Earliest fire in Africa: towards the convergence of archaeological evidence and the cooking hypothesis

Gowlett, J. A. J.; Wrangham, Richard W.

doi:10.1080/0067270x.2012.756754

Cited by 114 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 101 publications

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“…Documenting the first of these in the hominin line is likely to be impossible, and while there is suggested evidence that the origin of human fire use extends back to more than 1 Ma (Gowlett and Wrangham 2013;Hlubik et al 2017;Rowlett 2000;Berna et al 2012;Barbetti 1986; and see Sandgathe and Berna 2017), there is little doubt that the regular use and maintenance of fire by hominins is present in Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age contexts and later (Roebroeks and Villa 2011;Barkai et al 2017;Shimelmitz et al 2014;Aldeias et al 2014;Dibble et al 2009Dibble et al , 2017Goldberg et al 2012;Rodríguez-Cintas and Cabanes 2017;Mallol et al 2013;Miller 2015;Courty et al 2012;Pasto et al 2000;Vallverdú et al 2012;Pop et al 2016;Vidal-Matutano 2016). At some point, hominins also developed the technology for starting fires, which is the question being addressed here.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Were Western European Neandertals Able to Make Fire?

et al. 2018

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Significant variability has been observed in the frequency of fire use over the course of the Late Pleistocene at several Middle Paleolithic sites in southwest France. In particular, Neandertals appear to have used fire more frequently during warm climatic periods and very infrequently during cold periods. After reviewing several lines of evidence and alternative explanations for this variability, the null hypothesis that these Neandertals were not able to make fire still stands.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Were Western European Neandertals Able to Make Fire?

et al. 2018

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“…Direct records of fire control are elusive in the distant past but there is strong evidence for H. erectus using fire at 1 million years ago (Berna et al, 2012). These points imply that fire and cooking were first used by a pre-human species which then became H. erectus (Gowlett & Wrangham, 2013).…”

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The curiously long absence of cooking in evolutionary thought

Wrangham

2016

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Beran et al. (2015, p. 1) characterized the idea that Bcooked food was integral in human evolution^as a Blongheld hypothesis^favored by Darwin and Engels. In fact, however, although Darwin and Engels considered the use of cooked food to be an important influence on behavior and society, neither of them suggested that its effects were evolutionary in the sense of affecting biology. Explicit discussion of the possible evolutionary impacts of cooking did not begin until the twentieth century.

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“…Previous work has examined this question from the perspective of archaeological or fossil evidence. Yet, the archaeological record for hearths and burned material is fragile and may degrade, so there are disagreements concerning earliest evidence for the control of fire (e.g., Berna et al, 2012;Gowlett & Wrangham, 2013;Roebroeks & Villa, 2011). Moreover, fire can also be used for warmth, light, and protection (Bellomo, 1994;Burton, 2009), so even strong evidence for fire control might not necessarily reflect the emergence of cooking.…”

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How comparative psychology can shed light on human evolution: Response to Beran et al.’s discussion of “Cognitive capacities for cooking in chimpanzees”

Rosati

Warneken

2016

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We recently reported a study (Warneken & Rosati Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 282, 20150229, 2015) examining whether chimpanzees possess several cognitive capacities that are critical to engage in cooking. In a subsequent commentary, Beran, Hopper, de Waal, Sayers, and Brosnan Learning & Behavior (2015) asserted that our paper has several flaws. Their commentary (1) critiques some aspects of our methodology and argues that our work does not constitute evidence that chimpanzees can actually cook; (2) claims that these results are old news, as previous work had already demonstrated that chimpanzees possess most or all of these capacities; and, finally, (3) argues that comparative psychological studies of chimpanzees cannot adequately address questions about human evolution, anyway. However, their critique of the premise of our study simply reiterates several points we made in the original paper. To quote ourselves: BAs chimpanzees neither control fire nor cook food in their natural behavior, these experiments therefore focus not on whether chimpanzees can actually cook food, but rather whether they can apply their cognitive skills to novel problems that emulate cooking^(Warneken & Rosati Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 282, 20150229, 2015, p. 2). Furthermore, the methodological issues they raise are standard points about psychological research with animals-many of which were addressed synthetically across our 9 experiments, or else are orthogonal to our claims. Finally, we argue that comparative studies of extant apes (and other nonhuman species) are a powerful and indispensable method for understanding human cognitive evolution.

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Earliest fire in Africa: towards the convergence of archaeological evidence and the cooking hypothesis

Cited by 114 publications

References 101 publications

Were Western European Neandertals Able to Make Fire?

Were Western European Neandertals Able to Make Fire?

The curiously long absence of cooking in evolutionary thought

How comparative psychology can shed light on human evolution: Response to Beran et al.’s discussion of “Cognitive capacities for cooking in chimpanzees”

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