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

the expansion of the early hominin tool box. A perfect example of tool box expansion is the Olduvai Stone Chopping Tool, that was found in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, and dates back to roughly 1.8-2 million years ago (Objects, 9). The stone chopping tool demonstrates not only a point in time when we became cognitively more advanced but also demonstrates the mimetic culture that had developed over millions of years. Countless chopping tools have been recovered and each one was crafted with the same technique. You can visibly see that the pieces of the rock that were chipped away are the same on each stone.
Symbolic culture came along after mimetic culture on the timeline of human existence.

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

nature.
Settling down was yet another monumental link in the chain of human evolution.

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

go.
Once people started settling down they also slowly, unknowingly, began to domesticate plants and animals. While the range of domesticable animals and plants is actually quite small, most early groups of people managed to find some type of plant or animal to domesticate. This had both positive and negative effects on early human. While they could use animals for food and work, they also spent more time with them, which in-turn helped the spread of diseases from animal to human. With the domestication of plants, settlements could support much higher population and generate surplus food. Unfortunately this also lead to the spreading of disease due to populations becomes more concentrated into cities and villages. A fantastic representation example of how important domesticated animals were to early peoples is the Egyptian Clay Model of Cattle that was found in a tomb at Abydos, Egypt, and dates back to around 3500 BCE. (Objects, 43). People relied on their domesticated companions for quite a bit. Cattle were used for food as well as plowing field and performing other tasks of burden. The fact that this man had a cattle statuette buried with him shows just how important domesticated beasts were to early humans.
Each of these mile stones in human evolution are equally important to our development. Without mimetic culture we never would have been able to carry knowledge through the ages. Symbolic culture allowed up to express ourselves in ways that we had never been able to before. Settlement and domestication both contributed to the booming of the human population as well as the way we gain most of our food in today’s society.