Mimesis and Myth: Evolutionary Roots of Psychological Self-Understanding

Abstract

In accounting for themselves as psychological beings, humans either (1) attribute traits to the self or (2) tell stories about their lives. We examine the possible evolutionary origins of these two modes of self-understanding. Trait-based, semantic understandings of self develop from the outside in as social actors gradually come to comprehend their social reputations in groups. We suggest that this psychological challenge was first negotiated in the pre-linguistic, mimetic culture developed by Homo erectus. The subsequent emergence of language made for greater articulation and precision in the attribution of traits to the self. Moreover, language served as the main evolutionary midwife for the proliferation of storytelling among Homo sapiens, and the eventual creation of personal myths, or self-defining life stories. Individuals came to see themselves as carrying stories in their minds about their own lives, articulating a sense of a narrative self that develops from the inside out.