The hypothesis expounded by the American ethnologist – that the effects of voices seen amongst the Hadza could be extrapolated to draw conclusions relevant to the whole of mankind – is contradicted by the Frankfurt-based phonetician Vivien Zuta. Voice and vocal pitch, asserts Zuta, are dependent on too many variables relating to the emotional state and moods of the person in question to be able to provide information on their personality and character traits. Zuta considers the intonation of the individual to be of far greater importance than the vocal pitch. In short, a person’s acoustic appearance is dependant upon the complex interaction of several factors and lives a life of its own. The voice, Zuta once stated in an interview, "is like the manner of speaking: very local and transient. As such it cannot be generalized. The studies have even proved the oft-suspected connection between body size, testosterone and voice to be spurious." The phon eticianwarns above all against pronouncing cross-cultural generalized judgments. "Voice use and intonation are dependent on culture and language. In southern European countries, the base frequency is generally higher than in northern Europe. We can even identify differences be tween the various dialects in one country." Here too, the sound makes the music, but is nonetheless received and per ceived differently depending on culture and region. Which brings us back to the Hadza. To take this small nomadic people of no more than 1,000 souls as an example of a generalized theory of voice reception is an extremely bold step in itself, because they communicate with a so-called “click” language like the Bushmen, an idiom which is totally different from all other languages, especially the tonal ones, in terms of articulation and intonation. Which means that even the Hadza’s auditory habits relating to voice and vocal pitch may have little to do with our own.

Anno Bachem