Making Friends, Making Tools, and Making Symbols

Using Peircian semiotics as an interpretive framework, I evaluate the archaeological evidence for the emergence of symbolism in hominin evolution. While this framework would predict a progression from icons to indexes to symbols, the archaeological record is unclear as to whether icons or indexes are primary. Symbols, however, do appear to be late arriving, confirming the prediction that symbol learning is cognitively demanding. I argue that developmental and social factors were critical in the evolutionary emergence of symbolism. The role of enhanced working memory in the emergence of symbolism was most likely in giving the Homo sapiens brain the ability to support complex symbols systems such as language.