The Evolution of Material Signification: Tracing the Origins of Symbolic Body Ornamentation through a Pragmatic and Enactive Theory of Cognitive Semiotics

Prehistoric archaeologists generally treat early body ornaments, such as the Blombos shell beads, as inherently symbolic artefacts that were created by symbolically capable brains. Essentially, they treat material signs in strictly linguistic terms and view them as the epiphenomenal products of internal representations that were used as templates. Yet material signification is neither inherently symbolic, nor the a priori product of innate neural structures. We must thus opt for a pragmatic semiotic theory that can describe the physical qualities and relations of material signs, and an enactive theory of cognition that can explain the anchoring of novel concepts to the material world. In synergistically fusing these strands, this article puts forth a pragmatic and enactive theory of cognitive semiotics. By applying this evolutionary epistemology to the case of early body ornamentation, this study traces the prehistoric process of semiotic scaffolding that eventually led to development of symbolic artefacts and practices.