&quot;I have no theory of musical evolution per se...

"I have no theory of musical evolution per se, German. You clearly want me to have one and feel that I should have one, but I don't."

Yes, this is one of our recurrent points of contention. I can't possibly imagine how a student of prehistory, biological or cultural, can work without an evolutionary model. You model your data on population genetic phylogenies but population geneticists again don't have an evolutionary model (social organization, geography, demographic structure, population scenario) in place. This was the very early criticism of the out of African model that came out of the pre-mtDNA "school" of genetics. See, e.g., Neel JV (1991) Estrutura populacional dos amerindios e algumas interpretaqoes sobre evoluqao humana. In WA Neves (ed.) Origens, adaptacoes e diversidade biologica de homem nativo de Amazonia. Pp. 25-38. Belem.

An absence of an evolutionary model naturally leads you down the road of a catastrophic thinking.