include ritual and cognition, cybernetic self-regulation, social ontology, and cultural psychology. In this interview he discusses his research on synchrony, music, and religion.
Watch the explainer video here: • Why Humans Evolved to ...

[@DukeOfDidge]

Hahaha! "...unless you're a protestant"... as the organist in a protestant community, this rings so true, thanks for the lol...

[@jeanettewaverly2590]

I grew up going to a Protest church and this made me laugh.

[@Thedavidbiodanza]

This was great! Thank you for doing this. I teach dance and movement in a north London hospital for patients, staff, careers and volunteers. It's an exploration by the local National Health authority to see how dance and movement may be able to help in a therapeutic environment. This video has helped me with my understanding of some of the processes going on during a session.

[@naomilee9866]

I love the connection he points out between bonding and predictability- usually being able to predict someone’s actions is something that grows the more you know/bond with someone, like being able to predict anything from the physical mannerisms to taste and preferences of someone you know very well. It makes sense that suddenly being able to predict the actions of a stranger by syncing into the same beat would make you feel closer to them!

[@rachelwebber3605]

I know Dr. Wood isn't a behavioral ecologist or an ethologist, but I feel very surprised that, given his interests in psychology and evolutionary biology, that he's not more up to date on the literature regarding non-human communication. Just as a brief example, songbirds are a common study animal for the evolution of language, due to the complexities of their songs, male-female bonding and territory defense duets, and different dialects in different regions within the same species. Not to mention the commonality of mating dances across a variety of taxa, the famous humpback whale "pop songs", referential and multi-modal communication (most commonly in the form of predator alerts and specific vocalizations to refer to specific predators), or trance-like states that chimpanzees will apparently enter in to (either alone or as a group) when approaching certain environmental features (typically a waterfall). As a behavioral ecologist who has spent time in both ethology circles and psychology circles, it's both extremely common and extremely grating to continue hearing about the apparent "specialness" of humans in some aspect or other that "other animals don't do". The reality has been, and likely will continue to be, that the differences between humans and other animals is one of degree and not of kind. Just about everything that has been touted as "purely human", from tool use to laughing when having fun to sex for pleasure, has been found in some degree in other animals. I don't think this is an exception.

[@loganl3746]

Sometime you find someone researching a phenomenon that they say must be a basic human thing but it feels like they're really reaching and cherrypicking to connect a bunch of disparate topics. But this? Man, you can really actually see it with this rhythm/music research. Like, this feels like such an *intuitive* connection of knowledge. I had to take notes on what I wanted to say just because of how much this topic spreads out to other areas, haha. ~Could someone make the argument that time-tracking and calendars grew from our innate capacity for rhythm? Like, a calendar could be described as just a very big/long rhythm. Keeping track of it together as a group could form some bonding? ~The bit about the triangular, shared intention. I'd have to do more thinking, but could there be something to the differences between human and canine's abilities to engage in triangular/shared intention, especially when applied to dog training? Could dogs have some similarities in this ability? What about pack hunters in general? Could a wolf's triangular intention have led to their domestication? ~The predictive modeling of listening to music you mentioned made me think of how I tend to "wring out" a single song or album by listening to it over and over again (I'm talking like *months*). Learning and knowing how it will go must be soothing to me or something. I have a suspicion I have ADHD lol ~Is there some connection between Syncrosity as you describe it and the presence of mirror neurons in socially complex animals? This is *such* a fascinating topic. Don't get me wrong, I came here for the music/religion connection, but this really could go into so many other things! Does Dr. Wood have a blog/yt channel?

[@user-ju2gx4wq2s]

This was wonderful! I wish you would do longer interviews and videos though, this was still so short. Thanks for everything you do!

[@calebgoodfellowcg]

This is very interesting. My own topic of study, the Gathas of Zarathustra, has some elements of this. The Gathas were originally 17 songs that a believer would sing in a specific meter, although these songs were actually a mixture of mantras as well. Work has even been done that’s shown that encrypted in the original language is an even deeper meaning on the subject. I find this fascinating because the people memorizing and singing them would have continued to realize more and more complexity about them as they sung then repeatedly. Apparently Zarathustra was so good that the polytheistic priests of his time started copying his style of mantras, leading to him complaining about it in one of the Gathas.

[@jeanettewaverly2590]

Thank you both for a great interview. I’m sending it to my friend, who specializes in the anthropology of religion.

[@milanapeacock6062]

Incredible. Thank you so much. Please do more videos and interviews on music-language-ritual and evolution. And also, art. Where and how does it fit? Why did we start doing it? How did it help our survival? Why did our brain start to release the happy hormone when we smeared red clay over our bodies or when we found a stone resembling a face?

[@Airic]

as a music artist and passionate spiritual person, i really enjoyed this. Thanks guys.

[@juanmercado7706]

Dr. Connor is a genius. He has come with and answer humanity been expecting since the beggining of positive science

[@visionplant]

I love these videos that focus on broad topics like this that really dive into the deep roots of religion and what religion is and its effect

[@nebraskajohn]

14:00 The fact that we can’t stop ourselves from preparing to move to rhythm brings up fascinating consent conversations in modern society.

[@Hihelloto]

Hassidic dances is what comes to my mind

[@robertschlesinger1342]

Interesting, informative and worthwhile video.

[@Darkobugs]

What a great interview thanks for this🥰

[@beanndip]

Top tier interview. Thank you

[@riley02192012]

This interview was very interesting.

[@welcometonebalia]

Thank you.

[@peretzk]

Dining together would also seem to create a sudden binding together of individuals similar to music. We find the communal meal together with the music.

[@Salsmachev]

I am subscribed, but this isn't showing up on my subscriptions list for some reason. You might want to double-check its visibility.

[@beanndip]

I noticed he changed the channel name. Perhaps unsubscribe and resubscribe?

[@clockworkgnome]

Food for the algorithm

[@BlueDjiin]

In our days, in Islam the musical instruments (except some types of drums) are forbidden that's why you will never see a concert in a mosque (there were few exceptions in some soufi traditions like the derwish in Turkey) are there any other religions that forbid music instruments in their worship places as Islam does?

[@slimtim9570]

the way he says e c o n o m i c s

[@----f]

Can you have timestamps next time?

[@jeremyt4292]

🤘🙏🎶

[@sthelenskungfu]

I'm not sure why, but this isn't showing up in the list of your videos on your channel.

[@andrewmarkhenry]

Thanks, I forgot to set it to public.

[@salvatoreconsalvi4574]

What about whales? Their vocalizations have long been considered songs.

[@askavetstudent]

Catholic service in my mind is just stand kneel cross head and heart stand sit kneeeeeeel.

[@goclbert]

Are you going to unprivate this?

[@aranialawakiro7246]

Equines dance. Goats dance. Dogs howl with songs they like. Monkeys respond to species specific music. And then there are birds of course. We are not that unique.

[@rooseveltvargas9974]

🅿🆁🅾🅼🅾🆂🅼 😏