Hominid Stamps:The Philatelic Medium as a Tool Contributing to Nationalism

While depiction of iconic archaeological finds or monuments of archaeological, historical, cultural or natural significance on postage stamps printed by many countries around the globe to promote nationalist sentiments as means of creating or promoting national cohesion, especially in ethnically diverse countries, is by no means unusual, the question posed in this paper, with specific focus on paleoanthropological finds, is that how far back in time this practice can be traced, and how images of hominid fossils from hundreds of thousands, sometime millions of years ago, can be of contribution to promoting nationalism in various countries. Using semiotics of how stamps function to convey meaning, it has been explored how images of hominids on stamps contribute to a broad program of building a national identity and strengthening nationalism in different countries around the globe.