The text content of this segment. Language-tagged. Use iroko:accessLevel on the TextSegment instance to govern disclosure.
segment text
Speculative Reconstruction
Links a resource or assertion to an AccessPolicy that governs it.
governed by
Traditions that blend African and Indigenous American religious elements.
Afro-Indigenous
Documented chain of oral transmission for this knowledge. Example: Elder A (Havana) to Elder B (Matanzas) to Informant C (2018).
oral transmission chain
Traditions with primary roots in Bantu and Kongo religious culture.
Bantu-Derived
Links archival materials to practices or events they document. Range: iroko:SacredEntity — covers ceremonies, ritual events, plants, spirits, lineages, and all other framework entities. Parallel treatment with iroko:depicts: both are documentary links from archival materials to framework entities.
documents
Text list of lineages or houses that reject this position on contested knowledge.
rejecting lineages
community release approval
Nigerian Yoruba
Yoruba (continental)
Studio Recording
Links any archival record — plant, spirit, Odu, ceremony, lineage — to a structured bibliographic citation. Range is dcterms:BibliographicResource, which covers both plain dcterms string citations and structured BIBO nodes (bibo:Book, bibo:DocumentPart). Use dcterms:bibliographicCitation for simple string citations on instances; use this property with BIBO nodes for queryable structured citations. Cross-domain: applies to all Iroko module entity types.
has source citation
Shango Baptist
Trinidad Orisha
media type
Recognized elder whose presence and standing carry governance weight in ritual, narrative, and authorization contexts.
Elder
depicted entity
Dugu
Garifuna
Elder-Approved
Typological classification of the sign system. Range is tradition-specific concept scheme in marca or veve modules.
system type
An addressable, orderable segment within a narrative or narrative variant. Used for verse-level segmentation of odu essays, chant lines, prayers, and other structured oral or textual corpora.
Text Segment
Boolean indicating whether this entity's attributes, existence, or interpretation are disputed across lineages.
contested status
Kromanti
This element — sign, rhythm, plant use, or artifact — is employed as part of a healing or cleansing ceremony, calling protective or restorative forces.
Healing
Person who conducted the fieldwork. Range: foaf:Person or prov:Agent.
fieldworker
Traditions rooted in Efik, Ejagham, and Cross River peoples.
Calabari/Cross River
Text list of lineages or houses that endorse this position on contested knowledge.
supporting lineages
Links an Assertion to the RitualAuthority that authorizes it. An assertion without this property is undeclared as to authority — it may still carry other provenance (fieldwork event, epistemic type).
authorized by
Links a TemporalVariation to the context that activates it — a ceremony, liturgical calendar event, fieldwork session, or other conditioning context. Range is intentionally untyped: activating contexts are heterogeneous (RitualProcess, FieldworkEvent, calendar concept, geographic context) and constraining the range now would create fragility. Revisit when TemporalVariation has sufficient data to determine the realistic range.
variation context
Recognized within a specific lineage or house but not universally.
Lineage-Specific
Específico de linaje
Spécifique à une lignée
Específico de linhagem
Tó dá lórí ìdílé kan
Location where the fieldwork event took place. Language-tagged string; may be general (city/country) for access-controlled records.
event location
Archival Document
Text description of the condition that activates this temporal variation. Example: 'Applies during the 40-day post-kariocha seclusion period'.
variation condition
Louisiana Voodoo
The syncretic sacred tradition of New Orleans and Louisiana.
New Orleans Voodoo
Publicly viewable but should not be amplified, shared widely, or used for commercial purposes.
Public - No Amplification
Claimed Direct Revelation
Gede
Ghede nanchon in Haitian Vodou. Governs death, sexuality, resurrection, and the boundary between living and dead.
Vodou Ghede
Esoteric or secret name used only in restricted ceremonial contexts. Applies to any sacred entity — plant, spirit, or lineage. OPERATIONAL ONLY — never exported to public RDF.
secret name
Community-Held
Printed or handwritten items of transient purpose: programs, invitations, ritual schedules, advertisements for religious events.
