The Influence of Life# In the early times when human beings hunted and gathered food, they were not in control of their environment.# They could only interact with their surroundings as the other lower animals did.# When they learned to make fire, however, they became capable of altering their environment.# To provide themselves with fuel, they cut down trees.# They also burned clearings in forests to increase the growth of grass and to provide a greater grazing area for the wild animals that human beings fed upon.# This development led to farming and the domestication of animals.# Fire provided the means for cooking plants which had previously been inedible.# Only when the process of meeting the basic need for food reached a certain level was it possible for humans to follow other pursuits such as setting up families, forming societies and founding cities.