The earliest members of the homo genus that have been\nclassified are the Homo\negasters<\/a>.\u00a0 This term is often\ntranslated as 'the working man.'\u00a0\n(egaster is Latin for \u2018working.\u2019)\u00a0\nThis name was coined because these were found around large numbers of\nassorted tools, making researchers think they were dealing with people who\nliked to work and make things.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Homo\nerectus<\/a> is often translated as \u2018the upright man.\u2019\u00a0 This came from its posture, dramatically different and more\nupright than its pan ancestor.\u00a0 Some\nresearchers think homo erectus and homo egasters are different subspecies of\nthe same species, while others think they are in different species.\u00a0 Some think that they may not even be\ndifferent subspecies, but merely different members of the same species and\nsubspecies that happen to look different.\u00a0\n(We don\u2019t all look the same.)\u00a0 We\ndon\u2019t have any DNA from these beings, so we can\u2019t verify the claims.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t really important for the points\nhere:\u00a0 All that matters is that there\nwere early human-like beings that had this classification.\u00a0 Large numbers of fossils have been found\nboth in Africa and in Asia.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n These people traveled a lot.\u00a0 (I will take the liberty of using the terms \u2018people\u2019 to refer all\nmembers of the genus homo.\u00a0 The main\nreason for this is that I need something to call them in discussions and this seems\nmore appropriate than any other name I could find.)\u00a0 <\/p>\n Homo\nhabilis<\/a> is \u2018the tool using hominid\u2019 or \u2018the tool using man.\u2019\u00a0 Homo\nneanderthalis<\/a> and homo\ndenisova <\/a>are named after the sites where their remains were first\nidentified.<\/p>\n Homo\nsapiens<\/a> means \u2018the intelligent hominid\u2019 or \u2018the intelligent man.\u2019 <\/p>\n Until very recently, this term was used to refer to \u2018our\u2019\nspecies, where \u2018our\u2019 refers to \u2018the people who are now classified as humans and\nthe people with similar levels of intellect who lived in the past six thousand\nyears.\u00a0 Those who believed that history\nwent back more than six thousand years thought that the beings who lived before\nthis period were in some other category, at least in a different species but\npossibly in a different genus.\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A family of religions called the \u2018Abrahamic religions<\/a>\u2019\nis built on a set of books called variously by names like the \u2018Books\nof Moses\u2019 <\/a>and \u2018the\nPentateuch<\/a> and the Torah<\/a>\nhave been and still are important religions in the world, claiming more than 57%\n<\/a>of the world\u2019s people as followers, and include Christianity, Judaism, and\nIslam.\u00a0 All Abrahamic religions teach\nthat nothing existed before a certain date (October 23, 4004. B.C., according\nto James Ussher<\/a>, who\nclaims to have worked it out in detail).\u00a0\n <\/p>\n Not everyone accepts the scientific evidence, even\ntoday.\u00a0 <\/p>\n But most educated people accept at least the premise that he\nuniverse is a lot older than 6,030 years old.\u00a0\nThere still seems to be a lot of resistance to the idea that humans\n(meaning true humans, including homo sapiens) go back more than 6,030\nyears.\u00a0 DNA evidence is showing us,\nhowever, that the species homo sapiens definitely goes back a very, very long\ntime, because human-like beings that were once thought to be different species,\nlike neanderthal and denisovans, clearly had babies with beings that were\nanatomically and genetically indistinguishable from modern humans.\u00a0 This means that all three of these groups,\nthought to be different species, are actually the same species.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at the evidence we have that can help us\nunderstand the background of the genus homo (human-like beings).\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The earliest specimen of the genus Homo found to date (as of\n2024) was found in the Ledi-Geraru<\/a> site in the Afar\nRegion<\/a> of Ethiopia<\/a>,\nin the northern part of Africa, in January of 2013.\u00a0 It has not yet been assigned to a species as of this writing.\u00a0 It has been given the designation LD-350<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 It has been dated back to somewhere between\n2.75 and 2.8 million years BP (before the present).\u00a0 Several other finds have been made that have been dated to\nbetween 1.85 million and 2.75 million years ago.\u00a0 All finds older <\/i>than 1.85 million years ago were found in\nAfrica.\u00a0 We have no evidence of any\n\u2018human like\u2019 beings living anywhere outside of Africa before 1.85 million BP\n(before the present).\u00a0 <\/p>\n This seems to indicate that the genus homo originated in\nAfrica.\u00a0 It also indicates that the\nmembers of this genus who left Africa did so some time before 1.85 million\nyears ago, but probably not much <\/i>before\nthis, or we would have probably found signs of this.\u00a0 That means that we can date the exit of humans from Africa to about <\/i>1.85 million years ago.