Ephemera
Efímero
Éphémère
Current ritual status of an object. Values from iroko:SacredStatusScheme.
sacred status
recording context
Fon/Ewe-derived tradition in Cuba.
Arara
Umbanda
Links a RitualAuthority, SacredEntity, or Assertion to a ContestedAuthority instance it generates or references. A RitualAuthority contests another when it challenges the legitimacy or historical continuity of that authority's claims. A SacredEntity may have its governing authority contested across lineages. An Assertion may formally contest an authority's basis.
contests authority
Verbal (Undocumented)
recordist
A named unit within a sacred sign system — divination sign, graphic symbol, rhythmic pattern identifier, or similar structured signifier. Superclass of tradition-specific sign types such as marca:DivinationSign and veve:GraphicSign.
Sign
Catchall concept for entities not covered by existing controlled vocabulary. Use skos:scopeNote to describe the specific case.
Other
Under Negotiation
Quimbanda
Links a Narrative to one of its NarrativeVariants.
has variant
recording date
Ritual Performance (Embodied)
depicted ceremony
Private Collection
Cross-lineage consensus
Affirmed by multiple independent lineages or sources.
Widely Attested
Ampliamente atestiguado
Largement attesté
Amplamente atestado
Tí ọ̀pọ̀lọpọ̀ ìdílé jẹ́rìí sí
Consecrated/Active Use
Candomble Jeje
Egbo
Ekpe
Political Reinterpretation
Other names, honorifics, or tradition-specific designations for this entity across traditions or lineages. Language-tagged strings. Example: Babalu Aye (Lucumí) / Obaluaye (Candomblé) / Sakpata (Fon).
alternate names
Human-readable name or identifier for this access policy.
policy label
Custodial Relationship
Regional or lineage-specific differences in use, form, identification, or meaning. Applies to plants, signs, rhythms, and other cross-domain entities.
geographic variation
Not Obtained
Sacred Object Status
Awaiting Consecration
The entity that is the object of the claim. Named assertionObject (not object) to avoid shadowing rdf:object. Range is intentionally untyped — the object of an assertion may be any resource inside or outside the framework, including external URIs, foaf:Person instances, geographic locations, or framework entities. Constraining the range would break the generality of the reification model.
assertion object
Calabari/Efik-derived all-male secret society in Cuba.
Abakua
Actively disputed; multiple contradictory positions exist across lineages.
Contested
Disputado
Contesté
Contestado
Tí a ń jiyàn lórí
Unknown Status
Links a ContestedAuthority back to the RitualAuthority whose legitimacy is in question. Inverse of iroko:contestsAuthority. Enables bidirectional traversal: from the contesting party to the ContestedAuthority record, and from the ContestedAuthority record back to the authority being contested.
contested authority of
Date on which the assertion was captured or recorded.
recorded on
Status of community review and approval. Values from iroko:CommunityEndorsementScheme. Flips institutional authority model by centering community validation.
community endorsement
Manuscript
Manuscrito
Manuscrit
Ìwé àfọwọ́kọ
recording location
The ritual process in which this entity — sign, rhythm, plant use, or artifact — is employed. Range: travay:RitualProcess.
ceremony context
A bounded fieldwork session or interview event during which assertions, narratives, or recordings were captured. Connects knowledge claims to their fieldwork provenance. rdfs:subClassOf prov:Activity asserted in iroko-align-prov.ttl.
Fieldwork Event
Exact words, prayers, or songs recited when working with this entity — plant, spirit, or ceremony. Applies to any domain module. OPERATIONAL ONLY — never exported to public RDF.
invocation text
Governs who may view this knowledge. Values: iroko:access-public-unrestricted through iroko:access-no-access. Applied at record level and/or field level.
access level
A specific telling, transcript, or rendering of a narrative within a particular context, lineage, or temporal frame. The unit that carries text, language tag, authority scope, and access control.
Narrative Variant
The creolized sacred tradition of Haiti, encompassing multiple nanchon (nations) with distinct African, Kongo, and New World origins.
