Download or read book Animal Musicalities written by Rachel Mundy and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past century and a half, the voices and bodies of animals have been used by scientists and music experts as a benchmark for measures of natural difference. Animal Musicalities traces music’s taxonomies from Darwin to digital bird guides to show how animal song has become the starting point for enduring evaluations of species, races, and cultures. By examining the influential efforts made by a small group of men and women to define human diversity in relation to animal voices, this book raises profound questions about the creation of modern human identity, and the foundations of modern humanism.