I guess it's not too surprising that no matter where you go on the planet, no matter what the cultural background of the people, the one thing we're all going to have in common is some means or other of being able to bang out a rhythm. It was probably something the species picked up on shortly after the discovery of fire on our climb up the evolutionary ladder.
You can picture it can't you? A bunch of our early kin sitting around the fire, and one of them, there's always somebody like it in every crowd, has a nervous twitch and with the bone he'd been just chewing on starts to tap on the hollow log beside him. He soon discovers he can change the sound he's making by how hard he hits the log, how many times he hits it in a row, and that he can also make patterns with the sound.
It was the Greeks who gave us the beginnings of the word we use today to describe the pattern made by sound, coming from their word meaning to flow: rhythmos. But I'm sure that the cultures that predated or co-existed with the founders of Western thought had their own words for the same idea. In the days when everything was done by hand, from lighting a fire by rubbing two sticks together or striking two rocks, the rhythm of life was ever present and obvious.
Even in the age of machines and industrialization a kind of rhythm could be heard via the clanging of machinery and the piecing together of bits and pieces on the assembly line. However, it was also the first stage in our separation from the rhythm of life, (the heartbeat), resulting in us eventually becoming deaf to all but the cacophony that surrounds us. 
Thankfully, there are some who still strive to maintain the connection for us; those individuals who are sensitive to the effect rhythm can have on us physically, emotionally, and (dare I say this publicly in the West) spiritually. I'm not talking about some New Age high priest of whatever spiritual tradition is fashionable to co-opt this week; I'm not even talking about so-called legitimate religious people either. Nope I'm talking about some of the most profane and real people on the planet – musicians.
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