Music and dance are two parallel routes for creating social cohesion

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Brown
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Social Bonding

Abstract Savage et al. do an excellent job of making the case for social bonding in general, but do a less good job of distinguishing the manners by which dance and music achieve this. It is important to see dance and music as two parallel and interactive mechanisms that employ the “group body” and “group voice,” respectively, in engendering social cohesion.

Pitch Syntax as an Evolutionary Prelingual Innovation

2020 ◽  
pp. 102986492094155
Author(s):  
Piotr Podlipniak
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Learning ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Mutual Trust ◽  
Hierarchical Systems ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Adaptive Function ◽  
Musical Pitch ◽  
Pitch Structure

Pitch syntax is an important part of musical syntax. It is a complex hierarchical system that involves generative production and perception based on pitch. Because hierarchical systems are also present in language grammar, the processing of a pitch hierarchy is predominantly explained by the activity of cognitive mechanisms that are not solely specific to music. However, in contrast to the processing of language grammar, which is mainly cognitive in nature, the processing of pitch syntax includes subtle emotional sensations that are often described in terms of tension and resolution or instability and stability. This difference suggests that the very nature of pitch syntax may be evolutionarily older than grammar in language, and has served another adaptive function. The aim of this paper is to indicate that the recognition of pitch structure may be a separate ability, rather than merely being part of general syntactic processing. It is also proposed that pitch syntax has evolved as a specific tool for social bonding in which subtle emotions of tension and resolution are indications of mutual trust. From this perspective, it is considered that musical pitch started to act as a medium of communication by the means of spectral synchronization between the brains of hominins. Pitch syntax facilitated spectral synchronization between performers of a well-established, enduring, communal ritual and in this way increased social cohesion. This process led to the evolution of new cortico-subcortical pathways that enabled the implicit learning of pitch hierarchy and the intuitive use of pitch structure in music before language, as we know it now, began.

scholarly journals Changes in social cohesion in a long-lived species under a perturbation regime

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Genovart ◽  
O. Gimenez ◽  
A. Bertolero ◽  
R. Choquet ◽  
D. Oro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
World Population ◽  
List Type ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
Capture Recapture ◽  
A Site

AbstractUnderstanding the behaviour of a population under perturbations is crucial and can help to mitigate the effects of global change. Sociality can influence the dynamics of behavioural processes and plays an important role on populations’ resilience. However little is known about the effects of perturbations on the social cohesion of group-living animals.To explore the strength of social cohesion and its dynamics under perturbations, we studied an ecological system involving a colonial, long-lived species living in a site experiencing a shift to a perturbed regime. This regime, caused by the invasion of predators, led this colony to hold from 70% to only 3% of the total world population in only one decade. Because birds breed aggregated in discrete and annually changing patches within large colonies, we could disentangle whether annual aggregation was random or resulted from social bonding among individuals. Our goals were 1) to uncover if there was any long-term social bonding between individuals and 2) to examine whether the perturbation regime affected social cohesion.We explored social cohesion by means of contingency tables and, within the Social Network Analysis framework, by modeling interdependencies among observations using additive and multiplicative effects (AME) and accounted for missing data. We analysed 25 years of monitoring with an individual capture-recapture database of more than 3,500 individuals.We showed that social bonding occurs over years in this species. We additionally show that social bonding strongly decreased after the perturbation regime. We propose that sociality and individual behavioural heterogeneity have been playing a major role driving dispersal and thus population dynamics over the study period.Perturbations may lead not only to changes in individuals’ behaviours and fitness but also to a change in populations’ social cohesion. The demographic consequences of the breaking down of social bonds are still not well understood, but they can be critical for population dynamics of social species. Further studies considering individual heterogeneity, sociality and different types of perturbations should be carried out to improve our understanding on the resilience of social species.

scholarly journals Time investments in rituals are associated with social bonding, affect and subjective health: a longitudinal study of Diwali in two Indian communities

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1805) ◽  
pp. 20190430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Purnima Singh ◽  
Shruti Tewari ◽  
Rebekka Kesberg ◽  
Johannes Alfons Karl ◽  
Joseph Bulbulia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Time Allocation ◽  
Family Cohesion ◽  
Subjective Health ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Relationship

Rituals are performed within specific socio-ecological niches, yet the different effects of the same ritual form across different niches (community contexts) remains unclear. Here, using longitudinal measures over a two-week period during Diwali (the Indian festival of light), we investigate the relationship between ritual time allocation and social cohesion in two Indian communities. First, the positive effects of ritual on social bonding, perceived health and affect were highest on the focal day of the festival. Second, we observed anticipatory effects of ritualistic commitment on affect prior to the main day of the festival. Third, social bonding patterns were similar in the two Indian settings, indicating that Diwali fosters social cohesion across diverse social ecologies (cultural niches). However, individually focused emotional benefits appear to dampened in more cosmopolitan environments. Finally, time investments reveal diminishing marginal utilities for ritual activities on social cognition. Ritual time investments were linked to greater affect and family cohesion up to a certain limit. We argue that attention to the diminishing returns of ritual time investments on social cohesion across diverse human ecologies is an important horizon for future cross-cultural investigations. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ritual renaissance: new insights into the most human of behaviours’.

scholarly journals Leadership and tempo perturbation affect coordination in medium-sized groups

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bahar Tunçgenç ◽  
Eoin Travers ◽  
Merle T. Fairhurst
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
Coordination Dynamics ◽  
Dyadic Interactions ◽  
Human Group ◽  
Group Behaviour ◽  
Marching Bands ◽  
Naturalistic Setting ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Sensorimotor Coupling

AbstractIn marching bands, sports, dance and virtually all human group behaviour, we coordinate our actions with others. Coordinating actions in time and space can act as a social glue, facilitating bonding among people. However, much of our understanding about coordination dynamics is based on research into dyadic interactions. Little is known about the nature of the sensorimotor underpinnings and social bonding outcomes of coordination in medium-sized groups—the type of groups, in which most everyday teamwork takes place. In this study, we explored how the presence of a leader and an unexpected perturbation influence coordination and cohesion in a naturalistic setting. In groups of seven, participants were instructed to walk in time to an auditory pacing signal. We found that the presence of a reliable leader enhanced coordination with the target tempo, which was disrupted when the leader abruptly changed their movement tempo. This effect was not observed on coordination with the group members. Moreover, participants’ perceptions of being a follower and group cooperativeness increased in the presence of a leader. This study extends our knowledge about coordination beyond previous work on dyads. We discuss our results in light of sensorimotor coupling and social cohesion theories of coordination in groups.

Assessment of the “Faiths and Social cohe-sion” Project: What one can learn in the fight against discrimination

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-382
Author(s):  
Dina Sensi
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Social Participation ◽  
Religious Difference ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
The Impact

The European action named “Faiths and Social cohesion”. Building up Social Participation in Religious Difference: Local Muslim Communities inEurope» was assessed during the last six months of the project. The objective was to assess the impact of the actions taken. 

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