1. Introductory Remarks

My "monograph," "Echoes Of Our Forgotten Ancestors" has recently been published -- in the journal *The World of Music.* See http://www.vwb-verlag.com/Katalog/m748.html

It is centered around a rather outrageous claim on my part: that there is good evidence for believing that some traditions of our earliest "modern" ancestors survive today, more or less intact, in the music of certain indigenous groups in Africa and elsewhere, along the "Out of Africa" trail hypothesized by so many genetic anthropologists in recent years. While I could be wrong, what interests me now is what the ramifications for anthropology could be if I am right. I will be happy to provide a copy of my essay to anyone who contacts me requesting it, and is willing to offer some feedback. I'll only add that in my view the neglect of traditional music studies by anthropologists, linguists, geneticists, cognitive scientists, etc., has been extremely unfortunate, if not something of a scandal. Whether or not I'm currently on the right track, I do think it high time for the study of music to take its place beside the study of language, ritual, myth, art, etc., in the current debate over human origins and cultural evolution.