I would say you are correct about the primal leftover. I've always loved the smell of wood smoke. I can come unglued in the fall if there is wood smoke in the air. I get all weepy.
It's weird.
I'll be standing somewhere at times and have strange women run their hands through my hair.
And if I've just been tending a campfire, I've got that hickory/oak woodfire smoke cloud following me around and THEN things get weird.
Snuffling behind my head followed by weird growling, and there's just a harmless looking young lady standing there.
It gets really weird.
Still haven't had a good explanation for it at times, but it does seem to be a primal holdover as mentioned.
Weepy?
As in the "That's beautiful" type weepy?