A Kalahari bushman telling stories at a fire-lit desert gathering. Photo: PollyWiessner/ University of Utah/PA Wire

Mastery of fire more than 400,000 years ago may have sparked a cultural revolution by introducing the concept of night life. Learning to control fire did more than keep out the winter chill and advance cookery skills, it is claimed.

The camp fire extended the day beyond sunset, promoted social interaction, entertainment and art, and played a major role in the development and spread of human culture.

US anthropologist Polly Wiessner investigated the firelight talk of Kalahari bushmen still living as our hunter-gatherer ancestors did hundreds of thousands of years ago.

She found that conversations around the camp fire differed greatly from those conducted during the day.

Three-quarters of day-time talk involved practical economic issues and gossip, but at night people forgot their worries and problems and focused on song, dance and storytelling.

Attention also turned to the broader community of people who were not present or living far away, and the spirit world.

Wiessner, from the University of Utah, who has studied the Kalahari bushmen for 40 years, said: “There is something about fire in the middle of the darkness that bonds, mellows and also excites people. It’s intimate.

Night-time around a fire is universally time for bonding

“Night-time around a fire is universally time for bonding, for telling social information, for entertaining, for a lot of shared emotions.”

Around 4,000 of the !Kung bushmen live in the Kalahari desert in northeast Namibia and northwest Botswana. The exclamation mark represents a click sound in their language.

On most evenings, the bushmen hold firelight gatherings in groups of up to around 15 people from a number of families.

Wiessner analysed notes she took of 174 day-time and night-time conversations at two !Kung camps in 1974. Each conversation lasted more than 20 to 30 minutes and involved at least five individuals.

Of the day-time conversations, 34 per cent involved complaints, criticism and gossip relating to social relationships, 31 per cent economic issues such as hunting for food, 16 per cent jokes, and six per cent stories.

At night, stories were at the heart of 81 per cent of conversations, seven per cent centred on complaints, criticism and gossip, and just four per cent addressed economic issues.

“What I found was a big difference between day and night conversation, the kinds of information transmitted and the use of imaginary thought,” said Wiessner, whose findings appear in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Day conversation has a lot to do with economic activities – working, getting food, what resources are where. It has a lot to do with social issues and controls: criticism, complaints and gripes. At night, people really let go, mellow out and seek entertainment.

“If there have been conflicts in the day, they overcome those and bond. Night conversation has more to do with stories,

“You have singing and dancing, too, which bonds groups.”