Would civilization be possible without the invention of fire???

Question

was it hunting and gathering that made humans intelligent and fire was only a product of that. Or did fire

a) actually influence our way of viewing nature and in turn made us started asking questions which made us intelligent

or

b)fire made us more adaptable to nature, more able to survive which in turn shaped and changed our dna in future generations.

Does anyone have an opinion, any suggestions would be helpful.

Answer 1

If they'd invented electricity first they wouldn't have needed fire.

Answer 2

Civilization is not even remotely possible without fire.

99% of all technology is derived from the use of fire.

Agriculture would have been impossible without fire as humans used it (and still are) to clear forested areas into useful arability.  This is called slash and burn.  Fire cooks our food, releasing nutrition that would not otherwise be available to us, and incidentally affecting the quality of our evolution.

Cooked animal and fish proteins are linked to the development of brain tissue and bigger brains.

Fire allowed early humans to operate in the darkness of night, something we are not able to do naturally.

Fire put giant herbivores and predators at bay, allowing humanity to later establish farms.

Metallurgy depends on fire, metals do not shape into tools by themselves.

Heating sand makes glass good for soda and semi conductors.

Fire via oil and gas drives modern industry just as fire making steam drove the society we derive from.

Fire from nuclear sources is the future.  Future agriculture relies on chemistry and bio technology developments all impossible without first going through taming fire.

Whales and dolphins may be smart, but they will never develop technology beyond moving stones around, because they can never tame fire.

Answer 3

Fire was not "invented."   Fire existed long before life.  Fire was utilized by man at some point in time.   It allowed humans to survive better, and to spread to areas that were not yet populated.

Answer 4

Heres a conumdrum for ya...Civilization began in Sumeria. Writing, agriculture, Mathmatics, and industry just "popped up" there according to Classic Archaeology, which would indicate that civilization was imoported here from somewhere else.

Answer 5

No, it is probable the discovery of fire led to the rise of hominids.  Fire warmed the caves during periods of cooling, kept predators away & eventually allowed for the production of better tools & the move from scavenger to predator.  

Tree dwellers were lucky enough to have forward facing eyes that gave them the ability to judge distance & become predators, thus giving them access to the high protien in meat.   Meat allowed the larger brain to develop & the need to outwit prey was a positive pressure to select for an even larger brain.

One hypothesis suggests the domestication of the gray wolf (dog) was also a major step in the rise of homo sapien sapien.  The dog was a hunting companion & camp guard due to the enhanced ability to smell & hear.

More:

The Summerian civilization appears to have happened when some Sapiens realized they could plant & nurture crops that grew wild in that area.  DNA traces most of the World's grain crops back to the ME.  Some bright human decided the grains growing in that area could be made to produce more if tended by humans.  As to beer & alcoholic beverages, they discovered that fermentation destroyed bacteria & thwarted many water borne illnesses common to high density human populations. We know beers & wines existed in the 1st civilizations, but as to how much they contributed is open to debate.

I suspect some woman, since they were the food gatherers & the men tended to do the hunting, decided she could nurture the plants in some location & significantly reduce the labor of finding them scattered over large areas. So, in "my" opinion, women invented agriculture.

Answer 6

Fire changed many things, but I don't believe it's discovery brought about civilization.  Instead, I believe the love of beer brought on agriculture.

Fire helped man with:

1)  Safety in the night

2)  Safer (& tastier) food by cooking

3)  Hunting & killing prey

But, it still wasn't a reason to settle in one place.  Instead, it became a wonderful tool.

Beer and Mead, on the other hand.....were end results of settling in one place.  It takes time to sow and reap grains.  These grains can be used for food.....and to make beer.

There is only one known indigenous peoples on the earth that did not create some sort of either drug or intoxicating beverage.  The Inuit live in a land that's too cold to grow grains, etc.  All others create an intoxicant.   Even the Northern European cultures created Mead (a wine made from honey).

Did you know that beer is the reason that the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth Rock?  

The pilgrims had paid for passage to the Virginia Colonies.  The ship was blown off course to the north.  Upon landing, the sailors took stock of their ale supply.  They decided they would only have enough to last for the trip back to England.  Not enough for the trip to Virgina and then back.  So.....the Pilgrims were left to survive a harsh winter at Plymouth.

Answer 7

Other civilizations would have formed had we not figured out how to capture and control fire.

Humans did not invent fire. Fire existed from the beginning. Humans have only been here a short time.

Our DNA is virtually unchanged over the last 100,000 years. Fire has nothing to do with it. The civilization we created relys on fire.

Answer 8

This question is unanswerable, as fire was here on earth from day one