Fire: The Spark That Ignited Human Evolution

by Frances D. Burton

The association between our ancestors and fire, somewhere around six to four million years ago, had a tremendous impact on human evolution, transforming our earliest human ancestor, a being communicating without speech but with insight, reason, manual dexterity, highly developed social organization, and the capability of experimenting with this new technology. As it first associated with and then began to tame fire, this extraordinary being began to distance itself from its primate relatives, taking a path that would alter its environment, physiology, and self-image.

Based on her extensive research with nonhuman primates, anthropologist Frances Burton details the stages of the conquest of fire and the systems it affected. Her study examines the natural occurrence of fire and describes the effects light has on human physiology. She constructs possible variations of our earliest human ancestor and its way of life, utilizing archaeological and anthropological evidence of the earliest human-controlled fires to explore the profound physical and biological impacts fire had on human evolution.

Genres: Science, History, Nonfiction

248 pages, Hardcover

First published April 16, 2009

Reviews

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, and seems to be well sourced. But it got fairly dry at times, especially when listening to the audiobook. Good overall. If you like evolutionary history, you will probably enjoy it.

[Lukas Lovas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked his points. I mean, he has fascinating ideas... how fire could play such a huge role in our evolution, in actually becoming human....and he most certainly did his homework. This precision however doesn't make for a hold-your-breath type of book. It's fascinating, if you can keep your eyes open long enough to get to the point :)

[Andrea Hickman Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Who would have thought that a book on such an interesting subject could be so boring?