Oublier Prométhée : la lente préhistoire du feu

Couverture Oublier PrometheeSociété d'Ethnologie

Everyone knows that fire is a gift from Prometheus. Rejecting darkness and obscurantism, Prometheus laid the foundations of civilisation by bringing fire to mankind. Where fire was unknown, another hero – a wren, a falcon, a jaguar or a lizard – stole fire to give to humans, enabling them to cook food and thus leave the state of nature behind.

Until recently, prehistorians (myself included) also conceived of the domestication of fire, if not as a gift, then at least as a sudden and late invention, which spread rapidly and led to a whole series of innovations essential to humanity. This idea is now widely questioned.

Catherine Perlès is professor emeritus at Paris Nanterre University and a member of UMR 8068 TEMPS. She is an honorary member of the Institut universitaire de France and has received an honorary doctorate from Indiana University. She continues her research in prehistory, particularly on Greece and Chile, as part of the CNRS’s UMR Temps.

Commandes en ligne sur le site “Le Comptoir des presses d’universités” 

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Perlès C. (2025) ‒Oublier Prométhée. La lente préhistoire du feu, Nanterre, France, Société d’Ethnologie (Conférence Eugène Fleischmann), 96 p.   https://www.lcdpu.fr/books/C506B997-3DB5-4A17-8192-8AE3AFC75F66 [Accédé le 21 octobre 2025].