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Ancient Campfires Led To the Rise of Storytelling
sciencehabit writes A study of evening campfire conversations by the Ju/'hoan people of Namibia and Botswana suggests that by extending the day, fire allowed people to unleash their imaginations and tell stories, rather than merely focus on mundane topics. As scientists report, whereas daytime talk was focused almost entirely on economic issues, land rights, and complaints about other people, 81% of the firelight conversation was devoted to telling stories, including tales about people from other Ju/'hoan communities. The team suggests that campfires allowed human ancestors to expand their minds in a similar way and also solidified social networks.
Also the scientific method of formulating a hypothesis and performing an experiment to test it.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
And smores
You know, I've noticed that even though there's a strong impulse to make smores, and preparations made, it always ends up with everybody drunk and just burning the marshmallows on the end of a stick, eating all the chocolate and then running around the campfire naked before tripping over a branch, passing out and waking up covered in ticks and mosquito bites.
I've been part of so many camping trips where there was every intention of making smores and it never seems to work out.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Campfires gave rise to story telling and conversation, leading to the expansion of the human mind. This started about 400,000 years ago, and continued until the mid 1950s, when television became widespread, and families stopped talking to each other. It has been downhill since then.