ICONIC REPRESENTATION OF BALOCH CULTURE: A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS

The present paper analyzes cultural attires and appearances of Marri and Bugti tribes in Balochistan to find out latent meanings attached to these artifacts. In doing so, the study uses Peirce’s framework of semiotics- an iconic perspective. The analysis has been carried out with the help of close reading (Semiotic perspective) of the cultural images and appearances. The results reveal underlying multi-meanings attached to these images and appearances. The findings reflect the richness and diversity of Marri and Bugti cultures and the invisible representational meanings of these objects. This research endeavor may be helpful to promote pluralism, harmony and enhance intercultural awareness necessary for understanding cultural diversities within and across societies. More so, future researchers can explore cultural objects and appearances of Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtuns, Urdu speaking, and Saraiki people by applying various frameworks of semiotics.