Abstract
Within a broader definition of design, as the conception and planning of everything that is artificial, the place of tools is central. With the help of cognitive semiotics in general and Donald’s theory of the evolution of the human mind in particular, we propose a stage model for the evolution of design, consisting of four stages: Proto-design, Simple design, Complex design, and Advanced design, some of which are further divided into substages. We argue that nonhuman animals are capable of Proto-design, but it is only with the advent of stone tool technology in hominins that we witness Simple design. The stages are individuated based on evidence from archaeology and cognitive science, but also on the particular semiotic resources that are novel for each stage: mimesis-based gestures, speech, drawings, and polysemiotic communication. The model suggests both continuities and relative discontinuities in the evolution of design, and more generally, in human bio-cultural evolution.
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Notes
- 1.
Capital letters are used to distinguish the sign systems themselves from particular manifestations of them, such as individual languages, culturally shaped gestures, or practices such as painting (see Zlatev et al. 2020).
- 2.
As pointed out by Zlatev (2007: 320): “The adjective ‘bodily’ distinguishes bodily mimesis from the broader concept of mimesis with Aristotelean roots.”
- 3.
There are reasons for contesting several aspects of Donald’s model, but this is not our topic at present. See papers in Dunér and Sonesson eds. (2016).
- 4.
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Acknowledgments
The first author would like to thank David Dunér, Josie Dixon, and Vaughan Phillips for feedback on an early version of this chapter; and the History Museum at Lund University for an inspiring environment of a variety of tools from the Stone Age. In addition, we would like to thank Aaron Stutz and Przemyslaw Żywiczyński, as well as two anonymous reviewers, for their fruitful comments.
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Mendoza-Collazos, J., Zlatev, J., Sonesson, G. (2021). The Origins and Evolution of Design: A Stage-Based Model. In: Pagni, E., Theisen Simanke, R. (eds) Biosemiotics and Evolution. Interdisciplinary Evolution Research, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85265-8_8
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