Simulacrum

[Sarah]

A likeness; a semblance; a mock appearance; a sham; -- nowusually in a derogatory sense.Beneath it nothing but a great simulacrum. Thackeray.

[Sarah]

The concept of copies of something for which there is no original. Basically, copies of things that never existed. This concept usually deals with ideology as opposed to a physical original for which something can be copied.

[Zipporah Schumaker]

An image or representation of someone or something.

[Zipporah Schumaker]

something that looks like or represents something else