By employing a cognitive semiotic theory based on pragmatism and enactivism, this book explores the nature and emergence of early body ornamentation, which has long been at the forefront of the debate on modern human origins.

Using artifacts such as ocher pigments and the Blombos Cave shell beads, the book examines the connection between early body ornaments and the semiotic mind, and addresses the question of whether early body ornaments were made by a symbolic mind, or whether they provided the material and semiotic scaffolding required for such a mind to emerge.