\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The main difference noticeable between the Pan genus and the\nHomo genus is brain size.\u00a0 We don\u2019t\nactually have brains of early homos for comparison, because brain tissue\ndecomposes quickly.\u00a0 But we can tell the\nbrains of the members of the homo genus were much larger than the brains of the\nmembers of the Pan genus by measuring the brain cavities in remains.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The brain cavities of the earliest adult homos are about\ntwice the size as the brain cavities of adult pans.\u00a0 The brain cavities of adult modern humans are about three times\nthe size of those of adult pans.\u00a0 <\/p>\n I think it is important to try to get some idea how this\nparticular change happened, because large and complex brains are basically the\ndefining features of humans.\u00a0 <\/p>\n We got these large brains somehow.\u00a0 <\/p>\n In other words, they evolved for some <\/i>reason.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n After we got this higher \u2018processing capability\u2019 we could\nuse it for many different things.\u00a0 We\nnow use it to study things, solve problems, and build fantastic machines and\nequipment.\u00a0 But if we want to understand\nwhy we are what we are now and how we got here, we should at least try to get\nsome idea of the reason that these large and powerful brains were needed.\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n There seems to be a very obvious explanation for the massive\nincrease in mental processing ability:\u00a0\nThe pans who lived in a certain very specific area got a new toy.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Actually, it was a tool.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n But it is really fun to play with and most of us play with\nit, in one way or another, nearly every day.\u00a0\n(If you drive a fossil fuel powered car, you are playing with it:\u00a0 the fire is in the cylinders.)\u00a0 It has so many uses that, even after having\nhad it for at least three million years, we still\n<\/i>haven\u2019t figured them all out yet.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Fire is such a complicated tool\/toy that the pans who had\naccess to it couldn\u2019t <\/i>understand it\nand use it effectively with the smaller brains they had when they first found\nit.\u00a0 Over the course of millions years,\ndifferent individuals had different genetic profiles (every one is unique) and\ndifferent mental capabilities.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Some had just a little bit better capability to understand\nand use fire than others.\u00a0 <\/p>\n They could do things the others couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 They could meet the needs of their babies\nwhen others couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 They passed their\nmental advantages down to the next generation and showed them tricks they could\ndo with this new toy that others didn\u2019t know how to do.\u00a0 Those that succeeded had greater chances of\nsurvival than those that didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Over\nlong periods of time, the percentage with genes that encouraged larger brains\nto grow increased and the percentage without these genes declined.\u00a0 <\/p>\n This led to what we may think of a \u2018supercharging\u2019 in the\nevolutionary process.\u00a0 In the area where\nthis new toy\/tool was available, progress was incredibly fast, at least\nrelative to places where fire was not <\/i>available.\u00a0 The growth in intellectual capability was so\nprofound that, within a million or so years, the beings that had the use of\nthis new toy\/tool had changed almost everything about the way they interacted\nwith the world around them.\u00a0 <\/p>\n They weren\u2019t as smart as we are now.\u00a0 But they were far, far smarter than the pans\nthat were their evolutionary ancestors, and so different that reasonable\nanalysts would not consider them to be the same genus.\u00a0 They were a different genus, the\n\u2018homos.\u2019\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fire is mesmerizing.\u00a0\nI have sat and watched wood fires for hours, staring into the\nflames.\u00a0 It has many uses.\u00a0 I cook with it, heat my house with it and,\nwhen the electricity goes out I have candles I can light to see my way\naround.\u00a0 Gasoline engines use controlled\nfire, setting gas air mixture ablaze in conditions that lead to a rapid burn\ncalled an \u2018explosion,\u2019 which is then repeated over and over to make the wheels\nturn.\u00a0 Jet engines use fire, as do\nrocket engines.\u00a0 Guns ignite a highly\nflammable powder to create an explosion that drives a bullet.\u00a0 Armor piercing uranium bullets explode and\nburn on impact in a way that melts steel and turns it into a liquid.\u00a0 The bullet then cuts through what had been\nseveral inches of solid steel as if it were butter, into the center of the\ntank, where it hits oxygen that causes the liquid metal debris to explode again\nto kill everyone inside the vehicle.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Fire is very complicated.\u00a0\nIt takes different skills and different mental connections to figure out\nthese uses than it takes to find bananas and other food in forests.