Was Human Language Born Around the Campfire?
A new study suggests that the human ability to tell stories about the past and future may have evolved around ancient campfires. Researchers propose that the controlled environment of the hearth encouraged early hominins to move beyond simple gestures toward complex proto-language.
Why it matters
Understanding the origins of language and storytelling provides insight into the fundamental social and cognitive evolution of the human species.
We gather around campfires and share stories, keeping the darkness at bay to draw each other into worlds of ghosts and monsters, to immerse ourselves in the past and future. Communing around a fire entwines humanity in a yarn stretching back to our hominin ancestors, who stoked these embers of storytelling. And those nightly fires could have been the hearths from which early language emerged.
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