Fire: The Spark That Ignited Human Evolution - Hardcover

Burton, Frances D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826346464 ISBN 13: 9780826346469

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press, 2009

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Frances D. Burton is professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto. She has studied primates in Costa Rica, Honduras, Barbados, China, Malaysia, Kenya, Morocco, and Gibraltar, examining the biological bases of behavior. Her many publications include the edited volume Social Process and Mental Abilities in Non-Human Primates: Evidences from Longitudinal Field Studies and a pioneering CD titled ""A Multimedia Guide to the Non-Human Primates.

From the Back Cover

Fire and light, and their impacts on our earliest human ancestor, are the subjects of this innovative study of the development of the species.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0826346464
• ISBN 13: 9780826346469
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256