\u00a0 The animals still needed the brain\ncomponents they used to find food and meet their other needs. But those that\ncould expand their brain and direct its activities so that it could do these\nother things had fantastic advantages over those who couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 <\/p>\n To use fire effectively and safely, you need to be pretty\nintelligent.\u00a0 If you are stupid and you\ntake risks with fire, you will not live very long.\u00a0 If you are smart and use fire well, you have incredible\nadvantages over beings that are otherwise the same as you, but don\u2019t<\/i> use fire.\u00a0 They are primitive beings compared to you. \u00a0<\/p>\n The transitions from \u2018primates that don\u2019t use fire\u2019 to\n\u2018primates that do use fire\u2019 is a critical one in the human experience.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t find any scientific\nanalysis, even speculative analysis, that showed how this key event took place\nin the literature.\u00a0 But you understand a\nlittle bit about the geography of Africa, the domains of the pans, and the way\nthat oil pools above fields with great pressure and then catches fire from\nnatural events, you can get a pretty good idea where and how it is likely to\nhave happened.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The descriptions below are speculative.\u00a0 But they are only designed to fill in some\nimportant holes in the way we look at ourselves and our past.\u00a0 These exact\n<\/i>events may not have happened, but something similar did happen.\u00a0 We can understand a process a lot better if\nwe can put a picture of it together in our minds.\u00a0 I want to describe the picture for you: <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n First let\u2019s set the scene: <\/p>\n Let\u2019s consider again the picture of Africa taken from\nspace.\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Africa from space, taken from Google Earth.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The central area, right around the equator, is where the\nNile river begins.\u00a0 The clouds that\ncircle the globe at the equator are trapped by something called an \u2018Intertropical\nConvergence Zone<\/a>.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 They can\u2019t go\nnorth or south, they can only circle until they have so much water in them they\njust can\u2019t hold it anymore.\u00a0 <\/p>\n When they hit the high mountains in Tropical Africa, the Rwenzoris<\/a>,\nthey have to go up.\u00a0 The air is cooler\nup there and as the clouds cool, they release moisture as rain.\u00a0 The rain falls and falls, constantly, often\nin torrents.\u00a0 The rain flows across the\nland and comes together as rivers that fill massive valleys, which become\nlakes.\u00a0 The lakes overflow to form new\nrivers that flow into other lakes.\u00a0 The\nwater fills all of the valleys and every nook and cranny that can hold\nwater.\u00a0 Then, it has nowhere to go but\ndown.\u00a0 It starts to flow down the rugged\nmountains into the foothills below.\u00a0 It\ncollects, at the base of the mountains, into one of the two main tributaries of\nthe Nile, the \u2018White Nile.\u2019 <\/p>\n As the land levels out in the northern part of the green\nzone of the picture, the White Nile becomes a lazy river.\u00a0 The low land doesn\u2019t drive the clouds up to\ncause rain in these areas, so the land becomes drier and drier.\u00a0 At a certain point, the land turns bone dry\nand there is no plant growth at all.\u00a0\n(The moisture is trapped in the Intertropical\nConvergence Zone<\/a>.)\u00a0 <\/p>\n The river now enters the Sahara desert, where it provides a\nribbon of life that extends more than 2,000 miles all the way to the\nMediterranean Sea.\u00a0 <\/p>\n If you follow the White Nile river down to just before<\/i> the green disappears and you\nenter the desert, you would be in a state called \u2018Unity.\u2019\u00a0 It isn\u2019t really possible to tell what\ncountry the state of Unity is in, because it is disputed and several countries\nclaim it today.\u00a0 But they all call it\n\u2018Unity.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 This is the site of the unity oil field.<\/a>\u00a0 <\/p>\n It is truly massive field.\u00a0\nIt has underground reserves of 3.5 billion barrels of oil.\u00a0 (This may help you understand why so many\npeople are fighting over it.\u00a0 The war\nover Unity doesn\u2019t make the news very much, possibly because news shows don\u2019t\ncover wars that involve black people fighting other black people.\u00a0 But it is one of the largest and most deadly\nconflicts on the planet as I write this.)\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n The underground oil deposits are under fantastic pressure\nfrom the weight of the land above them.\u00a0\nthis pushes the oil up from the underground deposits to the\nsurface.\u00a0 It flows up and forms pools at\nthe surface.\u00a0 <\/p>\n These pools have been there for a very long time.\u00a0 Ancient Egyptian texts discuss the transport\nof this oil down the river to Giza, the site of the pyramids, so that the\nbuilders could use it for light, for lubrication (oil a flat surface and you can\neasily slide something weighting several tons across it), for cooking, heating,\nand making medicines.\u00a0\u00a0 This oil was\nthere when the pan genus evolved 6.7 million years ago.