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.

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Eyeshine, Paleo-Humans, Children & Campfires

[TheRealHocusLocus]

I have noticed in myself and several others an extremely strong fear-reflex to orange eyeshine. The eyes need to appear suddenly, they must be perceived as being near, and most interesting -- it seems to peak out at an ruddy orange color. Blue and green are surprising, yellow can be alarming but into the orange there is an extreme response, a silent 'snap' in the upper spine like an electric shock followed by a sensation of warmth/adrenaline response. As a kid I would shine my flashlight into the bushes as I walked at night to find cats. Countless times I caught yellow or green reflections (even up close) I'd smile and say "gotcha!" Then one night I got a shine that was a dull ruddy orange, I think it was an old tomcat with cataracts... I was riveted to the spot with symptoms described above, with great effort I stepped backward then sideways, and (though I knew it was just a cat) found myself running home.

Didn't think about it for years... until I encountered a young girl who loved Fantasia 2000. She'd watch it over and over. But as one particular moment approached she would hide her eyes under a blanket or even jump behind the couch. It was this moment . After the Firebird rose up moments later she'd be fine, sitting down watching intently. I started asking around. At least one other person had a similar reaction to orange eyeshine, and several others when given a choice chose orange as the eye color they'd least like to encounter at night.

This led me into a theory. Imagine paleo-humans around a campfire. The adults exhausted or asleep from the strenuous activities of the day... but the children are alert and awake, keeping watch. They are watching for eyeshine on the fringes of camp. This makes sense because it is the children that predators are watching. Whether or not they were tasked with this duty, or even if it was an "eye game", it may be that we are descended from a successful lineage of children who kept watch at night and successfully sounded the alarm.

Before people huddled around campfires this eyeshine predator fear response could not have been so strongly tuned to orange as it seems to be. Reflected moonlight may give you a faint flash of eyeshine if conditions are right. But when you are between the fire and the eyes it would be really bright, and a predominately orange fire would reflect mainly its own color. Only with the modern electric light would we 'see' those brilliant greens and yellows. So an eyeshine predator fear response would have developed after we tamed fire. As such it might be the most recent base instinct, and because it arises from firelight -- exclusively human.

I have another theory too, it was the domestication of the canine that initially allowed us and our children to sleep through the night, leading into the elaborate REM sleep and dream cycle of modern humans that acts as a wellspring of intelligent creativity.

And it has scarcely been one hundred years since we were paced by animals.