{"title":"Gary Tomlinson","description":"\u003cp\u003eGary Tomlinson explores the deep intersections of music, culture, and evolution, inviting readers to consider the profound roles that sound and meaning play in human history. His works blend rigorous scholarship with engaging narrative, appealing to those interested in the wider implications of arts and culture across time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough titles like \u003cem\u003eA Million Years of Music\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Machines of Evolution and the Scope of Meaning\u003c\/em\u003e, Tomlinson addresses complex ideas about communication, creativity, and the origins of human expression. His writing offers thoughtful reflections suitable for readers intrigued by the evolving relationship between biology, culture, and art.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"a-million-years-of-music-by-gary-tomlinson-9781890951528","title":"A Million Years of Music","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA new narrative for the emergence of human music, drawing from archaeology, cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary theory.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat is the origin of music? In the last few decades, this centuries-old puzzle has been reinvigorated by new archaeological evidence and developments in the fields of cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary theory.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this path-breaking book, renowned musicologist Gary Tomlinson draws from these areas to construct a new narrative for the emergence of human music. Starting at a period of human prehistory long before Homo sapiens or music existed, Tomlinson describes the incremental attainments that, by changing the communication and society of prehuman species, laid the foundation for musical behaviours in more recent times. He traces in Neandertals and early sapiens the accumulation and development of these capacities, and he details their coalescence into modern musical behaviour across the last hundred millennia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut \u003cem\u003eA Million Years of Music\u003c\/em\u003e is not about music alone. Tomlinson builds a model of human evolution that revises our understanding of the interaction of biology and culture across evolutionary time-scales, challenging and enriching current models of our deep history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs he tells his story, he draws in other emerging human traits: language, symbolism, a metaphysical imagination and the ritual it gives rise to, complex social structure, and the use of advanced technologies. Tomlinson's model of evolution allows him to account for much of what makes us a unique species in the world today and provides a new way of understanding the appearance of humanity in its modern form.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47470040940780,"sku":"9781890951528","price":74.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781890951528-a-million-years-of-music.jpg?v=1775208669"},{"product_id":"the-machines-of-evolution-and-the-scope-of-meaning-by-gary-tomlinson-9781942130796","title":"The Machines of Evolution and the Scope of Meaning","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA groundbreaking account of the origin and place of meaning in the earthly biosphere\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat is meaning? How does it arise? Where is it found in the world? In recent years, philosophers and scientists have answered these questions in different ways. Some see meaning as a uniquely human achievement, while others extend it to trees, microbes, and even to the bonding of DNA and RNA molecules. In this groundbreaking book, Gary Tomlinson defines a middle path. Combining emergent thinking about evolution, new research on animal behaviours, and theories of information and signs, he tracks meaning far out into the animal world. At the same time, he discerns limits to its scope and identifies innumerable life forms, including many animals and all other organisms, that make no meanings at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTomlinson's map of meaning starts from signs, the fundamental units of reference or aboutness. Where signs are at work, they shape meaning-laden lifeways, offering possibilities for distinctive organism\/niche interactions and sometimes leading to technology and culture. The emergence of meaning does not, however, monopolise complexity in the living world. Countless organisms generate awe-inspiring behavioural intricacies without meaning. \u003cem\u003eThe Machines of Evolution and the Scope of Meaning\u003c\/em\u003e offers a revaluation of both meaning and meaninglessness, uncovering a foundational difference in animal solutions to the hard problem of life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47471806906604,"sku":"9781942130796","price":64.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/fb91ccaa6569d42129d8c2cccea8fcc0.jpg?v=1775791672"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/gary-tomlinson.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}