Design and branding has always been part of the human experience. To understand the history of branding, we need to go all the way back to the origins of our species. The ability to shape and mark objects to give them a certain symbolic, identity-carrying meaning, evolved with the earliest proto-cultures around 80.000 years ago in caves along the southernmost coastlines of Africa.

These early humans were able to design and manufacture a variety of tools and other artifacts using relatively sophisticated production techniques, but what really sets these homo sapien tribes apart was their ability to transfer meaning using symbolic language.

Among the objects found at the excavation sites is a beaded necklaces made of pierced seashells painted with red ochre. By applying color to the seashells in particular patterned ways, the tribespeople assigned symbolic, codified meaning to the objects. The seashells were transformed from biofacts to artifacts, from objects to media. The seashells were branded. Becoming a symbol. Like a Christian Laboutain shoe.

Archaeologists believe the jewelry gave identity to the wearer, signifiying social status and tribal affiliations, much like the bead jewelry of the Maasai or a pair of Apple Airpods does today.

Uddrag fra afsnittet om brandingens historie (engelsk)

“From the idea that the self is not given to us, I think there is only one practical consequence: we have to create ourselves as a work of art.”

- Michel Foucault.

In pre-modern, stratified societies, your social identity was predestined. You were born into an established narrative, defining your societal role. You were part of a common culture with shared beliefs, rituals and aesthetic ideals. There was no such thing as an individual life; all citizens had to conform to the prevailing social laws and religious dogma.

In pharaonic Egypt, the principled way of life was called “Ma’at”, on the Indian subcontinent, “Dharma” prescribed correct behavior and in Greek antiquity, the shared ideals were defined by “Eusebeia“ and “Kalos Kagathos”. Among the indigenous Yup’ik people of Alaska, life was directed by “Yuuyaraq,” translating to “the way of being a human being”. These cultural codes of conduct can be found throughout history right up to the present day, where orthodox, conservative societies follow similar, traditional tenets. An example is within Salafist Islam where devotees follow “Sharia,” meaning “the path”.

The doctrines were designed to ensure a stable status quo of hierarchical social order and consensus morality in society. Everyone had clearly defined roles. The farmer was a farmer. The warrior, a warrior. The wife, a wife. Nothing more and nothing other. The whole meaning of one’s existence on this earth was encapsulated in the enactment and experience of one’s social and civic roles. Almost everything you would do, wear and own was defined by your inherited, or in other ways culturally defined, social position. To challenge the social framework, or your role in it, would be subversive, almost incomprehensible and in many cases punishable.

Identity formation is no longer automatic or God-given. There is no “Thou shalt!” anymore. The yoke of our ancestral past has been replaced with the sometimes dizzying ideology of individualism. In our late-modern hyperculture, where “becoming” is the supreme ideal, identity formation has become a continuous and personal project.

Uddrag fra afsnittet om identitet (engelsk)