Читать книгу Engineering Physics of High-Temperature Materials - Nirmal K. Sinha - Страница 14

PRODUCTION

CONTROL

MAINTENANCE

In the early Holocene age, the primary human needs arose from requiring protection from the elements and broadening food sources. These necessities led to the quest for controlled fire and with it the realization of the need for techniques for producing (P) and controlling (C) fire at will, rather than depending on its natural sources, as well as maintaining (M) fire as the need arose.

The trinity of fire (PCM) – i.e. generating fire whenever the need arises, using it, and preserving the source – was probably the most important aspect of human development. PCM provided hominines with the opportunity to extend their habitats to colder regions of the earth where caves could be used as heated (air‐conditioned!) and protected shelters. It also started a new era – the taste for cooked food and the beginnings of the kitchen for such food items anywhere, any time. The concept of “home cooking” and the advent of kitchens, marked, albeit debatable, the departure point from the cohabiting animal, although many animals and birds have developed the taste for burnt food produced during natural fires in forests or grassy lands.

Producing fire under dry environmental conditions was perhaps the beginning of this phase of human development and that of “kitchen” and “home cooking.” PCM heralded a transition from nomadic, constantly moving communities of hunters and gatherers and cave dwellers, to relatively stable societies with fabricated housing, making tools for various applications, and eventually to the development of agriculture and thus creating new social structures, to name a few.