According to my theory of human evolution, art evolved as a way to advance material science. Because we enjoy art we paid for it, which helped artists develop better control of materials.
According to Dorothy Hosler, author of The Sounds and Colors of Power: The Sacred Metallurgical Technology of Ancient West Mexico,
Metallic sounding instruments, especially bells, were used in rituals that offered protection in war, that celebrated creation, fertility, and regeneration, and that figured in concepts of the sacred—rituals, in short, that created a universe through song, through the sound of bells, and through reflective golden and silvery colors.
In Mexico, she is saying, advanced metallurgy was first used to make bells. So here is an example. Rituals, too, I argue, evolved because they provided a desire for “nice” stuff — the fine printing of Christmas cards, the fine clothes of priests — which helped state-of-the-art artisans improve.
Here was a way to support science/technology that worked. Whereas the current system gives us delusional ideas about genes.