Haitian Vodou
Integer position of this TextSegment within its containing narrative or variant. Used to reconstruct canonical ordering.
segment order
Freely accessible to anyone. No authentication required.
Public - Unrestricted
Published Ethnography
Pending Review
Petro
Petwo nanchon in Haitian Vodou. Hot, fierce rites with Kongo, New World maroon, and creole origins.
Vodou Petwo
Restricts the claim to a specific camino, aspect, or manifestation.
assertion scope
Date or date range of the fieldwork event.
event date
Links a DocumentaryEvidence record to a SacredSpecimen it documents. A photograph, manuscript, or archival record may document one or more sacred objects. The existence of documentation is public-unrestricted; the ritual details of the object are governed by iroko:sacredStatus on the SacredSpecimen instance.
documents specimen
Obi
Obia
A category of spiritual practice found across the Anglophone Caribbean. Systematically criminalized under British colonial law; this history shapes the archival record significantly.
Obeah
Obeah's criminalization history means archival materials are often court records or colonial surveillance documents. Access governance and provenance tracking are especially important.
Conjure
Rootwork
Hoodoo
Links archival materials to the entities they depict. Range: iroko:SacredEntity — covers plants, spirits, ceremonies, practitioners, instruments, and all other framework entities. Geographic locations not yet modeled as SacredEntity subclasses may be referenced via rdfs:label or external URI.
depicts
subject consent status
Community Endorsement Status
Material Culture
Rastafari
language of performance
The canonical name of the sign in the tradition's liturgical language. Language-tagged. Examples: Ogbe Meji (Ifá), Ogún vèvè (Vodou).
sign name
Distinguishes objects that maintain active sacred status (consecrated, in ritual use) from decommissioned objects or museum specimens. Used to track the ritual life cycle of material culture.
Sacred Specimen
Unknown
Community-Reviewed
duration
Replica/Teaching Object
A named graph representing one lineage's perspective on contested knowledge. Enables multiple community-endorsed positions to coexist without requiring resolution. Core mechanism for postcustodial knowledge governance.
Lineage Knowledge Graph
Audio Recording
Grabación de audio
Enregistrement audio
Gravação de áudio
Àgbékalẹ̀ ohùn
Video Recording
Grabación de video
Enregistrement vidéo
Gravação de vídeo
Àgbékalẹ̀ fídíò
A structured reification node recording a claimed relationship between two entities. Extends iroko:Assertion with relationship-specific slots: relationType, assertionScope, assertionLineage. Inherits governance properties (authorizedBy, recordedInEvent, assertionStatus, accessLevel) from the Assertion superclass.
Relationship Assertion
An authority (religious title, position, or role) whose legitimacy or historical continuity is disputed across lineages. Example: Iyanifa (women Ifa priests) — some lineages affirm historical continuity, others claim modern innovation.
Contested Authority
Decommissioned
Winti
Object retired from active ritual use but continues to be tended with respect. Distinguished from decommissioned — no formal ritual deactivation has occurred.
Honored Rest
Espiritismo
Candomble Angola
Ceremonial Recording
Links an Assertion to the FieldworkEvent during which it was captured.
recorded in event
Consent Status
Dominican Vodu
21 Divisiones
Traditions with primary roots in Fon and Ewe religious culture from Dahomey.
Fon/Ewe-Derived
Ausar Auset Society
A named temporal regime, calendar cycle, or context that conditions how a property, assertion, or policy applies. Covers: ritual calendar seasons, festival-bound periods, pre/post-initiation thresholds, gender regime cycles, and any other time-bounded condition affecting sacred knowledge governance. TemporalVariation instances are named nodes shared across modules — define once, reference everywhere. Examples: iroko:TemporalVariation/egungun-festival-period, iroko:TemporalVariation/post-kariocha-year.
Temporal Variation
Links a Narrative or NarrativeVariant to a constituent TextSegment.
has segment
The number of discrete signs in the system. Example: Ifá 256, Dilogún 16 principal odù.
sign count
Traditions with primary roots in Yoruba religious culture.
