Mimicry: Towards a semiotic understanding of nature
Mimicry: Towards a semiotic understanding of nature

Summary/Abstract: Mimicry has been an important topic for biology since the rise of the Darwinian theory of evolution. However, by its very nature mimicry is a sign process and the quest for understanding mimicry in biology has intrinsically always been a semiotic quest. In this paper various theories since Henry W. Bates will be examined to show how the concept of mimicry has been shifted from perceptual resemblance to a particular communicative structure. A concept of mimicry will then be formulated which emphasizes its dynamic properties, and finally, mimicry will be considered in the framework of ecosemiotics.

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