Top-level class for any tradition-specific concept within the Iroko Framework. All module-specific classes (Plant, SpiritualEntity, RitualProcess, etc.) are subclasses of this.
Candomble Angola
Unknown Status
assertion status
Free-text note explaining the basis, source, or dispute surrounding the claim.
Winti
Governs who may view this knowledge. Values: iroko:access-public-unrestricted through iroko:access-no-access. Applied at record level and/or field level.
This element — sign, rhythm, plant use, or artifact — is employed as part of a healing or cleansing ceremony, calling protective or restorative forces.
Umbrella class for archival materials (photographs, manuscripts, audio recordings, herbarium specimens) that document sacred knowledge practices. Maps to schema:CreativeWork in RDF serialization.
segment order
Traditions with primary roots in Akan religious culture.
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.
Withdrawn
Sacred Object Status
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.
sign count
Fotografia
Traditions with primary roots in Yoruba religious culture.
Ritual Authority
depicted ceremony
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.
Espiritismo
Unknown Location
Other
Affirmed by multiple independent lineages or sources.
Witness
Recognized within a specific lineage or house but not universally.
Rootwork
depicts
Free-text description of the nature of contestation.
Elder-Approved
rejecting lineages
sacred status
oral transmission chain
Yoruba (continental)
The creolized sacred tradition of Haiti, encompassing multiple nanchon (nations) with distinct African, Kongo, and New World origins.
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).
Not Obtained
Text description of the condition that activates this temporal variation. Example: 'Applies during the 40-day post-kariocha seclusion period'.
Tí ọ̀pọ̀lọpọ̀ ìdílé jẹ́rìí sí
subject consent status
Fieldwork Recording
Ipo ìtẹnumọ́
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.
Arara
Ghede nanchon in Haitian Vodou. Governs death, sexuality, resurrection, and the boundary between living and dead.
No Access
Archival Transfer
Material Culture
Contested Consecration
recorded on
Syncretic/Creole
Petro
Gravação de áudio
Vodou Rada
The ritual process in which this entity — sign, rhythm, plant use, or artifact — is employed. Range: travay:RitualProcess.
Assertion Status
Repatriation Claim Active
Institutional Holding Disputed
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.
Public - No Amplification
Published Ethnography
Access Level Classification
Recognized elder whose presence and standing carry governance weight in ritual, narrative, and authorization contexts.
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.
recording date
Community Endorsement Status
Fon/Ewe-derived tradition in Cuba.
has relationship assertion
Umbanda
Àwòrán
Gravação de vídeo
Custodial Relationship
Accessible to verified community members. Requires authentication.
Fotografía
The entity that is the subject of the claim. Named assertionSubject (not subject) to avoid shadowing rdf:subject.
Contested
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.
Six-tier classification of access restrictions for sacred knowledge.
Person who conducted the fieldwork. Range: foaf:Person or prov:Agent.
Invocation
Archival Document
Widely Attested
documents specimen
Ceremonial Recording
Replica/Teaching Object
Public - Unrestricted
Traditions that blend African and Indigenous American religious elements.
Claimed Direct Revelation
Manuscrito
Manuscrit
Obia
Links to related traditions when knowledge spans multiple systems.
Haitian Vodou
Santeria
Spécifique à une lignée
Ìwé àfọwọ́kọ
community endorsement
Date or date range of the fieldwork event.
Kumina
Largement attesté
Statut d'affirmation
Lineage Knowledge Graph
Continuous Oral Transmission
geographic variation
Bantu-Derived
Candomble Ketu
Documentary Evidence
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.
duration
The number of discrete signs in the system. Example: Ifá 256, Dilogún 16 principal odù.
Private Collection
Requires elder designation within tradition — recognized by community as having authority to access lineage-specific teachings.
Específico de linaje
invocation text
governed by
competing claim
Healing
Yoruba-derived tradition in Cuba.
Documented Consent
assertion subject
Yoruba-Derived
Date on which the assertion was captured or recorded.
access level
variation label
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).
Restricts the claim to a specific camino, aspect, or manifestation.
Text description of the conditions under which this policy applies. May reference initiation levels, authority authorizations, temporal variations, or community mandates.