Yoruba-Derived
Media Type
Kumina
Contested Consecration
Human-readable name for the temporal regime or cycle.
variation label
Details of fieldwork context if this knowledge derives from direct ethnographic observation.
fieldwork provenance
Object has passed to a new keeper through lineage or house succession and is actively maintained.
Hereditary Custody
A named policy governing disclosure, access, or use of a resource, assertion, or collection. Policies may be conditioned on temporal variation, authority authorization, or community mandate. Used to attach institutional policy nodes to records and assertions. Full governance via iroko:accessLevel (per-property), iroko:EpistemicConstraint (per iroko-epistemic.ttl), and iroko:StewardshipMandate (per iroko-agency.ttl).
Access Policy
The semantic type of relationship being asserted.
relation type
Free-text description of the nature of contestation.
contested notes
Yoruba-derived Candomble tradition in Brazil (Nago/Ketu nation).
Candomble Ketu
Nature of custody for sacred objects. Values from iroko:CustodialRelationshipScheme.
custodial relationship
Audio, photographic, or video records of sacred knowledge, ceremonies, instruments, or practitioners. Extends DocumentaryEvidence with media-specific metadata including format, instrumentation, consent status, and depicted entities.
Sacred Media
Institutional Holding Disputed
Six-tier classification of access restrictions for sacred knowledge.
Access Level Classification
Shared Custody
A governance entity capable of authorizing assertion-level claims. May represent a lineage, cabildo, religious house, elder council, or individual office-holder. This is the minimal Core stub — full modeling of jurisdiction, basis, and recognition is in iroko-authority.ttl. Distinguished from ile:ReligiousOffice, which models the specific title instance held by an individual practitioner.
Ritual Authority
The entity that is the subject of the claim. Named assertionSubject (not subject) to avoid shadowing rdf:subject.
assertion subject
Nature of relationship to source tradition for reconstructed or reclaimed practices. Primarily used in Sankofa module.
source relationship
Links to related traditions when knowledge spans multiple systems.
related tradition
Classification of knowledge sources for epistemological transparency.
Epistemic Source Type
Traditions with primary roots in Akan religious culture.
Akan-Derived
Continuous Oral Transmission
Free-text note explaining the basis, source, or dispute surrounding the claim.
assertion note
Person whose presence authorizes or validates an assertion, event, or ceremony. In ceremonial contexts, typically an initiated practitioner.
Witness
In travay contexts, the witness must be an initiated practitioner. In authority and narrative contexts, the role is broader.
Object received through lineage or house transmission. Paired with sacredStatus-hereditary-custody on the object record.
Lineage Succession
Technical format of the file. Example: FLAC, WAV, TIFF, JPEG, MP4.
media format
Notes on consent, permissions, recording protocols, and any community authorization obtained for this fieldwork event.
event protocol
Links to a prov:Entity representing an alternative position on this contested knowledge.
competing claim
Requires elder designation within tradition — recognized by community as having authority to access lineage-specific teachings.
Initiated Elder
Controlled terms for whether a claim is widely attested, lineage-specific, or actively contested.
Assertion Status
Estado de afirmación
Statut d'affirmation
Status de afirmação
Ipo ìtẹnumọ́
has relationship assertion
Traditions that deliberately blend multiple African, European, or Indigenous religious streams.
Syncretic/Creole
Museum Specimen
Date or approximate date when this community, house, society, or lineage was established. Applies to ile, ekpe lodge, sankofa project, or any organizational entity.
founding date
Traditions that integrate African religious identity with political liberation frameworks.
Pan-African Political-Spiritual
Traditions reconstructing or reviving Ancient Egyptian (Kemetic) religious practice.
Kemetic/Revivalist
Umbrella class for archival materials (photographs, manuscripts, audio recordings, herbarium specimens) that document sacred knowledge practices. Maps to schema:CreativeWork in RDF serialization.