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Once oil gets forms pools, they oil starts to stratify.\u00a0 Heavy oils like tar and asphalt sink to the\nbottom.\u00a0 Lighter oils like methane,\nethane, propane and butane, rise to the top.\u00a0\nThe first two are lighter than air and float up into the sky.\u00a0 They mix with oxygen on the way, creating a\nvery explosive mixture.\u00a0 A tiny spark\nanywhere will set the entire thing on fire.\u00a0\nThe other light oil products float partly as gasses and partly as\nliquids on the top of the pools.\u00a0 These\nburn easily and keep burning as long as there is fuel to feed them.\u00a0 With 3.5 billion barrels under the ground,\nthey will never run out.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Before humans, these surface pools were scattered all around\nthe area near the current Unity\nField<\/a>.\u00a0 Unity state is on the border\nbetween two climate systems.\u00a0 The rains\ncome in thick during certain times of the year.\u00a0 Plants grow very rapidly.\u00a0\nThen there is no rain at all for months.\u00a0 The plants all dry and become tinder dry.\u00a0 Electrical storms are common in all\nclimactic convergence zones:\u00a0 rapidly\nrising water vapor strips electrons from the air, creating electrical\ncharges.\u00a0 Lightening equalizes these\ncharges.\u00a0 Lighting ignites the wild dry\ngrass which burns like, well, wildfire.\u00a0\nThe fires hit the pools, large and small, and ignite them all.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The larger fires wouldn\u2019t have been attractive to the\npans.\u00a0 Large fires create their own\nclimate systems with howling winds that result from the intense\ntemperatures.\u00a0 The fires are hot enough\nto partially burn the very heavy hydrocarbons like asphalt and tar, which\nproduce a thick black smoke.\u00a0 They would\nhave stayed away from these fires.<\/p>\n But the small pools of gasses and oil would be much\ndifferent.\u00a0 You can go to restaurants\ntoday, in areas with cold climates, that have outdoor patios.\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Burning Oil Pool<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n They run propane through rocks in a little fireplace and set\nit on fire.\u00a0 It is very comfortable to\nbe around these fires and I enjoy coming to these places to get a drink or\nsomething to eat.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For millions of years, pans were the smartest beings on\nAfrica.\u00a0 They were able to dominate\nother animals and take what they wanted.\u00a0\nIf an area had food that could support pans, and they wanted it, they\ncould take it.\u00a0 The green area in Africa\nis very large and can support enormous populations.\u00a0 But, given enough time, even these enormous areas would get\ncrowded.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The territorial pans, the chimps, would move out and\ncolonize new territories when their lands got crowded.\u00a0 The White Nile goes through very productive\nland all the way to Unity.\u00a0 It probably\ntook hundreds of thousands or even millions of years, but eventually,\ncommunities of chimps would have lived on land that was close to the\nfires.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The non-territorial pans probably got there first.\u00a0 They were comfortable with traveling and\nfelt at home wherever they went.\u00a0 They\ndidn\u2019t need rich land and were accustomed to working for whatever they\ngot.\u00a0 Then the territorial pans arrived,\nand made it clear they were willing to kill, if necessary, to monopolize the\nbest lands, the non-territorial pans moved on.\u00a0\nBut both lived in this area as of 3 million BP (before the\npresent).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n They saw the fires from the burning oil pools.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The members of the pan species are very intelligent.\u00a0 Other than humans, no other animal can use\ntools better or make better use of the things they see around them.\u00a0 There are uses for fire, even if you don\u2019t\nknow how to make it or move it from place to place.\u00a0 Fire provides light.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Pans, like humans, have poor night vision.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Their predators (lions, saber toothed tigers, wolves, to\nname a few) have excellent night vision.\u00a0\nPans that are in total darkness will be helpless against these\npredators.\u00a0 They will be a lot safer if\nthey can find a place where there is a natural fire (a relatively small burning\noil pool) and make their camp close enough to use its light to see predators\ncoming.\u00a0 To the territorial pans who had\ncarved out the best land for themselves, it provided great benefits.\u00a0 If they could camp close to fire, they could\nsee their enemies coming and organize to fight them. \u00a0They couldn\u2019t be attacked by surprise, at least not as easily, if\nthey had even a tiny bit of light.\u00a0 <\/p>\n As the pans spent more time around fire, they became more\nand more comfortable around it.\u00a0 Fire is\nmesmerizing.\u00a0 I like to watch it and\nthink about how it moves and dances around the fuel.\u00a0 I start to see patterns.\u00a0\nI don\u2019t try to apply any logic or reason to it, I simply watch.