# African harps as units of cultural evolution: a cladistic analysis on their morphology

## TL;DR

This study uses cladistics to analyze African harp morphology, revealing patterns of cultural evolution and regional classifications.

## Contribution

The study is among the first to apply cladistics to musical instrument morphology, revealing continental-scale cultural evolution patterns.

## Key findings

- A well-resolved phylogenetic tree of African harps aligns with geocultural regions and ethnomusicological classifications.
- Vertical transmission patterns in harp morphology are robustly represented despite limited character contributions.
- Decorative features have minimal influence on the vertical evolution of African harps.

## Abstract

In Africa, harps exhibit significant morphological diversity, yet their historical trajectory remains largely underexplored. Phylogenetic reconstruction methods offer valuable tools for understanding this diversity and the relationships between groups of harps. This study is among the first to apply one of these methods, cladistics, to the morphology of a musical instrument, analysing 318 harps and 83 characters. We present a well-resolved phylogenetic tree, which shows several clades corresponding to geocultural regions, in alignment with ethnomusicological classifications. We show that this tree robustly represents the patterns of vertical transmission in the cultural evolution of harp morphology across Africa, despite the limited contribution of several tested characters. Additionally, a comparison with previous research reveals that characters coding decorations exert a minimal influence on the vertical evolution of these musical instruments. These findings provide valuable insights into the cultural evolution of harps on a continental scale, offering a clearer understanding of their diversity and revealing major evolutionary mechanisms.