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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.
I tried to hike the Pacific Crest Trail once, it's the one that runs from Mexico to Canada through the Desert, then the Sierras. We had to make 15-25+ miles without water (because there was none any closer), and that often meant hiking until or into the dark. I found that my whole appreciation of a campfire was very different than a marshmallow toasting boy scout at those times. As suggested by the summary, I craved the fire to "extend" the ability to talk to my girlfriend when we weren't hiking or preparing to hike, which was the entire day or longer. I suspect it was less ghost story telling and more story telling period. When you spend all the daylight gathering, hunting, getting water, setting up shelter, and preparing food the campfire is sort of like the original dinner table because everyone is there sharing. Not all the tasks were done by all the people, so the ability to come together and talk, perhaps not about "work" (survival) may have been an idea that sprouted back then. As an aside, I never use the word starving any longer, I think I experienced true early starvation for the first time out there. Early human life must have been gritty when things weren't bountiful.