Structuring Social Relationships
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Structuring social relationships Music-making and group identity Rebecca Naomi Whiteman Corpus Christi College This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2020 1 2 This thesis is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my thesis has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. 3 4 Structuring social relationships: Music-making and group identity Rebecca Naomi Whiteman This thesis is about groups and their boundaries: how we bond with some people, but are separated from others who do not belong. It is also about social interaction - the building-blocks of this group identity. In particular, I investigate music’s role in our social landscape. Making music together is a powerful way of establishing and structuring these relationships; I argue that it can bring people together, but can also reinforce the divisions between them. First, I present a new synthesis, drawing on relevant literature about our capacity for sociality, analyses of social interaction, and a history of the research on social groups. I outline a helpful framework by which to understand different forms of social engagement, depending on the nature of the interaction goal; I also clarify the concepts of interdependence and categorisation as distinct processes in group formation. Following this, I suggest that when our interaction is primarily affiliative, or relational, in goal (with little or no external goal focus), then it brings people together via relationships of interdependence; when we aim to communicate something more precisely (i.e. we have an external goal), then the need to maintain our common ground might instead form the basis for social division via categorisation. Second, I report an initial empirical project which tests some of these predictions. My experiments show that music-making enhances affiliation, especially when there is no external goal focus. Adding a goal contributes to social division - affiliation on the basis of common team membership - but only when the interaction task was a success. When it was not successful, or caused embarrassment for those involved, participants instead seem to distance themselves from any associated group identity. This experimental work is supported by video analyses, in which I show different patterns of behaviour in interaction with and without an external goal. This thesis is an important starting point in understanding the nature both of social groups and of music. It highlights the potential for music-making to structure our social world through either affiliation or division. 5 6 For my parents 7 Acknowledgements This thesis would not exist without the support and friendship of many in Cambridge and beyond. I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Ian Cross, for all of his wisdom, guidance, encouragement and reassurance for the past three and a half years. Thanks are due to all who have formed the community at the Centre for Music and Science, especially Juan Pablo Robledo del Canto, Erica Cao, Satinder Gill, Sarah Hawkins and Xi Zhang. I thank them all, together with my advisors, Jeremy Begbie and Antonio Rodrigues, for helping me to grow as a researcher, musician and scientist. I am indebted to the many participants without whom I could not have developed and run my experiments. I am grateful also to those who helped me with all the logistics on these occasions: Nicholas Lee, Carla Cao, Louisa Denby, Gabriele Ceccheti, and Kaamya Varagur. I would also like to thank Miles Eastwood and Mustafa Beg, whose technical expertise helped greatly in setting up my video analysis work. Throughout my PhD, I have enjoyed many hours of making music with St. John’s Voices, and with many other friends through the University’s Instrumental Award Scheme for chamber music. I am thankful for these opportunities. I have been blessed with a few very good friends, and am thankful especially for Jonathan. My family have provided endless encouragement and support; thank you to my Mother and Father. Note I have used ‘’ for simple quotations from a text. I have used “” for quoting something second-hand (i.e. something quoted within a text), or a colloquial turn of phrase. 8 Table of contents INTRODUCTION 12 Understanding musicality .......................................................................................................... 12 The Western music scene ............................................................................................................. 13 Music beyond the West: expanding our definition ....................................................................... 15 Making music for survival ............................................................................................................. 18 Understanding sociality ............................................................................................................. 21 Approaches to social psychology .................................................................................................. 21 A helpful reductionism? ................................................................................................................ 25 The structure of this thesis ......................................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 1 Social capacities 29 The evolutionary landscape ....................................................................................................... 29 Evolutionary paradigms................................................................................................................. 30 The emergence of group behaviour .............................................................................................. 35 Our social instinct ...................................................................................................................... 39 Pair bonding .................................................................................................................................. 40 Group belongingness .................................................................................................................... 43 Social cognition ......................................................................................................................... 46 Understanding others: self-other equivalence ............................................................................. 46 Understanding others: beliefs and emotions ................................................................................ 49 Working with others: sharing their intentions .............................................................................. 52 Summary: our interaction engine ............................................................................................... 54 CHAPTER 2 Social interaction 56 Everyday interaction: conversation ............................................................................................ 57 Performing conversation: evidence from micro-analysis ............................................................. 59 Achieving alignment: maintaining our common ground .............................................................. 65 Communicative goals .................................................................................................................... 68 Creating good impressions ............................................................................................................ 72 Types of interaction ................................................................................................................... 75 Our communicative toolkit: music and speech ............................................................................. 76 Interaction goals: differentiating music and speech ..................................................................... 82 9 CHAPTER 3 Social groups 89 A brief history of social groups ................................................................................................... 90 Individual and social: do groups exist? ......................................................................................... 91 Groups in the lab: social categorisation and identity ................................................................... 96 Interdependence and categorisation ........................................................................................ 102 Interdependence and categorisation in minimal groups ........................................................... 102 Interdependence and categorisation in tandem ........................................................................ 105 CHAPTER 4 Musical groups 111 Social bonding: intrinsic-oriented interaction ............................................................................ 112 Moving in time: synchrony and social bonding .........................................................................