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Kinship Algebra Expert System (KAES)

A Software Implementation of a Cultural Theory

University of California, Los Angeles

The computer program Kinship Algebra Expert System (KAES) provides a graphically based framework for constructing, if possible, a generative algebraic model for the structure of a kinship terminology (the terms used to refer to one’s kin). The algebraic modeling is based on a theory of kinship terminologies elaborated through writing the software program. The theory relates the properties and structure of kinship terminologies to an underlying logic that the KAES program helps uncover and model as a generative structure. The program then relates the structural logic of a kinship terminology modeled by the KAES program to a genealogical space based on genealogical tracing of kin relations. The KAES program demonstrates the surprisingly logical character of kinship terminologies and challenges the received view of the primacy of genealogical relations in defining cultural kinship through showing how genealogical definitions of kin terms can be accurately predicted in the terminologies considered to date.

Key Words: kinship • cultural theory • terminology • algebraic modeling

Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 24, No. 1, 43-67 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0894439305282372


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