Cultural transmission of traditional songs in the Ryukyu Archipelago.

ABSTRACT: Geographic patterns of cultural variations are affected by how cultural traits are transmitted within and between populations. It has been argued that cultural traits are transmitted in different manners depending on their characteristics; for example, words for basic concepts are less liable to horizontal transmission between populations (i.e., borrowing) than other words. Here we examine the geographic variation of traditional songs in the Ryukyu Archipelago, southwestern islands of Japan, to explore cultural evolution of music with a focus on different social contexts in which songs are sung. Published scores of 1,342 traditional songs are coded using the CantoCore song classification scheme and distances between the songs are calculated from the codings. Neighbor-Net graphs of regions/

SUBMITTER: Nishikawa Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9231793 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature