Scholar-Do: We Didn't Start the Fire

However, our ancestors did learn to control it.

Fire is a vital component of human developmental history; so vital in fact that it is often seen as the foundation of human civilization. That really depends on the definition of civilization that is being used though since evidence suggests human control of fire dates as far back as 1.7 million years ago. To put that into perspective, anatomically modern humans started appearing approximately 195,000 years ago. That means that control of fire was mastered by some of our earliest ancestors.

You’ll notice that I haven’t referenced humans as having invented fire and that is because we did not. Fire was solely in the realm of natural occurrence until much later when humans figured out how to create it. Our earliest ancestors would have discovered the applications for fire (the misconception is that we discovered the thing rather than its applications) before they figured out how to generate it themselves. In fact many of our earliest ancestors likely figured out a way to carry fire with them in one way or another before figuring our how to produce it themselves.

Why is fire vital to humanity?

It falls in to the same realm as the projectile point and clothing; the things that have allowed humanity to develop and use our big brains in order to better conquer our environment and spread farther (and more successfully) than any other species. Mastering fire gave our ancestors an incredible survival advantage. It allowed foods to be cooked. Cooking can destroy harmful toxins, but most importantly cooking (especially cooking meat) acts as a precursor to digestion.Just as human saliva and chewing helps to break down food for ease of digestion and nutrient absorption, the act of cooking also gives the benefit of helping to break down proteins. Not only does this mean that our ancestors saved energy in chewing and digesting, the food did not need to stay in the gut as long leading to the eventual reduction of overall gut size (over many generations of course) and as such all that extra energy went in to building a bigger brain. You know how you sometimes sit around a campfire, or even the dinner table, thinking and conversing rather than trying to chew for extended lengths of time? Our ancestors did the same thing.

Fire is also a source of heat and light. Even early humans were able to utilize fire to stay warm and expand in to inhospitable climates. It also provided a tool to ward off the dark (a primal fear of the dark is common to humanity due to our poor visual acuity in low-light conditions) and other animals. The comfort that fire provides has persisted over thousands of generations and as such has become ingrained in the human psyche, so much in fact that it also has a beneficial psychological effect especially in extreme situations.

Unfortunately humans are so good at inventing and making our lives easier that the skills to control fire have fallen quickly to the wayside in the last century. The control of and eventually generation of a fire was a vital tool for a large portion of human history, but due to the convenience and ease of natural gas and electric heating in homes and a prevalence for urban based lifestyles these skills sets are rarely needed. Who cares though, right? We have something better than that now. Right? Due to an increased awareness of this urban based sedentary more people have begun making time for the wide, wild world. Thousands of people people visit state parks and take day hikes, and are generally ill equipped for such activities feeling so superior to the environment that they think they are prepared when in reality they are not.

"Look what I have created! I have made fire!"

In 2012 over 1,000 people needed wilderness rescuing in Oregon alone and 155 people die annually in National Parks. Since we have forgotten how dangerous wilderness can be and what skills and items are needed to be prepared to survive should we get lost or get in to some sort of trouble, what are we to do?

Should people just stay away from the outdoors?
The reality is that education is required. It’s something that a million years ago would have been ingrained as a child. We need to make up for that cultural designation as non-vital information by taking wilderness survival training classes, even if it is only basic first aid and what to carry with you besides your camelback and power bars. Countless schools have popped up around the country dedicated to such training. Hiking clearly marked and established trails in your local parks is unlikely to be fraught with peril, but if you plan on hiking larger parks or especially if you plan to forge your own paths in any park a bit of education and forethought can go a long way.

If you are interested in some survival techniques and are from the Pittsburgh area I urge you to check in to True North Wilderness Survival School, founded by Erik Kulick.

Would you like to know more?