Consecrated/Active Use
Controlled vocabulary of Afro-Atlantic tradition classifications.
Narrative
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.
Alternative or regional names for this sign across traditions or lineage variants. Language-tagged.
Obi
Person whose presence authorizes or validates an assertion, event, or ceremony. In ceremonial contexts, typically an initiated practitioner.
Shared Custody
Ekpe
Ephemera
New Orleans Voodoo
The canonical name of the sign in the tradition's liturgical language. Language-tagged. Examples: Ogbe Meji (Ifá), Ogún vèvè (Vodou).
Contesté
Efímero
Hoodoo
Publicly viewable but should not be amplified, shared widely, or used for commercial purposes.
Lineage-Specific
Ausar Auset Society
Àgbékalẹ̀ ohùn
Commentary
Speculative Reconstruction
Traditions that deliberately blend multiple African, European, or Indigenous religious streams.
Consent Status
Audio Recording
Date or approximate date when this community, house, society, or lineage was established. Applies to ile, ekpe lodge, sankofa project, or any organizational entity.
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.
Vodou Petwo
Bantu-derived Kongo religious tradition in Cuba.
Lucumi
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.
Operational or internal use only. Never exported to RDF.
Verbal (Undocumented)
sign system
founding date
recording location
Sign
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.
Tó dá lórí ìdílé kan
segment text
Trinidad Orisha
secret name
Regla de Congo
Text list of lineages or houses that endorse this position on contested knowledge.
relation type
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).
Links an Assertion to the FieldworkEvent during which it was captured.
assertion note
Dominican Vodu
supporting lineages
Video Recording
Palo Mayombe
Elder
Shango Baptist
Controlled terms for whether a claim is widely attested, lineage-specific, or actively contested.
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.
Hereditary Custody
Studio Recording
Nature of relationship to source tradition for reconstructed or reclaimed practices. Primarily used in Sankofa module.
Notes on consent, permissions, recording protocols, and any community authorization obtained for this fieldwork event.
Links a Narrative or NarrativeVariant to a constituent TextSegment.
sign alternate name
has variant
Kromanti
Gede
Kemetic Orthodoxy
Under Negotiation
Pending Review
Photographie
source relationship
Location where the fieldwork event took place. Language-tagged string; may be general (city/country) for access-controlled records.
Sacred Entity
Rada nanchon in Haitian Vodou. Cool, sweet rites with primary Fon/Dahomey origins.
Estado de afirmación
fieldwork provenance
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.
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.
Afro-Indigenous
21 Divisiones
event location
Manuscript
variation context
The specific lineage, house, or community within which this assertion holds.
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.
contested status
Dugu
Disputado
Temporal Variation
has segment
Calabari/Cross River
Akan-Derived
Links a resource or assertion to an AccessPolicy that governs it.
Contestado
Específico de linhagem
Enregistrement audio
Access Policy
policy label
alternate names
Traditions rooted in Efik, Ejagham, and Cross River peoples.
Institutional Holding with Community Access
Integer position of this TextSegment within its containing narrative or variant. Used to reconstruct canonical ordering.
Obeah
system type
Boolean indicating whether this entity's attributes, existence, or interpretation are disputed across lineages.
contested notes
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.
Ampliamente atestiguado
Epistemological source classification. Values from iroko:EpistemicTypeScheme.
Field Recording
Oyotunji
Ritual Performance (Embodied)
Status de afirmação
Classification of knowledge sources for epistemological transparency.
recordist
A category of spiritual practice found across the Anglophone Caribbean. Systematically criminalized under British colonial law; this history shapes the archival record significantly.
commentary on
Epistemic Source Type
Reconstructed from Text
Whether the claim is consensual, lineage-specific, or contested. Range: iroko:AssertionStatusScheme.
Traditions with primary roots in Fon and Ewe religious culture from Dahomey.
Photograph
related tradition
documents
The sacred sign system to which this sign belongs — divination, graphic, rhythmic, or other.
Awaiting Consecration
Éphémère
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.
contests authority
instrumentation
Community-Reviewed
Actively disputed; multiple contradictory positions exist across lineages.
authorized by
Palo Monte
Nigerian Yoruba
Decommissioned
Unknown
In travay contexts, the witness must be an initiated practitioner. In authority and narrative contexts, the role is broader.
