Lullabies and Universality: An Ethnographic Review
Cross-Cultural Research • Vol/Iss. 0(0) • Sage Publications • • Published In • Pages: 1-36 •
By Aubinet, Stéphane
Hypothesis
When lullabies are defined narrowly as a culturally conserved repertoire of songs sung to soothe infants, they are a statistical universal (or at least a near universal) across all human cultures.
Note
While a one-tailed binomial test using the narrow definition of "lullaby" resulted in a significant p-value for the entire dataset, this result did not hold when geographic variation was accounted for. For example, throughout Oceania, p = 0.15 when a stricter definition of "lullaby" was used, while in North America p = 0.11. Thus, the hypothesis is partially supported.
| Test Name | Support | Significance | Coefficient | Tail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One-tailed Binomial Test | Partially Supported | *See note | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN |
| Variable Name | Variable Type | OCM Term(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Presence of lullabies | Dependent | Music, Infant Care |