The Oldest Human Story
Becoming the Keepers of the Flame
“It is the oldest of all human fire stories (the one found in every culture), in which we acquired, trapped, or stole fire as our own. The “story” is that fire is perhaps our defining ecological trait, it is what we do that no other creature does. It appears to be our job and destiny to see that it is used properly in the world. Not to extinguish it, not to burn everything in sight, but to somehow get the right mix of fire in the World for both our interest and those of others.”- Stephen Pyne, Whole Earth, Winter 1999.
Stealing Fire and Becoming Keepers of the Flame
The one thing that connects us as humans is Fire. Go back far enough in anyone's ancestry there will be a point where we were living close to the land and fire was an extremely important tool for our survival.
I don’t find it an accident that many fire origin stories (stories about how we acquired fire) from all across the World, tell a story about fire being given as a gift from animals (or the gods in Greek mythology) to humans.
Humans are social creatures, we need to feel connected. Fire changed us from being wandering scavengers to living in groups, we became more social and connected. With fire came security. With fire humans could gather around the fire and share knowledge. Something happened to us as a species when we started living in groups, Community formed, language developed, we started learning from each other, we became a different kind of animal.
Studies suggest that with fire we started cooking our food and our brains developed faster (the missing link in a sense). With fire, we could obtain more nutrients from our food. Less time and energy was spent feeding ourselves allowing for more social interaction.
Humans first captured fire. We went out and “stole” it and figured out how to keep it as a tool. We established a unique connection to fire that no other animal has. As we spent less time devoted to gathering, and more time in groups, ways of communication developed. Stories and lessons were shared, we had a technology that gave us an advantage over all other animals and created an environment to learn from each other.
Because of this, we have a unique connection to fire. It is what defines us as humans. Today we have lost that connection. We have domesticated fire, putting it into a cage, “boxing it up” and forgetting it is the thing that unites us all. We’ve forgotten that fire is required for survival. Our use of fossil fuels and combustion engines are nothing more that Ancient light and fuel that has been buried deep underground.
What is Fire anyway? Fire is sunlight, fire is energy, fire is the ultimate life source, and the ability to create it, harness it, and use it at will has put humans in a unique position on this planet. We are the “keepers of the fire”. With this comes the responsibility to be caretakers of the Earth and all its other forms of Life.
Origins of Fire
Fire is ultimately what connects us all and is the one thing we, as humans, have used as a form of technology or call it an innovation, that has ultimately made us the species of animal we are.
Besides the fact that all plants and animals, in fact all life on Earth, need the energy from the Sun for survival. It was our capturing fire and using it as a tool that separated us from all other animals. We became the caretakers, the most powerful (because of our “fire power” and ability to control fire), and ultimately gave us a responsibility. It doesn’t matter where you live, what your ancestral background is, if you follow your lineage back far enough, fire is the key thing that we all have in common.
“Fire Power”, ultimately, whoever has the most fire power generally wins the battle. Fire power comes in many forms, but imagine the earliest humans. Imagine the advantage one family group or tribe would have over another group if they had more control over fire or had the technology and skills to utilize fire for their benefit?
Every culture tends to have an origin story about how humans received fire. Often it was stolen and given to the humans from the animals. There is significance in the similarity of these stories all over the world. Fire was given as a gift or stolen for the benefit of the humans. Why would all these stories be the same, or similar? Humans have a unique relationship with fire, we are the animals that kind of evolved with fire. As we started to use fire for our own benefit, as a tool or technology, it changed what we were as a species of animal.
Diffusion of innovation
Imagine being an early pre-human species, spending a lot of your time off the ground because there is too much risk from predators on the ground. But you still need to scavenge for food, gathering and hunting. You may have observed fire and come across animal carcasses that were cooked, realized this made the meat easier to consume, and then someone decided to use a burning stick to reuse or keep a fire going (ultimately this was likely the act of “stealing fire”). How long would it have taken for this information and new technology to filter through all of human society?
How did this innovation evolve to the point of a fire being created using a bow drill all the way to the utilization of ancient sunlight (gas, oil, and coal), to electricity generated for lights, or the combustion engine, using fire and compressed air to ignite and burn fuel.
It’s all about a balance of Energy. Energy production and consumption. This ultimately drives our economies, but is really all about survival and meeting the basic needs of every individual’s drive to survive, thrive, and pass along your genes.
The story about how Humans acquired fire for our own use and purpose, is the oldest of all stories. It is the story about how we became who we are and how we are all connected as a species of animal. The story is about how fire was stolen or captured and given to the humans. We needed fire but also all the animals and the Earth needed fire to be properly managed. A unique responsibility was bestowed on us as a species.
We became the Keepers of the Flame.
*To read more stories about fire, my personal fire origin story and lessons from being a “student of fire”
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