UNIB10003 ECOHIST BEH ZHI JIE CEDRYCH, 649751

Fire was the most important technology of all in the evolution of humans.
Discuss with examples of the impact of fire on human life. Key ideas might
be hearth, food range, landscape management. (500 words)

Fire provides light, warmth and has multiple other uses. Is it quintessential
technology for our evolution? Technology here is: an established and
knowledgeable design or method of use of a tool.

Since fire occurs naturally, it is hard to predict the exact date at which fire was
deliberately used. There is considerable evidence for the earliest controlled use
of fire in the Lower and Middle Pleistocene
*
periods for various sites in Africa,
Asia and Europe
1
. However, the most agreed upon proposal is Zhoukoudian, 0.5
Mya where it is postulated that Homo erectus used fire for the first time. Other
more controversial claims are for Chesowanja, Kenya, 1.4 Mya and Yuanmou,
China, 1.7Mya
1
.

Some may question why does the earliest date of deliberate use of fire so
important? It may tell us how instrumental fire has been to our evolution. The
period may give us an idea of how fire was used, E.g. Warmth in a cold climate,
predator protection, clearing of dense vegetation. We can make parallel
comparisons of challenges our ancestors might have faced in a particular period,
and how important fire was in overcoming those challenges.

Hearths are fireplaces or pits that are deliberately made. They could provide
warmth, light, protection and the cooking of food. Archaeologist, Oakley
2

(1956b), argue that without the use of fire, the colonization of temperate
latitudes of Europe and Asia would not have been possible. Its warmth would
have been paramount for survival in cold inhospitable environments.
In Chesowanja, traces of fire are first found in association with animal kill sites,
indication that it is possible that animal carcasses were brought to the sites to be
cooked
3
. At Zhoukoudian, where blackened animal bones were found,
archaeologist Movius postulates that fire provided warmth, protection and
cooked food
4
.

The cooking of food is important to our evolution. According to Wrangham
5
, we
are able to absorb more energy through the cooking of starchy food, as complex
carbohydrates become more digestible. This would have provided hunter-
gatherers with more energy for the same amount of food. The increase in
nutrition might have aided in our evolution of larger and more complex brains
that require more energy.



*
Lower Pleistocene 1.8Mya to 730Kya
Middle Pleistocene terminates 128Kya

Movius (1949:402) Fire was a basic item in his daily life. He presumably cooked his
meat over the open hearth in which he burned the wood of the Redbud, a type of shrub.
Since fire would have provided warmth in the then-existing cave, and since it would
keep predatory animals away at night, it must have been an immense asset to him.
UNIB10003 ECOHIST BEH ZHI JIE CEDRYCH, 649751
Fire also enabled hunter-gatherers to smoke their food, removing moisture so
as to allow storage of food through periods of fewer resources
6
. There is also
evidence of fire being used to drive animals into suitable kill sites, a technique
of hunting
7
. These last two examples show us a greater technological mastery of
fire that speaks of our evolution and would have been important to our survival.

Fire was also possibly used to shape the environment for food. Ponting (2007)
3

postulates that gathering and hunting groups altered the conditions in which
wild crops grew. This is done through controlled burning, which favours annual
plants, as well as improving nutrient recycling. In Tasmania, the aborigines used
fire to encourage edible bracken growth. The Maoris also used the same method
to encourage the growth of rhizome, a large part of their diet. Elementary
environment modification here could be a precursor to Agriculture, an extremely
important part of our evolution.

Fire has played an important role in our evolution. However, whether it is the
most important technology can be called into question. There are other crucial
technologies like stone tools, agriculture, clothing, and the bow that have played
a large part in our evolution as well.




























References:
UNIB10003 ECOHIST BEH ZHI JIE CEDRYCH, 649751

1.
James, Steven R. (1989). "Hominid Use of Fire in the Lower and Middle Pleistocene: A
Review of the Evidence". Current Anthropology (University of Chicago Press) 30 (1): 126.
2.
Oakley, K.P. (1956) Fire as a Palaeolithi tool and weapon. Proceedings of the Prehistoric
Society 21:36
3.
Clive Ponting (2007) A New Green History of the World. (3): 33, 41, 90
4.
Movius, H.L., JR. (1949). The Lower Palaeothic cultures of southern and eastern Asia.
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 38:329.
5.
Wrangham R, Conklin-Brittain N. (2003). "Cooking as a biological trait". Comp Biochem
Physiol a Mol Integr Physiol 136 (1): 3546. PMID 14527628.
6.
William R. Leonard. "Food for Thought: Into the Fire. Scientific American.

7.
T.T. Kozlowski. (1974) Fire and Ecosystems. (5): 145