ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how controlled fire use by early humans could have facilitated the evolution of human emotions through the lens of cognitive archaeology. It examines the evidence and arguments for fire use by humans during the Middle Pleistocene, concluding that habitual fire use emerged sometime between 800–400,000 years ago. This is followed by a discussion of the contexts in which domestic fires were kept and the problems that arise from maintaining and using fire in a social group context. It is proposed that emotional control and prosocial emotions directed toward the fire and other members of the group would have been adaptive in fire using societies. In conclusion it is proposed that the domestication of fire would have facilitated the evolution of human emotions and the capacity for emotion regulation.
