Keeping rhythmic activities as an ongoing part of our lives

Do we have a biological need for rhythmic movements? Do we need to be moving rhythmically? Is there a biological need for us to be moving rhythmically?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Instinct is the inherent disposition of a living organism toward a particular action. Instincts are generally inherited patterns of responses or reactions to certain kinds of stimuli. In humans they are most easily observed in behaviors such as emotions, sexual drive, and other bodily functions, as these are largely biologically determined."

We often see people performing rhythmic movements with infants. Parents will hold a child and joggle the small children to calm down the child. This might be an up-and-down movement or a side-to-side movement or a vibrating movement. The children tell the people which way is most tranquilizing for them. Parents want crying children to stop, so they quickly learn which way this small children responds to best. No one needs to tell the people that the child needs their favorite movement. The parent knows. This certainly seems to be an 'inherent disposition . . . toward a particular action' as defined for an instinct. Parents normally rock the baby. It's possible that the need for this rhythmic activity may be the cause for the infant crying.

When babies have developed enough to hold themselves up (with help), they often start moving rhythmically. They bob up and down while 'standing'. Many babies at this age, are given bouncy seats which hang by springs from the ceiling and the babies use these seats to bounce themselves. Infants in these seats do not sit still. As soon as the find they can make the seat move up-and-down, they move up-and-down and every time they get in the seat, they move up-and-down. This also seems to be an 'inherent disposition . . . toward a particular action' as defined for an instinct. The babies normally take action to move up-and-down. Because of the springs holding the seat, the movements the baby makes are rhythmic movements.

When we stand a baby on a bed, the baby normally starts to move up-and-down. We adults might want the baby to stop moving up-and-down, but the natural tendency of the baby is to move up-and-down. Again, this seems to be an 'inherent disposition . . . toward a particular action' as defined for an instinct. The baby normally tries to make this rhythmic movement.

Primitive villages all over the the world have many ongoing rhythmic activities. Most games for children are rhythmic. The majority of the ceremonies for these villages are rhythmic. When village members get together for a task, they usually perform activities in rhythm to a chant. Primitive villages all have a strong tendency to be rhythmic in all activities (work, play, and ceremony). When all these primitive villages around the world focus strongly on rhythmic activities, this must be another example of an 'inherent disposition . . . toward a particular action' as defined for an instinct. If there is a strong tendency for all primitive villages around the world to have rhythmic activities, this universal tendency toward rhythmicity did not come about by chance. There must be a biological need of some kind for all these rhythmicity to be so universal across primitive villages.

One African people has a wonderful rhythmic activity for boys. They stand in a circle facing the back of the boy next to them. They put their right hand on the right shoulder of the boy in front and lift their left leg. They use their left hand to take the left leg of the boy in front of them. Now they are all balancing on their right legs, in a circle. The leader starts the chant that goes with this activity, and the boys start jumping in unison to the beat of the chant. The groups of younger children jump a few inches, and the groups of older children jump 12 to 15 inches high. They maintain the jumping, in unison, until one of them loses the rhythm and they all fall down. Usually, they fall on the one who loses the beat. This activity teaches group rhythm and provides intense peer pressure to have good rhythm.

We have seen that rhythmic activities seem to be natural across primitive villages all over the globe. We have seen that adults and infants and children will start and maintain rhythmic activities. We have seen that babies ask for rhythmic activities. We have seen that all over the world primitive villages emphasize rhythmic activities for all members of that people. And, even though we may be more culturally advanced, patty-cake, jump-rope, bouncing, rocking, dancing, toe-tapping to music, and other rhythmic activities still remain fully available in our modern villages.

We know from our work experience that the ability to maintain rhythmic activities is directly related to focus. We also know that those with poor rhythmicity are usually considered to have developmental difficulties. When these children who are developmentally delayed learn the ability to maintain rhythmic activities, they pick up where they were developmentally blocked and start to mature in a natural way.

We think that there is an instinct for rhythmic activities, and the biological need supporting this instinct is for the appropriate development of some rhythm circuits in the brain; these rhythm circuits are needed for focus and good physical performance. We think that these rhythm circuits are the biological facility that maintains the functioning of the natural developmental process.

We know that sustained, appropriate rhythmic activities re-starts and maintains these circuits. So the biological need is for the appropriate development of these circuits, which causes appropriate human development and maturity and causes the on-going maintenance of a person's focus and good physical performance.

Cliff David has degrees in Anthropology and Counseling. You can read more of his thoughts at Rhythm of the Music

Title:
Keeping rhythmic activities as an ongoing part of our lives
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