Early Hominians: The Development Of Mimetic Culture

Throughout human history, man has evolved and moved only the evolutionary chain. Sometimes man takes small steps, and sometimes large ones. While all steps are vital, some are looked at more closely than others. Some of the more notable mile stones in the progress of early hominins into what we consider modern humans and things such as mimetic culture, symbolic culture, early domestication, and the beginning of settlements.

Mimetic culture is one of the earliest phases of the cultural development of hominins. It can be best described as hominins purposefully mimicking other hominins, thus the title of “Mimetic” culture. The development of this mimetic culture lead to many advancements in early groups of humans, such as communal dances, and

Signs of symbolic culture were things such as purposeful burials, the crafting of artistic objects, the making of musical instrument, and storytelling. The biggest difference in the things that hominins were making at this point in time compared to the past was that these new creations were not vital to their survival. A fantastic representation of a symbolic artifact that was created by the early hominins is Swimming Reindeer, a sculpture carved from mammoth tusk and found in Montastruc, France, dating back to roughly 11000 BCE (Objects, 19). Early human symbolic creations often depicted things that they were familiar with, such as

As time went on and climates warmed up, the environments around early humans changes. Grasslands spread and herding animals began to stay in certain areas instead of frequently moving. Instinctively, when the animals stayed in one place, hunter-gathers also began to stay in one place. With a steady supply of food early humans had no reason to move as much as they used to and this lead to developments in domestication, agriculture, and food storage. A fantastic example of early food storage containers is the Jomon Pot, a clay vessel found in Japan that dates back to roughly 5000 BCE (Objects, 55). Though the Jomon people were hunter-gatherers they did not roam the lands of Japan. They settled down near the coastline, using fish as a major means of food. These stationary hunter-gatherers were the first people to actually make clay pots and use them for storing food, which was far more effective at keeping insects out and keeping food fresh then previous methods of storage. The fact that these people were settled meant that they could make these clay pots and not have to worry about carrying them everywhere the