Introduction

Most kinship systems around the world use combinations of genealogical factors (e.g. father, daughter, wife) to define their terms. But some include non-genealogical factors such as 'clan', 'phratry', or 'adoption' in their definitions. The genealogical factors are built-in to SILKin, plus a feature called 'User-Defined Properties' (or UDPs) to handle everything else. Although UDPs are designed to handle factors such as adoption or clans, they may be used to document any relationship or property of interest to the User. You could define a UDP like '*profession' or '*location' or '*income.' Note that all UDP names start with an asterisk ('*') and contain all lowercase letters; this is required.

Adoption is a Special User-Defined Property

SILKin has special features to handle adoption because -- when it is a factor in kinship terminology -- it should appear on charts. Adoption works differently in different societies; hopefully these features can accomodate almost all variations:

Clans Are A Different Kind of Special Relationship

Clans are a factor in kinship terminology for only a small percentage of contexts. When they are a factor they tend to be 'invisible links' among people, and may apply quite broadly within any group of people. In SILKin, clan-like ties are not displayed on the chart, but they are recognized.

Like adoptions, clans are handled via UDPs. When you create or edit a UDP there is a selection for "Can Create Uncharted Connections?" This feature is valid only if:

If the UDP meets these criteria and you select Uncharted Connections, SILKin assumes that this UDP represents a clan-like relationship. You will be presented with another selection: creating the invisible connection whenever two people have the same value, or when their values are different.

For example: Your cultural context may have a concept of 'clan brother' that extends certain family kin terms to people with no genealogical connection but who belong to the same clan. In this case, you might create a UDP called '*clansib' that is single-valued, of type 'string' and restricted to 'elk', 'moose', or 'deer'. You would select 'Uncharted Connections' and 'Create Connections on Same Value.' Then every person in the population who has a value for their '*clansib' property will be linked automatically to every other person with that value. The chart will not show the links, but when computing the path between any two people SILKin will recognize a clan connection if there is no genealogical one.

Another example: Your cultural context may define exogamy in terms of clan, i.e. one may marry anyone outside one's clan. If this concept affects kinship terminology, you might define a UDP (perhaps '*exoclan') restricted to 'elk', 'moose', or 'deer' and select 'Create Connections on Different Value.' Now SILKin will create an invisible connection whenever two people have values for *exoclan that are different.

Deleting A Special Relationship