Humans sitting around a campfire, telling stories, spooky or otherwise, may have been just the evolutionary shot in the arm our ability to convey knowledge and experience with language needed to evolve to where it is today, as researchers theorize in a paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
The researchers suggest that the traditional narrative of human language evolving because we had to coordinate mammoth hunts and teach kids the basics of survival isn’t unique to humans. Plenty of examples show creatures communicating survivalist ideas nonverbally throughout the animal kingdom. For example, chimpanzees coordinate complex group hunts using a series of gestures.
Scientists Say Campfires May Have Changed the Way Human Brains Communicate
No, survival tactics didn’t involve human speech as much as once thought, according to the researchers’ theory. Instead, they argue that language grew around something much simpler, something we all still do to this day: sitting around, shooting the s—t with your best buds. They did it around the fire, while we do it on Discord and occasionally in person nowadays when we are feeling particularly novel.
The campfire part is more than a pleasant backdrop; it’s a vital part of the experience, according to the researchers. Campfire smoke and flickering flames obscure body language, making visual gestures tougher to read at night when everyone is seated in a circle around the flames.
Researchers found that campfires flicker at roughly 1.4 to 2.7 times per second, the exact frequency that overlaps with brain wave rhythms linked to heightened focus and memory, potentially syncing the brain activity of a campfire storyteller with its listeners, forming a single shared mental state, the fire essentially acting as a kind of symphony conductor for the brain.
It’s a fascinating theory, albeit just a theory. But there’s logic to it. Organizing hunts for food probably went a long way in developing our abilities to communicate with one another. But storytelling, empathy, sharing our experiences and the complexities of our lives, making each other laugh or cry by spinning a yarn—all that nuanced stuff we do with our mouths that we take for granted.
That’s where the real evolution of language happened. And it all happened by a firelight.
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