Grabación de video
Details of fieldwork context if this knowledge derives from direct ethnographic observation.
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.
Petwo nanchon in Haitian Vodou. Hot, fierce rites with Kongo, New World maroon, and creole origins.
Media Type
Regional or lineage-specific differences in use, form, identification, or meaning. Applies to plants, signs, rhythms, and other cross-domain entities.
event protocol
Human-readable name for the temporal regime or cycle.
Text Segment
Fon/Ewe-Derived
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.
recorded in event
Catchall concept for entities not covered by existing controlled vocabulary. Use skos:scopeNote to describe the specific case.
Status of community review and approval. Values from iroko:CommunityEndorsementScheme. Flips institutional authority model by centering community validation.
Museum Specimen
Contested Authority
Tradition Classification
Cross-lineage consensus
African-centered Yoruba revivalist tradition founded in South Carolina.
ceremony context
Grabación de audio
Calabari/Efik-derived all-male secret society in Cuba.
Typological classification of the sign system. Range is tradition-specific concept scheme in marca or veve modules.
Honored Rest
The text content of this segment. Language-tagged. Use iroko:accessLevel on the TextSegment instance to govern disclosure.
event date
epistemic type
sign name
recording context
Accessible only to initiated practitioners whose initiation has been verified.
Nature of custody for sacred objects. Values from iroko:CustodialRelationshipScheme.
Sacred Specimen
Kemetic/Revivalist
Vodou Ghede
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.
Links a Narrative to one of its NarrativeVariants.
Unreviewed
Regla de Ocha
Political Reinterpretation
Enregistrement vidéo
tradition
Object retired from active ritual use but continues to be tended with respect. Distinguished from decommissioned — no formal ritual deactivation has occurred.
The property or relationship type being asserted in an n-ary assertion node. Named assertionPredicate (not predicate) to avoid shadowing rdf:predicate.
Human-readable name or identifier for this access policy.
Rastafari
minimum access level
Object has passed to a new keeper through lineage or house succession and is actively maintained.
variation condition
Initiated Only
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.
Amplamente atestado
Traditions reconstructing or reviving Ancient Egyptian (Kemetic) religious practice.
Egbo
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.
The semantic type of relationship being asserted.
has temporal variation
depicted entity
assertion predicate
community release approval
assertion object
Candomble Jeje
Garifuna
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.
Object received through lineage or house transmission. Paired with sacredStatus-hereditary-custody on the object record.
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.
Sacred Media
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.
language of performance
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.
fieldworker
Printed or handwritten items of transient purpose: programs, invitations, ritual schedules, advertisements for religious events.
Community-Authorized
custodial relationship
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.
The syncretic sacred tradition of New Orleans and Louisiana.
Quimbanda
media type
Community Only
Community-Held
specimen encountered in
Iroko Framework Core Vocabulary
media format
Traditions with primary roots in Bantu and Kongo religious culture.
Narrative Variant
Assertion
assertion lineage
contested authority of
Initiated Elder
Abakua
Obeah's criminalization history means archival materials are often court records or colonial surveillance documents. Access governance and provenance tracking are especially important.
Lineage Succession
policy condition
Fieldwork Event
Technical format of the file. Example: FLAC, WAV, TIFF, JPEG, MP4.
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.
Current ritual status of an object. Values from iroko:SacredStatusScheme.
Freely accessible to anyone. No authentication required.
Documented chain of oral transmission for this knowledge. Example: Elder A (Havana) to Elder B (Matanzas) to Informant C (2018).
Traditions that integrate African religious identity with political liberation frameworks.
assertion scope
Text list of lineages or houses that reject this position on contested knowledge.
Recording Context
Yoruba-derived Candomble tradition in Brazil (Nago/Ketu nation).
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.
Àgbékalẹ̀ fídíò
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.
Conjure
has source citation
Pan-African Political-Spiritual
Tí a ń jiyàn lórí
Louisiana Voodoo
Relationship Assertion
Links to a prov:Entity representing an alternative position on this contested knowledge.
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.