who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

204amazing conclusion that with some minor exceptions, the only major population on ourplanet, that can drink milk without complications, is the population of North and CentralEurope (and their descendants on different continents).Symptomatically, scholars, who were conducting these studies, initiallyconsidered the ability to absorb milk without problems as a norm of the human condition.If we take into account that most of these scholars were Europeans themselves, and forthem drinking milk was a very natural part of their life, it is not difficult to understandthis kind of unconscious “European arrogance” towards other populations of the world.From the end of the 1970s it has been acknowledged that although very young children ofevery human population naturally drink milk, it is a norm for most human populationsthat as children grow, they lose the ability to absorb lactose (to drink milk). So, it is theNorth and Central European adult population’s ability to absorb milk, if we may say so,is “out of the human norm”.How can this case of the human population’s ability or inability to drink milk helpus to understand the historical dynamics of the distribution of vocal polyphony? No, I amnot going to link the distribution of milk absorption by different populations to thedistribution of vocal polyphony, but I think this case can teach us a very importanthistorical-psychological lesson – not to extrapolate European experience to otherpopulations of the world.In the previous section we were talking about the multiple documented cases oflosing the traditions of vocal polyphony. This section is dedicated to the documentedcases of the emergence of vocal polyphony. According to the dominant point of view inmusicology, regarding polyphony as the higher evolutionary (and later) stage of thedevelopment of musical culture, there must be many more documented cases of theemergence of traditional vocal polyphony from monophonic singing.And here is a disappointment for readers if they expect me to give the long list ofcultures where “primordial” monophony gave way to the evolutionarily “more advanced”polyphonic singing traditions: despite my lifelong keen interest in the issues ofpolyphony of different peoples and regions, I cannot name even one documented case ofthe emergence of vocal polyphony in traditional music from a formerly“monophonic” culture. Of course, I know that such categorical claims are virtuallynever correct, and I expect there will be at least some suggestions that my claim has nogrounds. Of course, I agree that when European missioners came to some remote regionsof the world, they did teach Christian polyphonic hymns to many aboriginal peoples,although we must remember that the success of European missioners in teachingEuropean hymns to non-Europeans was often based on solid local traditions ofpolyphonic singing (as in sub-Saharan Africa or in Polynesia). Besides, let us rememberthat in cases of European missionaries teaching Christian hymns we are dealing with theintroduction and purposeful teaching of a new culture, and not the evolutionarychange of traditional singing style from monophonic to polyphonic. Therefore, I am notclaiming that you cannot teach choral singing to representatives of monophonic musicaltraditions (although it does seems to be easier to teach a new polyphonic style to thepopulations that has the experience of singing any other type of polyphony). What I amclaiming is that I do not know a single documented case when the traditionalmonophonic singing style “evolved” into a traditional polyphonic singing style.