7 December 2005, Colloquim Musicology, prof. dr. Steven Mithen (University of Reading)

This lecture and seminar by prof. dr. Steven Mithen (University of Reading) is centered round his new book 'The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind & Body' that addresses the question: What is the point of music, and where did our capacity for it come from? The book offers a thought-provoking answer, weaving together diverse strands of evidence in a smart rejoinder to those, like Steven Pinker, who have dismissed music's evolutionary significance. In doing so, it offers new perspectives on the origins and relationship between language and music, and their place in the development of the modern mind.

Steven Mithen is Professor in Archaeology and Head of the School of Human and Environmental Science at Reading University. His previous books include 'The Prehistory of the Mind' and 'After the Ice.'

The seminar will bring together a variety of experts from fields ranging from cognition, evolutionary psychology and linguistics to philosophy, musicology, anthropology and archeology. A number of respondents will be invited to comment on (chapters of) the book.

The lecture is open to the general public. Participation in the seminar will be on the basis of registration.

Organized by the Department of Musicology, Universiteit van Amsterdam with support of the ILLC, CSCA and the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO-Gw).

More information will be made available on: http://www.hum.uva.nl/mmm/origins/