Origins of Pictures: An Argument for Transformation of Signs

Abstract

This paper argues that the persisting visual signs of hominin behaviour - the signs left by our ancestors - were crucial to the evolution of human cognition. As part of that same process they were crucial to the origins of picture-making or depiction. The transformation of depiction into art is probably a later process, which is not the principal focus of this paper. The key to this process of transformation is Peirce's (1986) definition of a sign as »something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity.« Hominins did things that left marks on the environment, and these marks endured beyond the moment. An example of this would be the production of debris from stone artefact making which could be seen as signs of that activity (Davidson/McGrew 2005). This allowed those hominins to see the regularities of the relation between their actions and the consequent signs of that previous activity, though research is needed to show when hominins actually noticed those signs (Adam Brumm and Matt Pope, personal communication 22 Sept 2011). Deliberate production of meaningful marks came later, once hominins came to recognise the signs of their own activities.