The authors develop CantoCore, an expansion of Lomax's Cantometrics scheme, in order to code for additional candidate musical universals. No musical feature occurs with absolute universality, but several features occur with statistically significant frequency after controlling for historical relatedness, and an additional set of features were found to be universally related to each other. The authors highlight the role of these features in human coordination and cohesion, as well as their their utility to the fields of musical cognition and evolution.

Music is a universal but diverse human trait. Using a dataset of 5,242 songs from 719 societies, this study identifies five major dimensions of musical diversity that show patterned geographic and historical structure. The authors then use these dimensions to ask whether they are related to genetic and linguistic relationships from 121 societies. Musical similarities are found to be only weakly related to language or genetic relationships, with stronger links only in certain regions such as Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with further analysis showing largely vertical transmission across generations. Overall, global musical traditions appear largely independent from genetic and linguistic histories.

Music is a universal but diverse human trait. Using a dataset of 5,242 songs from 719 societies, this study identifies five major dimensions of musical diversity that show patterned geographic and historical structure. The authors then use these dimensions to ask whether they are related to genetic and linguistic relationships from 121 societies. Musical similarities are found to be only weakly related to language or genetic relationships, with stronger links only in certain regions such as Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with further analysis showing largely vertical transmission across generations. Overall, global musical traditions appear largely independent from genetic and linguistic histories.

Music is a universal but diverse human trait. Using a dataset of 5,242 songs from 719 societies, this study identifies five major dimensions of musical diversity that show patterned geographic and historical structure. The authors then use these dimensions to ask whether they are related to genetic and linguistic relationships from 121 societies. Musical similarities are found to be only weakly related to language or genetic relationships, with stronger links only in certain regions such as Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with further analysis showing largely vertical transmission across generations. Overall, global musical traditions appear largely independent from genetic and linguistic histories.

Music is a universal but diverse human trait. Using a dataset of 5,242 songs from 719 societies, this study identifies five major dimensions of musical diversity that show patterned geographic and historical structure. The authors then use these dimensions to ask whether they are related to genetic and linguistic relationships from 121 societies. Musical similarities are found to be only weakly related to language or genetic relationships, with stronger links only in certain regions such as Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with further analysis showing largely vertical transmission across generations. Overall, global musical traditions appear largely independent from genetic and linguistic histories.

Music is a universal but diverse human trait. Using a dataset of 5,242 songs from 719 societies, this study identifies five major dimensions of musical diversity that show patterned geographic and historical structure. The authors then use these dimensions to ask whether they are related to genetic and linguistic relationships from 121 societies. Musical similarities are found to be only weakly related to language or genetic relationships, with stronger links only in certain regions such as Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with further analysis showing largely vertical transmission across generations. Overall, global musical traditions appear largely independent from genetic and linguistic histories.

Music is a universal but diverse human trait. Using a dataset of 5,242 songs from 719 societies, this study identifies five major dimensions of musical diversity that show patterned geographic and historical structure. The authors then use these dimensions to ask whether they are related to genetic and linguistic relationships from 121 societies. Musical similarities are found to be only weakly related to language or genetic relationships, with stronger links only in certain regions such as Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with further analysis showing largely vertical transmission across generations. Overall, global musical traditions appear largely independent from genetic and linguistic histories.

By analyzing patterns of between- and within-population musical variability among 16 Austronesian-speaking aboriginal groups, the researchers hope to evaluate degree of similarity to structures of human genetic diversity. As in the genetic domain, within-population variance is found to be much higher than between-population variance, leading the researchers to suggest that patterns of musical distance and divergence may serve as an indicator of cultural evolution.

This study explores the prevalence of group singing and its relationship with changes in social organization's participatory dynamics, precisely community size and social differentiation. The authors use two samples: 1) 5776 audio recordings from 1024 societies and 2) 4709 ethnographic texts from 60 societies. There is significant support that group singing is more prevalent than solo singing. The results also show that community size predicts group singing in only one of the samples (GJB). However, there is no significant support for social differentiation as a predictor of group singing.

This study explores the prevalence of group singing and its relationship with changes in social organization's participatory dynamics, precisely community size and social differentiation. The authors use two samples: 1) 5776 audio recordings from 1024 societies and 2) 4709 ethnographic texts from 60 societies. There is significant support that group singing is more prevalent than solo singing. The results also show that community size predicts group singing in only one of the samples (GJB). However, there is no significant support for social differentiation as a predictor of group singing.