Fire: The Spark that Ignited Human Evolution
Burton FD. 2009. Fire: The Spark that Ignited Human Evolution. University of New Mexico Press; Albuquerque. 231 pp. ISBN 978-0-8263-4646-9.
Description:
The thesis of this book is that the hominin relationship with fire began at or soon after the divergence of early hominins from the chimp ancestor, and that it was a primary driving force in human evolution. Following this, proximity and eventually use and dependence on fire then irrevocably altered the hormonal cycles that depend on light and darkness, ultimately driving many of the changes we see that differentiate us from our closest relatives. This fairly short book is divided into seven chapters. In the first two, the author introduces her thesis, and follows with a discussion of how our ancestors might have identified the beneficial uses of fire, contextualised within a brief description of the ecological role of fire in the African savanna and what is known of the relationship between non-human primates and fire. Chapter three focuses on the implications of increased light (i.e. an expanded day) for hominin physiology. Chapter four introduces the genetic and environmental evidence for our understanding of the emergence of our lineage circa 6 mya. In the fifth chapter, the author considers ape and monkey analogues to further build a picture of what early hominins might have been like behaviourly. The sixth chapter considers the known archaeological evidence for fire. In the final chapter the author argues that this body of knowledge, taken together, supports her thesis of contact with fire very early in our lineage (circa 6 mya), as the conditions were appropriate and sufficient for fire dependence. Of course, this thesis is not grounded in direct evidence per se – as archaeological remains of fire occur considerably later in the evolution of our lineage – but rather presents an interesting (if highly speculative) point of view.
