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184• Martin Boiko studied Baltic polyphonic traditions and suggested directconnections between the polyphonic traditions of the Baltic region and the carriers ofspecific archaeological cultures (Boiko, 1992).• Nino Tsitsishvili studied parallels between polyphonic traditions and someelements of the ethnography of Georgians and South Slavs (Tsitsishvili, 1991). In anotherstudy she suggested the presence of Indo-European elements in the drone polyphonicsinging of East Georgian table songs (Tsitsishvili, 1998).• Bozena Muszkalska studied secondal singing in the Mediterranean region andcame to the conclusion that unlike European professional polyphony, where a “maximumpurity of intonation” requires a “considerable involvement of the intellect”, secondalsinging is mostly based on the “intuition and shaped, to a considerable degree, under theimpact of emotion” (Muszkalska, 2005:203)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _As is evident from this brief review of published ideas and theories oncomparative studies of traditional polyphony, as well as from the review of polyphonictraditions of the world regions from the first part of this book, vocal polyphony is truly aninternational phenomenon. Different forms of vocal polyphony are present on all thecontinents and major regions of the world. Besides, with the introduction of the notion of“social polyphony” (which generally means group singing, not necessarily singing indifferent parts) it is becoming clear that no human culture is completely devoid of groupsinging (social polyphony) (Jordania, 2005). We will concentrate on the general humanpredisposition towards group singing and will discuss the origins of the phenomenon ofsocial polyphony mostly in the third part of this book, together with the problem of theorigins of traditional polyphony and other related issues.The previous part of this book was a regional review of the polyphonic traditionsof the world, so I tried to avoid (as much as I could) any comparative endeavors duringthe review. On the contrary, this chapter is heavily based on the comparative method. So,in this chapter the reader will find discussions of the following topics:‣ General methodology of the comparative study of traditions of vocalpolyphony;‣ Discussion of stable and mobile elements of traditional music and polyphony;‣ Traditional polyphony from the perspective of the historical dynamics – theprocesses of the appearance (or disappearance) of vocal polyphonic traditions;‣ Some of the major population migrations in the course of human history andtheir influence on the distribution of polyphonic traditions;‣ Possibility of distinguishing “primary” and “secondary” forms of traditionalpolyphony,‣ Separate cases of the historical studies of some polyphonic traditions,including European drone polyphony, European medieval professionalpolyphony, East European heterophony, Lithuanian sutartines, Central Asianovertone singing, polyphony of Ainus and Southeast Asian peoples, Nuristanpolyphony, Tuareg polyphony, polyphony among American Indians,Polynesian polyphony, discussion of the possibility of vocal polyphony in