[topicmapmail] Re: Topic map design guidelines? (Jan Algermissen)

[Kal Ahmed]

On Thu, 2004-07-22 at 08:56, Lars Marius Garshol wrote:
> * Johannes Busse
> | 
> | Jan: to model the assocs between relatives (son, mother, uncle
> | etc.), you would recommend a handful (up to a dozend!) of
> | comparatively spezific assocs, euch of which can be easily predicted
> | once you know one of the roles -- and vice versa? Then in fact the
> | visualization of a topic map can omit to tell you which roles take
> | part within a given assoc (like the omnigator does in the current
> | version.)
> | 
> | But what about the following model: just take one single and
> | comparatively generic association (let it call "relatives"), and
> | allow each of the roles (like son, mother, uncle, sister etc.) to
> | take part within this association. The specific relationship between
> | two persons is modelled then not only in terms of associations, but
> | also in terms of (tuples of) roles.
> 
> I would take a third approach here, and have only two association
> types:
> 
>   parenthood(a : child, b : mother, c : father)
>   marriage(b : wife, c : husband)
> 
> and use inference rules to work out who is the uncle, mother, sister,
> sibling, parent, grandfather, ancestor, cousin, etc of who.
> 

Actually I would go one step further and remove the mother/father roles
from parenthood as these can be inferred from the sex of the role
player. 

Your choice of symbols is interesting. "Parenthood" as a concept in the
English language can include step-parents and foster-parents. I think
you more specific relationships, e.g. raised-by and biological-parent
(which gets confusing when we talk about surrogate mothers, donation of
genetic material).

Also, "marriage" is not necessarily a term that is global - although
variants of it are found in many cultures. What would be used when
documenting family relationships amongst cultures that do not have that
concept ? Is there something more basic than the concept "marriage" ?

I don't pretend to have the answer to these questions, but they are
interesting ones to consider nevertheless. For a more detailed
discussion on this (amongst other things), I thoroughly recommend
"Women, Fire and Dangerous Things" by George Lakoff (ISBN:
0-226-46804-6).

Just nitpicking :-)

Kal

-- 
Kal Ahmed <kal@techquila.com>
techquila