Expert: John Shea - 5/22/2009

Question
I seem to remember, from an anthro course I took many years ago, reading of a society that didn't have music. I remember being dubious. (The article also said the society didn't have religion, but spoke of a belief in ghosts and spirits.)

I've long forgotten the name of the society or the source of the article.

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks,

Steve

Answer
Steve
I thought I answered this question earlier this week, but it is still on the Allexperts site.  Maybe two's the charm, so I'll do so again.
There is, to the best of my knowledge, no such society.  Music is a human cultural universal (present in all known and historical cultures).
The society of which you may be thinking could be the Tasaday.  This was a hoax perpertrated by one a Phillipine landowner who convinced some local villagers to act as is they where a newly-discovered "lost tribe".  The hoax fooled a lot of media (no suprise there), and a couple of anthropologists (but few with in depth knowledge of either hunter-gatherers or Phillipine culture).  You might find a reference to the Tasaday on Wikipedia or somewhere else on the Internet that takes their claim seriously, but no prosessional anthropologists do so any longer.
As to belief in ghosts and spirits vs. religion -I don't see the difference, both accept the validity of supernatural phenomena.  It's a matter of perspective (one person's God is another person's spirit, another person's resurrection yet someone else's ghost story).
Cheers,
John Shea