Steven Mithen/ Kristina Musholt
Tuesday 22 May 2012, 6.30-8.00pm
Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE
Steven Mithen, Professor of Early Prehistory and Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Reading. He is the author of The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body
Chair: Kristina Musholt, LSE Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method and Deputy Director of the Forum for European Philosophy
The relationship between music and language has been discussed by philosophers ever since Giambattista Vico in the 17th century, and probably before. Today many disciplines contribute to this debate, notably neuroscience and comparative ethology. This lecture brought a perspective from archaeology, interpreting the artefacts and fossils of our extinct stone-age ancestors and relatives. It found that they may have been singing long before they were speaking.
