Until now, the question of the origin of man remains unclear. The version that as a result of prolonged use of the forelimbs, the monkey developed a brain and turned into a human, turned out to be not very consistent. The human brain is not the largest and most developed in the animal kingdom. Cetaceans are in the lead in relative weight.
And in terms of the number of convolutions and the area of the cerebral cortex, dolphins are ahead of people. The question is why, since neither whales nor dolphins worked at all? By the way, the average brain weight of a modern man is about 1400 grams, and a Neanderthal man's is 1650. What is it - we are 250 grams more stupid?
The ancient monkey began pounding stones on the bones millions of years ago - this is evidenced by archaeological excavations. But before her, other animals did it. For example, sea otters dive for mollusks and at the same time lift flat stones from the bottom, put stones on their stomachs, arranging a kind of anvil, take a shell with two front paws and pound it on a stone (while swimming on their back). And split! However, their work did not lead to the emergence of underwater otter civilizations.
Until now, some species of monkeys split coconuts with a stone and a special anvil with a notch. The stones are carefully selected, perhaps even processed, but the monkey breed for millions of years has not moved further along the evolutionary path. Why did the use of stones turn some animals into humans and others not? Where is the quality line that separated our ancestors from the animal world?
Could it be about thinking and speaking? Let, for some mysterious reason, the first thought somehow miraculously flew into the brain of a primitive monkey - and now it thinks, no longer an animal! However, recent observations of the "lesser brothers" have shown that they also think. Think quickly and well. And some types of living beings communicate with each other using sound (dolphins, for example). Others convey very complex information about the world around them using sign encoding. For example, bees use flight pirouettes to tell their swarm in which direction, at what distance, and what areas of flowering plants they have found!
Animals think, count, communicate, convey complex visual symbols - and nothing, no revolution for many millions, even tens of millions of years. It turns out that neither the weight of the brain, nor the number of convolutions, nor even labor could become decisive factors for the transformation of a monkey into a man.
This means that there is some special difference - the most important and secret "golden key" to the door to the social world.
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What radically distinguishes humans from animals is their relationship to fire. Man is the only creature on Earth that is not afraid of him and, moreover, uses it, starting with the first bonfires and ending with the launch of spaceships.
Let us note a fundamental point - there can be no transitional stages in the mastery of fire. It is impossible to get used to fire gradually, to approach it step by step for millions of years. All animals flee from fire in fear. And only one animal once and for some reason stopped, turned around, went to the flame and tamed it forever. It was the first Adam-Prometheus, although still in the form of a monkey, who turned 180 degrees and launched evolution along a completely new path for the entire animal world. Perhaps that is why they say "the spark of God" and not "the stone of God."
From that moment until now, it is the use of fire that has been the main locomotive of the development of mankind.
The first division of labor in primitive society was gender. It is not in the herd of monkeys, nor in other animal families. But as soon as the fire appeared and the need to maintain it, this radical division arose. The men went hunting, and the women remained by the fire - after all, they are weaker and they have babies. Since then, it has become the custom: the woman is the keeper of the hearth, and the man is the breadwinner.
The fire was not supposed to go out, it was protected more than its own life, because at first there was neither flint, nor the ability to produce fire by friction. Getting it from fires and lightning, it has been preserved from generation to generation. Archaeologists have discovered caves in which a layer of soot on the walls and a layer of ash show that a fire has been burning in them for thousands of years!
