The iconic illustration of human evolution from the Life Nature Library book Early Man (1965) presents a sequence of primates from early pre-humans to homo sapiens. The first deck in this two-part series, Iconic Evolution and Evolution's Icon, Part I, explored the origins of the illustration and revealed its ideology of orthogenesis (an outdated and falsified view of evolution as progressive, linear, and inevitable). Part II explores how the iconic image is appropriated as a resource for humor and commentary, drawing a parallel between the sequential operations through which DNA is mutated and the operations by which new variants with new meanings are generated from the original image.

1. Iconic Evolution
& Evolution’s Icon, Part II
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Iconic Evolution
& Evolution’s Icon,
Part I explored the
origins of this widely
used visual summary
of human evolution,
and how it conveys a
false and outdated
concept of evolution
as linear, progressive,
continuous and
inevitable.

3. The original image was a scientific illustration for the Life
Nature Library book Early Man (1965).
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Online searches will
return hundreds of
variants of the
image. Most are
simplified versions
of the book’s large,
fold-out illustration.
The image is a visual resource
often appropriated and transformed for humor and
commentary.

4. Some appropriations are commutative; that is, the visual
scheme of the original image is altered without changing its
likely reading as a scientific illustration.
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5. Other transformations are for rhetorical or humorous
effect. In an interesting homology, the iconic sequence is
mutated by the same operations through which DNA
mutates: insertion, deletion, substitution, & reversal.
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6. Visual sequence operations
Possible mutations include changes in the syntagmatic
axis (order) or paradigmatic axis (element identity)
Insertion at either end emphasizes sequential order
Insertion in middle connotes disruption of sequence
Deletion is typically a simplifying move rather than a
rhetorical or humorous move.
Reversal emphasizes order in an ironic or parodying way.
Combinations of these operations are common.
Substitution is, logically, a combination of deletion and
insertion.
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7. Sequence operations
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1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5Insertion
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 543Substitution
1 2 3 4 1 3 4 5Deletion
5 4 3 2 1Reversal
1 2 3 4 5 3 2 1Multiple

8. Insertion
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The most common variants
extend the sequence with
a figure slumped over a
keyboard or an obese figure
– commenting on our
relationships to technology
and food.

9. Insertion
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Initial insertion answers “what
came before?” Terminal insertion
answers “What comes next?”
Medial insertion conveys
alteration of the progression.
Initial insertion is rare – in this
case, the iconic pepper-spraying
cop invites the viewer to associate
the “unevolved” figure with the
abuse of power.

10. Substitution
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Substitution removes a figure while adding another.
This can convey that a figure is equivalent to a
primate ancestor, or it can indicate discontinuity.
Note a police figure again!

11. Reversal
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Flipping the direction
doesn’t change the
meaning if the size and
step direction vectors are
congruent. When one, but
not the other, is reversed
we see rhetorical irony.

12. Reversal
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Reversal equals
devolution or
reversal of progress.
Often it’s anti-
technology, anti-war
or political. It takes
two forms: reversal
of the entire
sequence or
extending the
original sequence in
reverse progression.

13. Reversal
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Reversing the progression is
often political – but
interestingly, usually a liberal
perspective. Perhaps
conservatives hesitate to exploit
evolution as a metaphor.

14. Other sequence operations
Alignment is the parallel display of multiple
sequences for comparison or contrast.
Temporal integration converts the sequence
from one in which elements are separated and
ordered in time to one in which the elements
are co-temporal.
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15. Sequence alignment
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1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6Contrast
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6Projection
Alignment of two sequences suggests relationship –
either contrast (emphasizing difference or resemblance
between two similar sequences) or projection (implying
similarity between dissimilar sequences; a visual
metaphor).

16. Contrast
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17. Contrast
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18. Projection
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Advertisements leverage
the view of evolution as
progressive and inevitable
(orthogenesis) to position
brands or product types as
pinnacles of evolution.

19. Projection
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Text has a built-in vector; it’s reversed here to contrast
evolution’s “progress” (orthogenesis) with Kansas’s
regressive legislation about teaching evolution.

20. Co-temporality
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1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5 6Ordered T1, T2, …T6
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Co-temporal T11 2 3 4 5 6
Our shared knowledge of human evolution means we
usually interpret the figures to be (mostly) separated in
time and temporally ordered. Interaction among the
figures breaks this separation for humor or commentary.

21. Temporal integration
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The “stop following me”
variant is common.

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Temporal
integration

23. Implications
Human evolution’s iconic image is both an icon
and a resource for making meaning
It has high memetic potential:
Textbook case of an “iconic image”
Limited visual detail = easily abstracted
Paradigmatic & syntagmatic operations available
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A vast variety of plays on the original illustration is
possible, given insertion, deletion, substitution, reversal,
projection and contrast. Mutations of order,
composition, and alignment are available for making
meaning.

25. Michael E. Holmes, Ph.D.
Presented at VisCom 26, June 2012
Midway, Utah, USA
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