Contents: Morana Alac, 'Introduction'; Patrizia Violi, 'In the Beginning: The Voice of God and the Voice of the World. Two Stories about Origins'; Umberto Eco, 'Origins of Semiosis'; Jugen Trabant, 'From Semiogenesis to Gottogenesis in the 18th Century Debate'; Howard Bloch, 'Etymologies and Genealogies: History,Words, and the World'; Winfried Nh, 'Semiogenesis in the Evolution from Nature to Culture'; Thomas Sebeok, 'Origins: Semiosis the Domain vs. Semiosis the Field'; Maxine Sheets- Jonhstone, 'On Bacteria, Corporeal Representation, Neanderthals, and Marta Graham: Steps toward an Evolutionary Semantics'; Sherman Wilcox, 'Hands and Bodies, Minds and Souls: What Can Signed Languages Tell Us about the Origin of Signs?'; Alex Martin, 'The Neural Basis of Semantic Knowledge'; Philip Lieberman, 'Subcortical Brain Circuits, Speech and the Evolution of Semeosis'.