Though musicology is defined as “the historical and scientific study of music,” the term is typically applied only to the study of music from the European classical tradition. “Ethnomusicology” is used to describe the study of nonwestern musical traditions and to the comparative study of different musical cultures. The more general term exomusicology (from the greek prefix exo, meaning ‘external to’ or ‘outside of’) is more appropriate to the study of nonhuman musical traditions, much as exobiology refers to the study of non-Earth life forms, and exolinguistics to the study of alien languages.