For a semiotics of the cultural object through the image

Great civilizations have left their mark on the past through images, the oldest means of transmitting culture. Today, the image is a privileged and indispensable element in everyone’s socio-cultural context. This is why we propose to study the processes of meaning conveyed by images in the analysis of a cultural object, jewelry. Our focus is on traditional jewelry, as it enables traditions to be perpetuated through its roots in culture and social structure. It is also often the product of hybridity and cultural cross-fertilization. Our methodology has been to articulate three distinct strands: notions of semiotics and signification, the history of the image and its language, and jewelry as a socio-cultural object. The specificities of Algerian jewelry were studied by applying Barthes’ immanentist approach, highlighting the structure of selected images. The analysis continued with the transposition of Martine Joly’s discursive approach, underpinning the rhetorical and persuasive intent of the jewelry image.