Domestic Fire as Evidence for Language

Avraham, Ronen

doi:10.1007/0-306-47153-1_28

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The several additional hours of wakefulness appear to have been made possible by fire and its ‘daylight extension’. The reasons appear to have been for social time (hence a probable link with language: [ 49 , 71 , 72 , 138 , 195 ]), as well as protection against predators. Changes in the size and proportion of stomach, small intestine and large intestine may be part of the same complex—owed to changed diet, necessary for sustained movement on the ground, and following the expensive tissue hypothesis a possible co-requisite of the large human brain [ 75 ].…”

Section: The Impact Of Firementioning

confidence: 99%

The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process

Gowlett

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

262

137

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Numbers of animal species react to the natural phenomenon of fire, but only humans have learnt to control it and to make it at will. Natural fires caused overwhelmingly by lightning are highly evident on many landscapes. Birds such as hawks, and some other predators, are alert to opportunities to catch animals including invertebrates disturbed by such fires and similar benefits are likely to underlie the first human involvements with fires. Early hominins would undoubtedly have been aware of such fires, as are savanna chimpanzees in the present. Rather than as an event, the discovery of fire use may be seen as a set of processes happening over the long term. Eventually, fire became embedded in human behaviour, so that it is involved in almost all advanced technologies. Fire has also influenced human biology, assisting in providing the high-quality diet which has fuelled the increase in brain size through the Pleistocene. Direct evidence of early fire in archaeology remains rare, but from 1.5 Ma onward surprising numbers of sites preserve some evidence of burnt material. By the Middle Pleistocene, recognizable hearths demonstrate a social and economic focus on many sites. The evidence of archaeological sites has to be evaluated against postulates of biological models such as the ‘cooking hypothesis' or the ‘social brain’, and questions of social cooperation and the origins of language. Although much remains to be worked out, it is plain that fire control has had a major impact in the course of human evolution.This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’.

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Section: The Impact Of Firementioning

confidence: 99%

The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process

Gowlett

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

262

137

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“…On the one hand, Wadley claims that the existence of a symbolic storage device is by itself sufficient proof of modernity, and that 'the frequencies of different classes of symbolic storage are irrelevant' (Wadley 2001, 210). 'Long range' advocates (after Bednarik 2003a) have argued, therefore, that geographically-and chronologicallyisolated examples of symbolic storage demonstrate that hominins were behaviourally modern by the Middle Pleistocene -either wholly (Bednarik 1992;1995a,b;2003a,b,c;Wurz 1999; amongst others); or partially (Clark 1999;Deacon 1997;Foley & Lahr 1997;Marwick 2003;McBrearty & Brooks 2000;Ronen 1998) -as reviewed below. On the other hand, 'short range' advocates believe that isolated examples of symbolic storage are not by themselves sufficient to indicate behavioural modernity because there is no evidence for convention from some form of repetition (Davidson 2002).…”

Section: Identifying Modern Human Behaviour In the Archaeological Recordmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symbolic Revolutions and the Australian Archaeological Record

Brumm

Moore

2005

CAJ

117

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Australia was colonized by at least 40,000 bp and scientists agree that the continent was only ever occupied by anatomically and behaviourally modern humans. Australia thus offers an alternative early record for the archaeological expression of behavioural modernity. This review finds that the pattern of change in the Australian archaeological sequence bears remarkable similarity to the pattern from the Lower to Upper Palaeolithic in the Old World, a finding that is inconsistent with the ‘symbolic revolution’ model of the origin of modern behaviour. This highlights the need for archaeologists to rethink the implications of the various criteria and scales of analysis used to identify modern human behaviour.

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“…790 ka, some of which were burned were discovered. They indicate that the fire was regularly used by Homo erectus or Homo ergaster (Gowlett et al, 1981;Ronen, 1998;Gowlett, 2005).…”

Section: When Did Symbolic Behavior Begin?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The origin of symbolic behavior of Middle Palaeolithic humans: Recent controversies

Burdukiewicz¹

2014

Quaternary International

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Domestic Fire as Evidence for Language

Cited by 8 publications

References 24 publications

The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process

The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process

Symbolic Revolutions and the Australian Archaeological Record

The origin of symbolic behavior of Middle Palaeolithic humans: Recent controversies

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