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Withdrawn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