Documentary Evidence
Links a FieldworkEvent to a SacredSpecimen encountered or documented during that session. Access: initiated-only — the association between a fieldwork event and a specific sacred object record discloses custody, location, and lineage information appropriate only for initiated practitioners.
specimen encountered in
Cross-cutting qualifier linking any resource — assertion, policy, property value, access rule, narrative — to a TemporalVariation node. Defined once in Core and referenced across all modules. Do not redefine per-module.
has temporal variation
Epistemological source classification. Values from iroko:EpistemicTypeScheme.
epistemic type
This element calls or invites a spiritual entity into the ceremonial space. The primary function of vèvè, firmas, specific rhythms, and invocation plants across traditions.
Invocation
Whether the claim is consensual, lineage-specific, or contested. Range: iroko:AssertionStatusScheme.
assertion status
The sacred sign system to which this sign belongs — divination, graphic, rhythmic, or other.
sign system
Field Recording
Top-level class for any tradition-specific concept within the Iroko Framework. All module-specific classes (Plant, SpiritualEntity, RitualProcess, etc.) are subclasses of this.
Sacred Entity
Alternative or regional names for this sign across traditions or lineage variants. Language-tagged.
sign alternate name
Community-Authorized
Annotation property used on other properties to indicate the minimum access level required to view their values. Used in vocabulary documentation and RDF export filtering.
minimum access level
Accessible to verified community members. Requires authentication.
Community Only
Withdrawn
Controlled vocabulary of Afro-Atlantic tradition classifications.
Tradition Classification
Fieldwork Recording
The Afro-Atlantic tradition to which this entity belongs. Values from controlled vocabulary: iroko:tradition-lucumi, iroko:tradition-candomble-ketu, iroko:tradition-vodou-rada, etc.
tradition
Text description of the conditions under which this policy applies. May reference initiation levels, authority authorizations, temporal variations, or community mandates.
policy condition
Recording Context
Repatriation Claim Active
African-centered Yoruba revivalist tradition founded in South Carolina.
Oyotunji
Regla de Congo
Bantu-derived Kongo religious tradition in Cuba.
Palo Monte
Kemetic Orthodoxy
Accessible only to initiated practitioners whose initiation has been verified.
Initiated Only
Archival Transfer
Documented Consent
Palo Mayombe
A commentary, gloss, or interpretive note attached to any resource in the framework — a narrative, an assertion, a sacred entity, a text segment. Keeps interpretive voice distinct from primary narrative content.
Commentary
Reconstructed from Text
A narrative cluster that may have multiple variants across place, time, authority, and lineage. First-class in Core so any domain module (Marca for odu essays, Ngoma for lyric traditions, Ékpè for origin stories) can attach narratives without importing the full narrative module.
Narrative
Cross-module infrastructure for governance and semantic integration of Afro-Atlantic sacred knowledge systems. Provides access control, provenance tracking, contested knowledge modeling, assertion governance, temporal variation, fieldwork capture, and thin narrative primitives.
Iroko Framework Core Vocabulary
This vocabulary provides the shared infrastructure for all Iroko Framework modules. It does not duplicate existing standards (Dublin Core, Schema.org, PROV-O) but adds governance mechanisms specific to sacred knowledge systems.
A first-class statement node representing a single claim about any subject in the framework. Attach authority, access level, epistemic type, contested status, and fieldwork provenance at the property level. iroko:RelationshipAssertion is a subclass for relationship-specific claims. All Assertion instances are semantically governed — they do not imply factual truth, only documented assertion.
Assertion
instrumentation
Institutional Holding with Community Access
Regla de Ocha
Santeria
Yoruba-derived tradition in Cuba.
Lucumi
The property or relationship type being asserted in an n-ary assertion node. Named assertionPredicate (not predicate) to avoid shadowing rdf:predicate.
assertion predicate
Rada nanchon in Haitian Vodou. Cool, sweet rites with primary Fon/Dahomey origins.
Vodou Rada
Unreviewed
The specific lineage, house, or community within which this assertion holds.
assertion lineage
Links a Commentary to the resource it annotates. Range is intentionally open — commentary may attach to a Narrative, NarrativeVariant, TextSegment, Assertion, SacredEntity, or any other resource.
commentary on
Operational or internal use only. Never exported to RDF.
No Access
Unknown Location
Photograph
Fotografía
Photographie
Fotografia
Àwòrán