\u00a0 Eventually, I can start to see where the\nflames will dance off to next.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Primatologist Jill Pruetz at Iowa State University in Ames\nstudies the way that pans interact with fire.\u00a0\nWhen dry seasons come to parts of Africa, wildfires burn\neverywhere.\u00a0 Preuetz notes that the\nchimps appear to be far more comfortable around the fires than humans.\u00a0 They have to live with them several months\nout of the year.\u00a0 They know that if they\ntake certain precautions, they will be safe so they don\u2019t panic like other\nanimals, including humans.\u00a0 Here she\ndescribes it in an interview with LiveScience.com:\u00a0 <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n "It was the end of the dry season, so the fires burn so hot\nand burn up trees really fast, and they were so calm about it," Pruetz\nsaid of the chimps.\u00a0 "They were a\nlot better than I was, that's for sure."<\/p>\n For the most part, wild animals consider fire very distressing, but\nthe chimpanzees showed no sign of stress or fear with the wildfires, other than\ncalmly avoiding the fire as it approached them.<\/p>\n "I was surprised at how expert they were at handling the\nfire," Pruetz told LiveScience.\u00a0\n"The fire was burning really hot, and the flames were at least 10\nfeet high, up to 20 feet at times."<\/p>\n The apes were experts at predicting where the fire would go, Pruetz\nnoted.\u00a0 "I could predict it, sort\nof, but if it were just me, I would have left," she said.\u00a0 "At one time, I actually had to push\nthrough them because I could feel the heat from the fire that was on the side\nof me and I just wasn't that comfortable with it."<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These animals clearly lived around fire for a long\ntime.\u00a0 As she notes, most animals are\nafraid of fire, mainly because they don\u2019t know enough about how it moves to\nkeep themselves safe.\u00a0 (Even humans are\nin this category).\u00a0 But the chimps\nappeared to be smarter than humans in this regard.\u00a0 They understood fire.\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Most likely, one of the first intentional acts of fire control\ninvolved moving fire from one place to another.\u00a0 Large pools of oil burn very hot and produce massive amounts of\nsmoke.\u00a0 They stay lit for decades or\neven centuries:\u00a0 There is plenty of fuel\nand no winds or rain are strong enough to put them out.\u00a0 The small pools burn at a good temperature\nand are useful, but they go out with a strong wind or heavy rain.\u00a0 The early pans may have seen a fire that was\ntoo big to be useful and many smaller pools that would be great for them if\nthey could find a way to set them on fire.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n They had seen the smaller pools burning before, but they are\nnot on fire at that time.\u00a0 But they see\nthat a stick gets into a pool of fire and catches fire itself.\u00a0 Then the stick may fall out of the fire pool\nof oil, but keep burning. \u00a0They would\nhave seen wood burning many times.\u00a0 <\/p>\n They would have stared at fire as humans do and watched\nit.\u00a0 <\/p>\n They would have seen embers falling to small pools and\nigniting the small pools.\u00a0 They would\nknow, from their experience dealing with wild fires in the forests (as\ndescribed in the text box above) that they can safely move a burning branch out\nof the way if they stay far enough from the flames.\u00a0 It may take a long time but, eventually, one of them will take the\nburning stick and move it to the smaller pool, to create a fire the right\nsize.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Others will see this.\u00a0\nPans are copycats.\u00a0 They copy the\nthings others do.\u00a0 They don\u2019t have to\nhave schools where they are taught how to safely move fire to copy another pan\nthat has done it.\u00a0 <\/p>\n But every pan has unique DNA.\u00a0 Some are smarter than others.\u00a0\nEventually, one will be born that has mental connections that allow her\nto safely carry a burning stick from one burning pool to another.\u00a0 She will have invented one of the simplest\nfire-using tools, a torch.\u00a0 Mothers are\ndriven by instinct to protect their children.\u00a0\nNothing drives them harder.\u00a0 A\ntorch can allow a mother to protect her children from predators.\u00a0 If she masters the tool of the torch, her\nchildren will live while the children of mot hers who didn\u2019t have the new\nmental connections will become food for the predators.\u00a0 She will pass on her intellect, along with\nthe skills themselves, to her children.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n The new brain connection will have come into existence\nbecause of a chance change in the DNA of the pan that had it.\u00a0 The new DNA makes the animal more\ncapable.\u00a0 Those without it won\u2019t be able\nto compete and their genes will go away.\u00a0\nEventually, all of the pans in an area will have the beneficial DNA\nconnection.\u00a0 They will all be able to\nmove fire from one pool to another, if they have to do this.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Then, another connection will develop that makes the one\nwith it even more capable.\u00a0 This process\nwill supercharge evolution.