Note From the Field - Investigating Universality and Diversity in Song and Story

This presentation shares results from two large-scale comparative projects — the Natural History of Song (NHS) and Anansi — that investigate global patterns in music and storytelling, respectively. For NHS, I will present evidence of form-function regularities in song and of behavioral contexts that appear universally associated with music (e.g., healing, dance, lullaby). For Anansi, I will preview findings on how modern Western stories diverge from narratives told around the world and throughout history, and on the behavioral contexts in which people have told stories across cultures. I will discuss the diverse methodologies we have employed, including the challenges of using LLMS to annotate unconventional texts. Finally, I will show how long-term fieldwork with a single society — in this case, Northern Aché foragers in Paraguay — can complicate conclusions drawn from comparative projects, illustrating the value of combining large-scale comparative research with fine-grained ethnographic research.