Was humankind born in fire? New theory says, ‘In a way’

Was humankind born in fire? New theory says, ‘In a way’

QUEST FOR FIRE

QUEST FOR FIRE:In the search for what made us human, a new take on the importance of fire

Sky Valley Chronicle

The idea that humans didn't just learn to harness fire, but that they were actually shaped by it is fascinating. The story goes that living in the rift valley about 1.6 million years ago, humans developed next to a volcano that was flowing for more than two hundred thousand years. The author of the paper takes this to mean that humans near the valley suddenly had access to fire whenever they wanted it and subsequently learned to cook food due to fire's abundance. This then led to human beings being able to consume cooked meat, which was higher in protein and more easily digestible than whatever else they were foraging for.

While I prefer the idea that man harnessed fire from a wildfire out in the savanah which I dramatized in Totem, this theory of human interaction with lava and the subsequent changes that occurred is interesting to say the least.

Chris Moore

The Terror

The criminal Gatherer cannot move now. He only releases bellows that frighten the crows out from their trees. By the hundreds they fly away. The women hiss louder and the other Gatherers shout vulgar words and runes. Terreo wraps the intestine’s end around the dark pillar at the edge of the promontory cliff. The Gatherer sees this with his head off the altar. He writhes some, but his shouts have subsided. Then with a violent motion Terreo rips the Gatherer into the air. Blood is raining. Pausing for a second Terreo looks over the edge, down to the shattered crags more than four tree heights below; he then throws him over to be unwound. In the distance the painted canine Dogo is barking on his tether by the Gatherers’ hut.

Discover Fire

His hands have no feeling now and they shake but he continues smashing them together, holding the rocks and dropping the white fires onto everything he comes to. Then he smells smoke. In the bush that he showered with sparks a moment ago there is a flame on the ground. The dry forest duff is burning. He hacks the green bush down and pulls it out of the way and watches the ground tinder glow. The flame is gone but the tinder is orange and glowing bright, and he scratches his head and begins showering it again. Other places start to glow with orange, but he cannot get a flame to grow. And he waves his hands together as hard as he can to produce the greatest amount of sparks so that it will burn. His arms are getting tired now he swings them so hard, but then he sees that the breeze from his arms causes the orange to glow brighter.

Survive

Young Pyramie hides beside the body of the mother who saved him. Hunters from the village search to kill him. They have condemned him to gruesome and public disembowelment as a scapegoat for defying their religion.
Yesterday when lightning struck and ignited the grasses he played with the flame. He violated their religion and now they will sacrifice him to the god, but in an act of love his Gatherer mother saved him with her own life.
Pyramie is crying at the forest edge where he has run. His tears will get him nowhere–they are hunting him. If he wants his life he must survive alone with every breath. But he will fight, and when he does, he will become a legend.