Social bonding through dance and ‘musiking’

Humans’ social agency manifests within large, interconnected social networks. These networks are established and maintained via a number of group behavioral practices including sports, religious ritual, language, and music-based activities. This chapter explores the example of dance—movement to music—as a ubiquitous and ancient human activity which may serve the important adaptive function of facilitating the creation and strengthening of social bonds between interacting group members. This “social bonding hypothesis” of dance is described in the context of large-scale human sociality through a review of the role of synchrony (matched movement in time) in enhancing social closeness; an exploration of the specific role of music in moving and bonding humans; and a discussion of how a coupled conceptualization of music and dance (termed “musiking”) is a relevant lens through which we might develop empirical and theoretical understandings of foundations of our social agency