Which Came First: Language or Music? May 9, 2012

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Complete video available for purchase at http://fora.tv/2012/04/28/Paleoanthropology_Session_QA

Anthropologist Dean Falk responds to an audience question about whether language or music evolved first, with the surprising answer that they may have evolved together.

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A human female is born, lives her life, and dies within the span of a few decades, but the shape of her life has been strongly influenced by 50 million years of primate evolution.

Join leading scientists for a special symposium at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco as they discuss the The Female in Evolution. This rich topic will be considered in the context of the three research areas funded by The Leakey Foundation; Paleoanthropology, Behavioral and Hunter-gatherers and will integrate life history, behavior, anatomy, development, and cultural identity of females.

Dean Falk is an evolutionary anthropologist who splits her time between Santa Fe, New Mexico where she is a Senior Scholar at the School for Advanced Research (SAR), and Tallahassee, Florida where she is the Hale G. Smith Professor of Anthropology at Florida State University. Her work focuses on the evolution of the human brain and cognition. Recent projects include collaborative research on Homo floresiensis ("Hobbit") and an investigation of the brain of Albert Einstein.