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In [[Latin ]] this [[word ]] denoted a [[material ]] representration or image, usually a deity.

A [[discussion ]] of the [[role ]] of the simulacrum in Greek and Roman theories of [[representation ]] can be found in the Appendices to [[Deleuze]]'s ''[[Logic ]] of [[Sense]]'' (1969).

[[Baudrillard]]'s most systematic expositions of his [[theory ]] of simulacra are to be found in his ''[[Symbolic ]] [[Exchange ]] and [[Death]]'' (1976) and ''Simulacra and Simulations'' (1981).

For [[Baudrillard]], a [[simulacrum]] is a reproduction of an [[object]] or [[event]] characteristic of a specific stage in the [[history ]] of the [[image]] or [[sign]].

Whereas the [[image]] was once a [[reflection]] of a basic [[reality]], as in the [[feudal order]] in which [[sign]]s were clear indications of hierarchical status, it came to mask or [[pervert]] a basic [[reality]] when, in the baroque period that privileged [[artifice]] and [[counterfeit]] over [[natural ]] [[sign]]s, [[arbitrary ]] or artificial [[sign]]s began to proliferate.

Such [[sign]]s are described as first [[order ]] [[simulacra]].

===Second Order====With the mass production of industrial [[objects ]] in [[Benjamin]]'s 'era of mechanical reproduction', second order [[simulacra]] predominated as 'originals' lost their [[mystic ]] [[aura]].

Such [[simulacra]] [[signal ]] the [[absence]] of a basic [[reality]].

The [[third ]] order [[simulacra]] of [[postmodernity]] have no relation to [[reality]] whatsoever, and are their own pure [[simulacrua]] or imitations of imitations.

According to [[Baudrillard]], Disneyland is presented as [[imaginary ]] - or simulates its own imaginary [[nature ]] - in order to make us believe that the rest of America is [[real ]] rather than something belonging to the order of [[simulation]] and [[hyperreality]].