New research from the University of St Andrews has developed a novel theory of how firelight was critical to the evolution of sophisticated storytelling.
In a paper published today (2 September) in Proceedings of the Royal Society, researchers from St Andrews alongside colleagues from Dartmouth College, suggest that fireside storytelling may have provided the key catalyst to move human communication away from the ape-like systems our modern ape cousins still use today, and towards our uniquely human use of language.
Charles Darwin described fire as man's greatest discovery, excepting language. Recent work has argued that these two touchstones of human evolution may be fundamentally entwined. While the importance of fireside storytelling for human societies has previously been recognised, earlier work assumed that stories emerged from an existing human proto-language.
This new work highlights how our current understanding of modern apes shows them capable of many of the fundamental basics of human communication and social problem solving - from meaningful gestures to a theory of mind.
Researchers also argue that many of the day-to-day problems of life in a small social group can be solved without language.
Lead Author, Catherine Hobaiter Professor of the School of psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, said: "Decades of research with other species has shown us that you don't need language to learn from each other, to organise where and when to forage, to learn cultural knowledge about tools and songs, to co-ordinate hunting, or navigate social politics. It starts to look like human language didn't evolve for anything very useful!".
Professor Hobaiter added: "While other species share all these skills, there is a fundamental puzzle: we struggle to find evidence of key differences between human and ape communication, and yet we are surrounded by evidence of human distinctiveness. for all their incredible, rich communication and cultures, no other ape is inventing algebra, writing King Lear, or heading out into interstellar space."
The work argues that the first steps towards language may have emerged in fireside storytelling and go on to provide one of the first descriptions of this fireside niche and how it could influence human behaviour.
The ability to control fire allowed humans to extend social time into the evenings, adding up to four hours to the day. But, until now, studies have focused on its brightness. This paper shows that the colour of firelight is uniquely suited for human socialising - emitting almost no blue-light, allowing an extension to the day without negatively impacting sleep.
In addition, firelight also flickers. Neurons in the brain synchronise their firing to flickering light, suggesting that the flickering of firelight might help synchronise the behaviour of people around it, creating a deep sense of social connection.
Firelight also emits a substantial amount of infra-red light.
Nathaniel Dominy, Charles Hansen Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College, who co authored the paper, said: "Firelight is the product of a chemical reaction, and you might think it is extremely well studied, and it is, but not the properties that draw our attention and focus; that instil harmony and cooperation. Measuring these features is an exciting part of this project."
Professor Hobaiter added: "It's always intriguing to think about how language started—what was the first word? The first story? But we're usually left in the realm of after-dinner speculations, so it's especially exciting to be able to generate testable predications, to be able to ask if, at the end of the day, we are the storytelling ape."
