Poetry, music and narrative are the three aesthetic genres based on uniquely human verbal and vocal capabilities. Universal across all languages and cultures and accessible to all developing children, their foundation must be deep-going. How did they arise among our early ancestors and what does this origin imply for how we are able to participate in the different aspects of their creation and performance? How do we learn poetic, narrative and musical abilities? To be able to study these questions from a scientific point of view it’s important to take a cross-cultural approach that also considers contact and interaction between different languages. Research in recent years has in fact made significant progress toward a better understanding of the underlying competencies in literature and music, and of the processes of acquisition of artistic sensibility in each case. This book reviews the relevant research, and at the same time challenges popular views in academia associated with cultural studies and related fields that have rejected the methods of modern science.
