I reckon you're on the right track Phil, I've thought about this kind of thing over the years and I've convinced myself it's about racial memory / deeply learned behaviour handed down over thousands of years of evolution.
(With apologies to the non-evolutionist members of our forum, you may write me off as a deluded cretin.)
There's something bred deeply into us in terms of sitting in the dark staring into the heavens, and sitting in the dark staring into a fire.
The fire staring is easy - after a days hunt the desire to simply cook the days catch, eating with the family/tribe members, sitting back & story telling, resting tired muscles in the warmth - even to us sophisticated modern peopel there's still something comforting and alluring about sitting around a fire talking. This is what everyone did.
Now staring at the heavens instead of the flames - this is where your more advanced primitive mind comes along!
Not just happy with surviving the day, eating another meal, and keeping war, these were the original thinkers, the ones who later became the medicine men / temple priests / alchemists
/ free thinkers / explorers / scientists!
Having done a fair bit of both stargazing and fireside bullshi.. um talking I reckon I know what I'm on about.
That's my theory anyway, and again if you don't think it's right feel free to write me off as a deluded cretin!
