#2 The Origins of Fire and Language and the Birth of Shamanism—The First Turning

Humanity's three turnings began with fire and language and shamanism. The first repeated and controlled use of fire is fairly easy to date using the radiocarbon method—around 200,000 years ago. Although it is impossible to find equivalent evidence for the first use of language, it is not hard to see how the two go hand in hand. Not only is the creation and use of fire complex, hard to convey with grunts and gestures, but the nuances of fire are subtle and subject to change. If people were not able to communicate in precise and abstract ways about this new power, it was going to become another predator. No other animal uses fire. Fire is the most terrifying force any animal has ever encountered. When it showed up in the wild, as out of control savannah or forest fires caused by lightning strikes, everyone ran. What caused our ancestors to think they were different? The things that make us human: intelligence, imagination, curiosity, playfulness, fascination with risk, love, terror. Before we domesticated fire, a leading cause of death among hominids was “big cat related.” Lions and leopards ruled the night and although they eventually inspired spears, they still had the edge. Fire leveled the playing field. With fire at your command, you could keep any predator off. If you could control fire, you controlled the greatest power on earth. And before you could control it, you had to be able to imagine controlling it. You had to see something in your mind that did not exist. This took time, of course, probably many thousands of years. But, when they were done, our ancestors had mastered two of humanity’s greatest powers—fire and language—and were no longer Homo erectus. Homo sapiens had emerged, another word for "shaman." For 200,000 years they wandered, eventually out of Africa, in small groups—as small as five, as large as thirty or forty—overcoming all other predators and multiplying. There were significant developments during this time. A cognitive revolution around 70,000 years ago may have led to increasingly complex forms of belief; sculpture, painting, along with our ancestors’ first departure from Africa, all occurred during this period. But our form of social organization—small cooperative, egalitarian kin groups—remained the same until our success threatened to undo us. 00:00 Intro 00:16 Good news About the World Falling Apart 0:27 First Turning 00:34 First appearance of homo sapiens 00:45 Fire and language 01:43 Bi-polar nature of fire 02:33 Origins of language 03:05 fire and language 04:30 Danger of big cats-- lions and leopards 05:00 Fear as motivator to work with fire 05:25 Danger of fire inspired language 06:25 Fire extended our days; laboratory for developing language 07:00 Fire and language as "super powers;" Huichol word for fire, 'tatewari," means "oldest grandfather and "first shaman"; shamanism explained; what is shamanism? 07:40 Imagination, intuition, inspiration are essence of shamanism 08:00. "shaman: is another word for human being 08:49 Our current crises are a failure of imagination