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The Meaning of Grooming: Social Grooming as a Substitute for Physical Grooming
According to Dunbar, because language evolved as a substitute for physical grooming. Language enables maintenance of contacts and friendships among many more individuals than would be possible by physical grooming. But it takes a lot of brain power to keep track of so many social relationships. So natural selection came up with some sophisticated brain-based adaptations, especially language. In the grooming-substitute hypothesis, the large human cortex evolved in response to the selective pressure of ever-increasing “symbolic grooming” (language and related adaptations). As other researchers have pointed out, this would especially apply to child rearing in culturally complex environments, and would include the evolution of music.
Language and music probably have a common origin, as discussed previously. If selective pressure of ever-increasing social structure and complexity drove encephalization, then language and music were probably the main specific adaptations, language for symbolic (referential) communication, music for emotional communication.
Even language has its limits with respect to social interaction. Typically, if four or fewer people are engaged in a conversation, all may participate meaningfully. However, once the group grows to five or six or more, it splits into separate smaller conversational sub-groupings—even though all five or six individuals are physically close together.
This may help explain why popular music groups tend to lose cohesion, musically and socially, as membership increases beyond three or four musicians.