The Anthroposemiosis of Social Organization in the Hassani Community: The Case of Female Marital Status

Abstract

The Hassani community draws heavily on the nonverbal language component for the sake of social organization. The female marital status constitutes an absorbing non-word aspect, wherein the social organization of women’s relations gives rise to dense semiotic and communicative weight. Along with this focus, this article has endeavored in the light of the anthroposemiotics theory to probe into how women in the Hassani community have recourse to natural cosmetic substances to physically unfold their marital status. The article in effect dissected the female marital status on the grounds of three major body parts, namely: hands and feet/eyes designating celibacy status and divorce, widowhood, and marriage respectively. The work findings by way of synchronic analysis cast light on the semiotic and communicative code underlying the Hassani social organization in the case of a woman’s marital status. Within the confines of anthroposemiotics and communication paradigms, the interpretation of meaning, the structural-processual aspect of nonlinguistic interaction, and the conventionality of symbolic coding lay down the bulk of the theoretical grounding to approach social organization in the Hassani community.