How humans harnessed fire to transform the world
Asst. Prof. Jessica Thompson
Jessica studies how humans evolved from a species embedded in the ecosystem to one increasingly taking control of its evolution. She asserts that what humans have done is uniquely different from what has ever happened before. What sets humans apart from other species? Engineering. We have not just used complex behaviour, cooperation, and tools to engineer our evolution but also to transform the world around us. Of those tools, the most transformative has been fire.
—
Jessica Thompson is an assistant professor of anthropology at Yale University and an assistant curator at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. She has devoted her career to understanding the interactions past humans and human ancestors had with their environments through analysis of objects they left behind, alongside bones from animals they hunted. She has led or had senior roles in projects spanning the Stone Ages, examining the long-term trajectory of how humans transformed into significant shapers of the world around them.