\u00a0 It is hard\nto explain the doubling<\/i> of brain size\nin a mere 1 million years without incredible pressure and great advantages for\nthe animals that had greater intellect.\u00a0\nBut the use of fire seems to be something in this category.\u00a0 It has so many uses that, even now, some 3\nmillion years into the fire age, we haven\u2019t figured them all out yet.\u00a0 Each new use for fire requires new mental\nconnections.\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nuclear reactions are a kind of controlled fire.\u00a0 Do you<\/i>\nhave the mental connections needed to understand how to build a nuclear bomb? A\ntiny percentage of the people on Earth even have minds capable of understanding\nthe mathematics needed for this.\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The power that comes from higher intelligence, in this\nsituation, is fantastic.\u00a0 A little <\/i>bit\nmore intellect means you are a little <\/i>better at using this tool.\u00a0 Those with this greater intellect survive\nwhile those that aren\u2019t good at using this tool perish.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fire is useful in war.\u00a0\nArmies that have it can fight at night.\u00a0\nIf their enemies don\u2019t have it, their enemies are not going to last\nlong.\u00a0\u00a0 Armies with fire can throw balls\nof burning tar using slings, burning their enemies to death.\u00a0 (This is still done, in a slightly more\nsophisticated way; the devices we call \u2018napalm\nbombs\u2019<\/a> are essentially balls of burning gelatinized oil which are \u2018thrown\u2019\nfrom airplanes onto the bodies of enemies and any who happen to be under the\nplanes.)\u00a0 <\/p>\n The use of fire changed them in many ways.\u00a0 It expanded their mental capabilities a\ngreat deal.\u00a0 It takes a lot of\nintelligence to use fire effectively and safely.\u00a0 We know that in very young children, the parts of the brain that\nprocess this information are not yet fully developed.\u00a0 Young human children will try to touch burning objects and, if\nnot stopped, can be badly hurt.\u00a0 The\nparts of their brains that have a cognitive understanding of the dangers of\nfire are not fully developed.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The pans living close to the oil fields developed these\nbrain components over time.\u00a0 Those with\nthem had advantages over those without them.\u00a0\nThey were more likely to survive long enough to have young and then\nraise them to be adults.\u00a0 Over time, the\nbetter-adapted chimps would be more likely to pass on their genes.\u00a0 The adaptations would build on one\nanother.\u00a0 Eventually, the chimps would\nbe so different than any of the original chimps that an objective observer\nwould probably not want to use the same name to refer to them.\u00a0 <\/p>\n They would no longer be pans.\u00a0 They would be a new genus, our genus, the homo genus.\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at Africa again.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Africa from space, taken from Google Earth.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you look closely at the picture, you will see that the\ngreen area in the center is essentially boxed in.\u00a0 It is blocked on all sides and there is no real way to get from\nthere to the outside world.\u00a0 On the\nnorth is the hot and arid Sahara.\u00a0 On\nthe other three sides are oceans.\u00a0 <\/p>\n If you look very\nclose, however, you will see a tiny ribbon of green that moves up from the\ngreen area and cuts through the great desert.\u00a0\nIt is tiny because you are looking at it from 2,500 miles up.\u00a0 This will be the route our ancient ancestors\ntook when they leave Africa.\u00a0 It is the\nNile river.\u00a0 <\/p>\n This the only way\nout.\u00a0 it is the way our ancestors went\nwhen they left Africa about 2 million years ago.\u00a0 <\/p>\n There were\ndifferent groups of homos that left Africa.\u00a0\nThey are:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 Homo egaster (the worker man)<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Homo habilis (the capable man).\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We don\u2019t have DNA from either of these groups.\u00a0 This means that we can\u2019t do genetic tests to\ndetermine if they are two separate species, members of the same species that\nhave different ways of life for different reasons, like the chimps and bonobos.\n<\/p>\n I think you can see what is coming:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n One of these two groups, the homo egaster, left artifacts\nthat indicate that its members were clearly migratory.\u00a0 We don\u2019t find artifacts of homo egaster or\ntheir descendants the denisovans in fixed and well built homes, or in\ncommunities with roads and public facilities.\u00a0\nThey are not found in desirable areas like fertile river valleys, which\ncould be colonized and turned into \u2018countries.\u2019 They traveled in small groups\nand most of the evidence we have from then indicates they were clearly not\n\u2018living\u2019 in the places where they left artifacts, they were just traveling\nthrough.\u00a0 <\/p>\n They lived in the wild open spaces.\u00a0 They probably were hunter gatherers, and\ntraveled very long distances following game they were hunting.