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Show C-14 The Park Record Wednesday, July 19, 2000 (rPARK CITY iiirn Fnces range from: S4.00 appetizers S 12 00 entrees i A Frivate Club tor Members Now featuring live entertainment Wednesday Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Come try our "smothered" fries or BBC smoked sandwiches. Home of the famous rotisseiie and smokehouse menu and leatuiing Volkers bread 1895 Sidewinder Drive Park City. UT 84060 (435) 649-2900 (Located in the Park City Marriott) M usic intregal part of human history Is there a 'music gene'? Scholars mull over role of music irf development of species lip CHINA PANDA ioc C Kicc Cuisine ncT CO cvrr SporT pcvrk Crv Ur. (435)649-5593 Featuring: 30 delicious Chinese entrees Plus Fruit Salad Bar No MSG Lunch: 11:00-2:30 $6.99 Dinner: 6:00-9:30 $10.95 Children: .75 per year old Closed Sundays NEW YORK. (AP) We hoar it everywhere: in shopping malls, concert halls, carpools and cathedrals. cathe-drals. Even when there is none pla-ing. pla-ing. we often hear it inside our h ads. Because music occupies so much of our lives, could it have plased an important role in the development of the species? Some scientists have recently proposed that music may have been an evolutionary adaptation, like upright walking or spoken language, that arose early in human history and helped the species survive. "Of course it's utter speculation." specula-tion." says David Huron, a professor pro-fessor of music at Ohio State University in Columbus. Most experts still assume music was a cultural invention, like cave painting or writing, that humans invented to make their lives easier or more pleasant. Yet Huron and many of his colleagues wonder if music might hav e biological roots. The "music gene" would have arisen tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago. and conferred an evolutionary evolution-ary advantage on those who possessed pos-sessed it. Natural selection would have nurtured the gift of music, favoring those who possessed it with more offspring who were themselves more likely to reproduce. repro-duce. There are several things about music that suggest it has biological biologi-cal roots: For one thing, music is ubiquitous. ubiqui-tous. From the tribal dances of the Amazon to the frenetic raves of Amsterdam, every culture makes music an essential part of its rituals. You simply can't find people who don't sine, chant or beat on drums. That music is every wheie suggests sug-gests it arose early in the history of the species, before humans scattered across the globe and developed manifold cultures. In fact, concrete evidence of music's antiquity exists in the form of a carved bone flute found recently in a cave in Slovenia. The "Div je babe flute." as musicologists call it. is the oldest known musical instrument. It dates back 4().(K)() years, to a time when Europe and much of North America were mantled in ice. and humans lived side by side with Neanderthals. If the oldest instruments existed exist-ed 4().(KK) years ago. then vocal music probably goes back twice as far. Huron speculates perhaps per-haps even to the dawn of the species. Another line of evidence to support music as an evolutionary adaptation: Some people with brain damage dam-age to the right temporal lobe can't remember tunes. In one experiment, a man with right temporal lobe damage could not name a single tune played for him but when he was read the lyrics to the same songs he correctly cor-rectly identified 24 out of 25. During a recent meeting at the New York Academy of Sciences. Isabel Peretz of the University of Montreal described several such people. Researchers have also shown with brain imaging studies that when most people hear music, the right temporal lobe is activated. "Brain specialization is not enough to claim that a function is biologically determined, but I think it is necessary." Peretz says. Finding one or more genes tor music would settle the issue. If music is genetic, it is influenced bv multiple genes acting simultaneously. simulta-neously. With the recent completion comple-tion of the human genome project, proj-ect, it may eventually be possible to find a music gene or two if such genes exist. "If there are genes for music. I suspect that we ll find out about them within our lifetimes." Huron said. Steven Pinker doubts that will ever happen. "Music is auditory cheesecake." cheese-cake." he says. Music is one of those wonderful wonder-ful things that makes life worth living. Pinker says, but he doesn't believe it ever contributed to the propagation of the species. To a biologist, that is what counts. "As far as biological cause and effect are concerned, music is useless." Pinker wrote in his 1 W book "How the Mind Works." "Compared with language, vision, social reasoning and phy sical s-ical know-how. music could vanish van-ish from our species and the rest of our lifestyle would be virtually unchanged." Biologists use the word "adaptive" "adap-tive" to describe a trait that is cultivated by evolution. Anything that increases an individual's indi-vidual's chances of passing its gen.