Posted: Jan 31, 2011 4:27 pm
In addition to continuing to mistate facts (the artistic achievement of Neanderthals is no less then that of other hominids contemporary to them; the Lascaux cave paintings were created some 15,000 years after the extinction of Neanderthals), Federico, you continue to evade the main point: What evidence is there that musical ability is genetically linked to any particular ethnoracial group? While you're at it, maybe you could demonstrate that "race" as a concept has any validity at the genetic level in the first place.
I've already conceded that, at an individual level, musical talent likely has a genetic component, though I think it's overstating things to say Mozart and Salieri arose from the same environment. (Did Salieri have a father as driven as Mozart's, and who brought him all over Europe to perform for and hear the greatest musicians of the day before he was ten years old?). The issue is whether these differences are discernible at the "racial" level.
I've already conceded that, at an individual level, musical talent likely has a genetic component, though I think it's overstating things to say Mozart and Salieri arose from the same environment. (Did Salieri have a father as driven as Mozart's, and who brought him all over Europe to perform for and hear the greatest musicians of the day before he was ten years old?). The issue is whether these differences are discernible at the "racial" level.