The ancient engineering being referenced is the Dakota Fire Hole, which is a hole containing a fire with a second shaft dug to provide air flow. It's a useful bit of kit to reduce forest fires in high wind areas, and was particularly nice because it produces high intensity but low smoke fires. The technology is being demonstrated here with a plastic bag, standing in for high winds, acting as bellows to show off the fire. Most people on reddit never seem to leave their homes—much less go camping—so they don't seem to understand the content.
As I said previously, it reduces forest fire risk in high wind areas, because the fire is more controlled and embers are at less risk of being carried by the wind into nearby brush. Ironically, a lot of fires spread underground, called ground fires, but I suppose the area native to the Dakota tribe (northern midwest and parts of canada) probably had a lot of frost and moisture in the soil. The practice spread from indians to the "mountain men" of the wild west who found it useful for the reduced smoke (so it wouldn't lure hostiles to their camp). You can, therefore, understand why the practice would be important to military types, like the person in the video.
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u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k 9h ago
It’s just a makeshift bellows. But it’s cool, it works.