-s along to the next generation genera-tion is adaptive., Music. Pinker "argues, is not adaptive. He sees no evidence that having rhythm or being a good singer ever helped a person survive or eenerate more off spring. Pinker believes that music is something humans invented and then cultivated because it tweaks our brains and bodies in a pleasurable pleas-urable way. In other words, humans invented music because they enjoyed it. Maybe humans first made music simply because it makes us want to dance, tap our feet and clap our hands. Maybe it started as a way of painting an auditory picture of a pleasant environment environ-ment birds singing, leaves rustlinc. brooks babbling and the like. Perhaps we developed music because it evokes emotions. In language, emotional content is often tonal rather than verbal. We moan. sigh, shriek and giggle to express how we feel. So it's not too outlandish to suggest that we started making those sounds in rituals or performances to make ourselves feel better or worse. That practice then developed into music. No evolution there. "Cute." is how Sandra Trehub of the University of Toronto responds to Pinker's assessment. "Cute, but dead wrong." Trehub travels the globe, studying mothers as they sing to their children. No matter where she goes, people sing to their infants the same way, at a high pitch, in a slow tempo and in a distinctive tone. Every culture has lullabies. They are so similar that you could never mistake them for any thing else. "Even if you don't understand the language, even if you know nothing about the musical culture, cul-ture, they're recognizable." Trehub says. That suggests to her that music is no human invention. If we all use music to communicate with infants, maybe it arose as an instinctual form of communication communica-tion between mother and child, a way of forging an emotional connection. con-nection. Music would have been adaptive adap-tive because mothers who were better musicians had an easier time calming their babies. Trehub suggests. A happy baby who fell asleep easily and rarely made a fuss was much more likely to survive sur-vive to adulthood especially in primitive societies. Their cries would not attract predators, they and their mothers would get more rest, they would be less likelv to be mistreated. 1 So if a genetic predisposition to music appeared early in human history, those who had it would have produced more healthy offspring who themselves reproduced. The most musical of those children would have the same advantage, and they would pass the music genes to their children, chil-dren, and so on. each generation benefiting from the gift of music. There are other evolutionary possibilities as well. Perhaps music was adaptive because it made us more attractive to members mem-bers of the opposite sex. Certainly the allure of bands like Hanson and N Sy nc among girls of a certain age support that notion. Darwin himself favored such an explanation for music, but many scholars dismiss the idea because most biological traits designed to attract mates the peacock's tail, the moose's antlers, the canary's song -- are displayed by the male of the species. Music is something that both men and women make. OK then, perhaps music is something that pulls us together into groups. As individuals we are slow, claw less and hairless --easy --easy prey for all manner of vicious beast. But in groups. Homo sapiens has conquered the globe. Music is all about groups --choirs, --choirs, symphonies, ensembles and bands. Maybe people with a biological penchant for music lived more effectively in societies. soci-eties. "National hymns, military music, battle songs of fans and cheerleaders encouraging their favorite sports teams, or the strict musical preferences of youth gangs may serve as examples of this phenomenon, whose origin may go back to the very beginning begin-ning of human evolution." Thomas Geissman of the Tieraerzlich Hochschule in Hannover. Germany, writes in "The Origins of Music." We will never know exactly how music arose, but maybe ail this speculation does have something some-thing to tell us. We know that every culture has music and humans have made it since the dawn of the species. The brain dedicates valuable space to it. Academics have dreamed up countless possible reasons for its invention. Because of these things, music must be a trulv rare ift Bastille Day is celebrated HARMON BUILDERS & REMODELING INC. PROFESSIONAL REMODELING INSURED C.C. Kitchen Baths Basement finishes & Additions Redwood Decks & Decorative Concrete 435-513-6256 Senmg Summit d Wauitch Counties it" NEW YORK (AP) Red. white and blue flags, balloons and confetti con-fetti dotted three blocks of central Manhattan on Sunday as hundreds hun-dreds gathered to celebrate France's independence day and their love of all things French. The celebration began with the third annual running of the traditional tradi-tional French waiters' race. Nearly 30 waiters bedecked in starched white aprons balanced a bottle of sparkling French water and two full glasses of the bubbly on trays as they strode one block between the city's busy Fifth and Madison avenues. After five minutes of pushes, spills and racers try ing to sneak in some running ail no-nos Erie Rousselot. of Toulouse, emerged v ictonous. "(The course ) was too narrow." Closed Sundays I S I ii .i t I 1 E Z. ' 1 l ife" ;m said Rousselot. a waiter at Cafe Centro who is also studying international inter-national marketing at a New York University. But. he added. T am a very fast waiter. I was very motivated." moti-vated." Among his winnings: a free trip to France.' ' Shannon Dunne, a waitress at Le Marais. won the women's competition. com-petition. Crowds flooded food stands overflowing with French goodies: sweet and savory crepes, meats such as sausage from Lyon and ham from Pans: foie gras: red and white table wines from the Rhone region: Bordeaux Champagnes: and. of course. French fries. New York City is home to about 15.0(X) French natives, according to the French Institute Alliance Francaise. MORE IZL LESS BI00IA Upscale Living at a Down-sized Price. Hamlet Homes Introduces a New Home Collection from $120's at Muirfield! Bigger Homes (up to 19 more space!) 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