Representing Anthropological Knowledge: Calculating Kinship
Michael D. Fischer
Analyzing and Understanding Cultural Codes

Kinship
Contents

Kinship&Genealogy
Kinship Introduction
Learning Kinship with
the Kinship Editor
Use the Kinship Editor
Kinship Editor Results

Kinship Contents

Kinship Contents

Basic Kin Types

Anthropologists typically use a basic vocabulary of kin types to represent genealogical relationships. One common version of the vocabulary for basic relationships are:

Kin Type
English Gloss
P
Parent
F
Father
M
Mother
C
Child
D
Daughter
S
Son
G
Sibling
Z
Sister
B
Brother
E
Spouse
H
Husband
W
Wife

Following is a prolog example which defines p,f,m,c,s,d. Try some of these out, by typing in a query (to the right of the "Do Query" button) replacing the 'm(X,Y).' that is there, and then clicking on the 'Do Query' button.

As an exercise, complete and test the definitions for g,z,b,e,h,w. You can test your definitions by typing in a query (to the right of the "Query" button) replacing the 'm(X,Y).' that is there.

When writing your rules pay attention to two things:

1) make sure where you intend a variable for prolog to 'fill-in' with a name, that you use an upper-case letter for the variable name (A-Z), and

2) end your rule with a full-stop ('.'). This is VERY important.

If you get things into too big a mess, you can reload the page by clicking on the reload button of the browser while holding down the option key on a Macintosh, or the ALT key under Windows or Unix. The correct answers are incorporated into the program in next section.

Prolog: Basic Genealogical Rules in Prolog

Work Area - complete and test the definitions for g,z,b,e,h,w.

Kinship Query:

Query Results

In the next section, all 12 basic kin type rules are included in the prolog program in the bottom window.

Next section: Extended kin types