\u00a0 Homo egaster are the ancestors of the\ndenisovans, who followed the same lifestyles and who left artifacts in many of\nthe same places.\u00a0 The denisovans are the\nancestors of the modern nomads of Mongolia and Siberia, many of whom live the\nsame general lifestyle, living in portable homes called \u2018yurts\u2019 and traveling\nby dogsled or, if they can afford them, snowmobiles.\u00a0 <\/p>\n In the places where homo egaster lived, it wouldn\u2019t have\nbeen possible to form and defend a specific part of the world as a \u2018country.\u2019\nFor this to happen, they would need a piece of land that is monopolizable.\u00a0 It must be practical<\/i> for the people living on the land to build borders and\ndefend them, and the land must produce enough to support them without them\nhaving to leave it undefended.\u00a0 The\nplaces where homo egaster lived clearly do not qualify.\u00a0 <\/p>\n They were like the bonobos, both in terms of disposition and\nculture.\u00a0 Of course, they probably would\nhave liked<\/i> to live in the best areas,\nwhere food and everything else they need is plentiful.\u00a0 But, for some reason, they shunned these\nareas and stayed in remote areas.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Homo habilis lived entirely differently.\u00a0 They formed colonies as they went and built\npermanent facilities, including very large and durable walls to surround the\nareas where they lived.\u00a0 We can study\ntheir former habitations because many were built along the banks of the Nile\nwhere it flows through the dry Sahara.\u00a0\nIt doesn\u2019t rain in many of these areas for centuries, so the dwellings\ndon\u2019t degrade very rapidly.\u00a0 Their\nartifacts show they clearly \u2018settled\u2019 the areas where they lived.\u00a0 They stayed there.\u00a0 They had homes where they slept every night.\u00a0 They clearly had military forces patrolling\nthe walls: we can find evidence of defensive fortifications that allowed them\nto rain down fire on their enemies while remaining safe themselves.\u00a0 They clearly had societies like the chimps,\nbuilt in the same principle: territorial sovereignty.\u00a0 The homo habilis divided into groups, each of which took\npossession of a territory, then treated it as if they had sovereignty over\nit.\u00a0 They acted much like the people of\nthe world\u2019s countries do today.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The homo habilis were the ancestors of the people called the\nneanderthals.\u00a0 Neanderthal remains are\nfound in great quantities in Europe.\u00a0\nThe neanderthals built the many thousands of city states of ancient\nEurope.\u00a0 When later technology made it\nimpossible to defend a small state, larger entities closer to modern countries\nevolved and many of the smaller \u2018city states\u2019 (a state the size of a modern\ncity) were abandoned.\u00a0 You can find the\nruins of their old city walls today, all over Europe.\u00a0 There are so many of them, that most even aren\u2019t marked and used\nas tourist attractions today.\u00a0 They are\njust left to be destroyed by the weather.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Both of these early groups of the homo genus left Africa\nstarting about 2 million years ago.\u00a0 The\nhomo egaster (sometimes called \u2018homo erectus,\u2019 although there is no agreement\non whether they are the same species) went first.\u00a0 They were migratory people descended from migratory people.\u00a0 The homo habilis, with their fixed homes and\ncity states then followed.\u00a0 <\/p>\n These people had large brains.\u00a0 They were more than twice as large as those of the pans who were\ntheir ancestors.\u00a0 They used fire for\nlight, heating, cooking, and to help them in the manufacture of their\ntools.\u00a0 Since the areas where they went\ndidn\u2019t have naturally burning oil fields, they clearly had figured out how to\nmake fire. \u00a0They brought the items\nneeded to make fire with them, wherever they went.\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How to make fire: This is easy if you have some light oil, a flint,\nand a piece of metal that contains iron.\u00a0\nThis is how a \u2018Zippo\u2019 lighter works: the reservoir has very light oil\n(\u2018lighter fluid\u2019 is a very light oil).\u00a0\nThis oil is soaked up by a wick.\u00a0\nThe wick is placed right next to a tiny piece of flint which is pushed\nup into a metal wheel by a tiny spring.\u00a0\nThe metal wheel is made of steel, which has a high iron content.\u00a0 Spin the wheel and it scrapes the flint\ncreating a spark which lights the oil-soaked wick.\u00a0 (The wick itself doesn\u2019t burn and can last for decades; it only\nholds the oil.) If you don\u2019t have fossil-fuel oil, you can use natural oil from\nanimal fat or extracted from oil-rich plants. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Homo habilis, and their descendants the neanderthals, had\nsocieties built on the idea of dividing themselves into different teams to\nfight over exclusivity (sovereignty) over pieces of territory.\u00a0 These are the same kinds of societies chimps\nhave and the same kinds of societies that dominate the world now.\u00a0 <\/p>\n These societies spread in a very specific way.\u00a0 If we want to understand how they developed\ninto the societies we have now, it helps to understand how these systems\nexpand.