Tweet

Our Promethean origins

Our relationship with fire is ancient and intimate. Early in our hominid prehistory we borrowed useful fire from natural causes. Later, like mythological Prometheus, we stole fire from the gods: We learned to create fire at will.  That essential primitive skill energized a cultural leap and much more. Our relationship with fire became reciprocal: Arguably, fire recreated us as we influenced the adaptations of fire-dependent landscapes. We have been torch bearers, dependent upon fire, shaped by fire, from that early time. Fire is in our DNA.

Early humans became hearth-centered. The hearth became the crucible of human evolution, both biological and cultural. Fire was the soul of the family hearth, whether a nuclear family or a clan. Even today, we gather ’round our occasional campfires and stare into flames as they stared long ago. Flickering flames connect us with our ancient ancestors and with native peoples across space and time.

Early humans obtained mastery of fire as they came to depend on fire for warmth, for light, for cooking, for hunting, for landscape management, and for defense. They obtained far reaching impacts through mastery of fire. Early humans manipulated local habitats and broad ecosystems in favor of human utility through broadcast fire, intentionally igniting landscapes of dry fuel for coordinated fire-hunting and to create favorable conditions for attracting and supporting desired game species, and to ease overland travel.

Few modern’s possess primitive fire knowledge and fire skills. For most, fear of fire has replaced utility fire. Today, we ask our engineers to control fire, indoors and out. Most societies, even native societies, have surrendered their mastery of primitive fire methods in favor of technological dependance. Western societies have transitioned from manual open combustion to mechanical internal combustion. Western commerce is delivering that transition globally.

During our lifetimes, the last of the lingering ancient societies may give up their ancient fire knowledge and skills in trade for purchased fire systems and other modern technologies. Like loss of languages, loss of skills sets for primitive living is an ongoing tragedy unfolding today around the globe. Soon, the last of the remote tribal societies will forget their ancient technologies and primitive life-ways passed on through hundreds of generations. Few people will care. Fewer still will care enough to preserve elements of primitive skills.

Our ancient ancestors understood the different functions of tinder, kindling, fuels, portable fire carriers, and much later, fire starters. We will discuss modern and primitive fire methods and skills in future posts at this site.

Explore our Promethean origins. We recommend a couple good reads by Stephen Pyne, Fire: A Brief History, 2001 and Fire in America, A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire, 1982 and 1997. We have gained essential insights from these works.