\u00a0 <\/p>\n They can start with a few people (or animals; territorial\nsovereignty societies are suitable for both) in a small area, but spread until\nthey cover immense areas.\u00a0 These\nsocieties spread by the process of \u2018colonization.\u2019 When the individuals in a\ngroup that has taken control of a territory can no longer support their\npopulation on that territory, they find some other territory that will allow\nthem to basically transport a new version of their system to that territory.\u00a0 <\/p>\n They have a system that requires defendable borders.\u00a0 Homos are a lot better at fortifying borders\nthan chimps.\u00a0 They build durable\nbarriers that are very high (many of the border walls in the world are more\nthan 100 feet high, and incredibly well fortified).\u00a0 These borders can\u2019t be moved so the territory of each of these\nunits is more or less fixed.\u00a0 If the\npopulation grows, the territory can\u2019t<\/i>\ngrow.\u00a0 The territory gets more and more\ncrowded expand with ever increasing stress on resources.\u00a0 Eventually, if additional territory exists,\nthey will send out \u2018colonists\u2019 to find it and basically create a new version of\ntheir system into that colony.\u00a0 <\/p>\n If no unoccupied territory that is suitable is available,\nthey will have to try to take over occupied territory.\u00a0 If the others in the territory are passive\nand pacifistic, unwilling to fight (as the bonobos were in the chimp\/bonobo\nconflicts), the more aggressive colonists can often drive them away.\u00a0 If there is no place to move them to, they\ncan simply wipe them, out.\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For many centuries, the\nAbrahamic religions controlled state apparatus in large parts of the world and\nrequired all followers to accept this story on pain of death.\u00a0 People couldn\u2019t do research into events that\nthey thought occurred before this date, because that would subject to them to\narrest, execution, and confiscation of all their property by the state.\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We will go over this period in\nhistory later in the book.\u00a0 The ban on\nanalysis faded away fairly slowly (or so it appears to us who lived through\ntime) as more and more evidence showed it had to be wrong and religious\nauthority faded.\u00a0 But as recently as a\ncentury ago, teachers in the United States could be arrested for implying the\nchronology was wrong under the Butler Act<\/a>, which\nprohibited certain teachings that were inconsistent and many countries today\nstill have laws prohibiting providing children with inconsistent information\nand, while it isn\u2019t strictly illegal, many jurisdictions go to great\nlengths <\/a>to discourage this teaching.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\nThe Genus Homo<\/h2>\n
What Are Homos?<\/h2>\n
Fire<\/h2>\n
Fire <\/h2>\n
Unity<\/h2>\n
![\"Africa](\"https:\/\/fbhd.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com\/2\/africa.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Buring](\"https:\/\/fbhd.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com\/2\/tar+pit+fire.jpg\")
<\/a>The Pans Arrive in Unity<\/h2>\n
The Intentional Use of Fire<\/h2>\n
Fire and territorial Societies<\/h2>\n
Out of Africa<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Two Different Societies Leave Africa<\/h2>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Early homos could have figured\nout that the oil was the key part.\u00a0 Oil\nand a wick (which can be made of anything) and a spark.\u00a0 The hard part is actually the iron\ncontaining metal, needed to generate a large spark from a flint.\u00a0 If you know the trick, however, you can find\nthem: there is a certain color of red mixed with orange that indicates a high\niron content in a rock.\u00a0 Look for it and\nkeep trying, striking the rocks together until you get a tiny spark.\u00a0 (This will happen when you find one with an\niron content of about 60% or higher).\u00a0\nThen, once you have the iron rock as a striker, you test it against\nother rocks.\u00a0 Each one will give a\ndifferent level of spark.\u00a0 Striking\nflint against the iron rock will give you the best spark.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The American \u2018Indians\u2019 used this method to make fire.\u00a0 For this reason, they placed great value on\niron and one of the most valuable trade goods available to early explorers was\nsimple nails.\u00a0 (The explored Captain\nCook<\/a> descries the elaborate lengths to which the natives he met would go to\nget even a single nail.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t seem\nto understand why a nail was worth more than a pile of silver or gold.\u00a0 The higher the iron content, the greater the\nspark.\u00a0 His nails were almost 100%\niron.)
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cook traveled extensively and was\nthe first person from Europe to have contact with the people of several hundred\nislands.\u00a0 They were all different in\nmany ways, but they all shared one trait: they all used fire.\u00a0 Cooke noted that the poorest of the people\nhe met had no clothes, blankets, or other comforts, but they would never go\nanywhere without their fire making kits:\u00a0\n<\/span><\/p>\nHow Territorial Sovereignty Societies Spread<\/h2>\n