Alliance Software:
A kinship database and
graphical approach to
genealogy
Shigenobu Sugito
Sugiyama Jogakuen University
At Digital Innovation, Sydney
University, 11/09/2008
Preface or background story
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My fieldtrip this year (01/08/08 - 13/09/08)
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Sydney, and Campbelltown
• Sydney: Usyd and UTS
• Campbelltown: Town development, social housing, and local
Indigenous families
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Alice Springs, Yuendom, and Papunya
• Wrlpiri Media, Youth Education, and Art Centre
• After the Intervention
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Auckland, and Christchurch
• Maori researchers, and Maori organization
• Whakapapa: identity, and benefits
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Why genealogy and kinship database?
Contents
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My background:
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Alliance project: genealogy and kinship database
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Fieldwork
Computer and cultural & social sciences
framework
Interface solutions
Graphical solutions
New Alliance
Visualisation
Demonstration Alliance
 Alliance Site (URL: http://study.hs.sugiyama-u.ac.jp/alliance/)
• Alliance Blog
• Alliance User registration
• Alliance Download Site
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Standalone Alliance
Why genealogy and kinship?
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We are living in multi-layers of human relations.
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We are born in a family of orientation.
• Can’t refuse any relations from sociological parents and their
relatives!
• Can’t choose our neighbours or locals!
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We are growing up and establish our own relationship include
partners.
We, maybe, have own family of procreation.
We belongs to primary groups and secondary groups.
We, somehow, need identification of our self, especially
in modern network society.
Image your kinship!
Ego focal family to extended
family
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and
From kinship terminology (1)
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In English
From kinship terminology (2)
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Or Yolngu
Kinship study in the modern
network society
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Reproductive technology and kinship:
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M. Strathern
• 1992 ”Reproducing the Future”
• 1999 ”Technologies of Procreation: kinship in the age of assisted conception”
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Strong concern about the genealogy databases in immigrant society like US
and Australia:
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Varieties of databases: onboard name list of immigrant ship, ancestoral country,
surname, families, Royal families, and so on
Mormon’s genealogy concept produced GEDCOM system: tracing up to “Adam”,
not “Eva”
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Genealogy resources in the Web
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Indigenous knowledge movement
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Mythical knowledge, ceremonial knowledge, and kinship knowledge are related
with Land rights, heritage, and native title in Australia and another counties
Australia: National Native Title Tribunal: http://www.nntt.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx
New Zealand: Waitangi Tribunal: http://www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz/
Resources in the web
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Genealogy as SNS (Social Network System)
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Dec. 2006: Amiglia: http://www.amiglia.com/ (no more?)
Jan. 2007: Geni: http://www.geni.com
Nov. 2007: TechCrunch: Geni Clone Growing A Lot Faster Than
Geni
• Verwandt.de
Other resources
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Ancestry.Com
Cyndi’s list: genealogy database
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Genographic Project by National Geography and IBM
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Revised kinship study:
framework
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Aboriginal Australia was seen as an important place for the study of kinship in past decades, however a
rejection of African descent theory and new thinking about social organization in Aboriginal societies
have led to the neglect of kinship in recent years. Of course, other trends in modern anthropology are
contributory factors.
Among others, the American anthropologist David Graeber has written about kinship in industrial
societies in his 2005 essay, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. Graeber says, ‘The term “kinbased” is often used the way people used to use the word “primitive”; these are exotic societies which
are in no way like our own. (That’s why it is assumed we need anthropology to study them; entirely
different disciplines, like sociology and economics, are assumed to be required to study modern ones.)
But then the exact same people who make this argument will usually take it for granted that the main
social problems in our own, “modern” society (or “postmodern”: for present purposes it’s exactly the
same thing) resolve around race, class, and gender. In other words, precisely from the nature of our
kinship system.’ (Graeber 2004: 51-52).
Most would readily agree with Graeber’s proposition that industrial societies are just as ‘kin-based’ as
any others. However, in teaching anthropology, the study of kinship appears to be useful only as a
means of understanding ‘classic’ ethnography. This is a deplorable situation in anthropology, in my view.
Perhaps it is time to pay a lot more attention to and become better equipped to understand kinship in
modern / post-modern societies.
See http://www.prickly-paradigm.com/paradigm14.pdf.
Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragments_of_an_Anarchist_Anthropology .
Why commercial software?
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Even professional anthropologists have used to use commercial
software, like “Family Tree Maker” for Windows, “Reunion” for
Macintosh, and so on, for a long time.
Those application suit to the any anthropological field? Of course,
those are not!
The purpose of those software is to trace to the ancestor as a unilineal way, not to seek the afinal relationship and describing the
kinship relationship, anyhow.
However, many anthropologist are still using.
Why?
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Fit to the court case?
• Yes, many lawyers in Native Title Tribunal and the court don’t have any
world-wide knowledge of kinship. They are a sort of so-call ethno-centric
people, but they are legally correct.
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Problem is the usage of commercial software by the anthropologists
affects people’s unique kinship knowledge
Fieldwork in Micronesia and
Australia
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Micronesian Study
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Material culture: housing and clothes in 1979 and 1981
Aboriginal study
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Fieldwork in Arnhem Land, NT, since 1984
• NME, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan, Australian
collection project and research
• As the result, our research group has organised two Aboriginal Art
Exhibition in 1986 in Kobe, and 1992 in NME
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Main topics
• Aboriginal Arts & Crafts: Oenpelli
• Housing issues in Aboriginal remote communities: Manigrida
• Kinship and population: Galiwin’ku
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Related organisation: ANU, and AIATSIS
Computing, cultural & social
sciences
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Simulation analysis of prehistoric Japanese population
in Jomon era (BP2000-12000) in 1984
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Cluster analysis of distribution of slash burn farming in
rural Japan in Edo era (BP150) in 1985
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Macroscopic population dynamics study
Findings of two patterns: urban and rural type of farming
Development of “Alliance” application, kinship database
and genealogy by Java since 1996
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Family analysis of Edo period from demographic document
records in 2005
Alliance project: genealogy and
kinship database
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Alliance Project concepts in brief
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Alliance is an anthropological fieldwork tool
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Alliance is a universal tool for common kinship system
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Focused on genealogy database and kinship study
Flexible format
With converter project
Alliance operation will be shown later
Alliance is applied as a common platform: Windows, Macintosh,
Unix, or Linux
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Free software, but need registration before download
To be a open source software in near future
Joint project
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with historical demography
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with another database
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Japanese historical records: linkage historical document database
Korean’s historical records
England parish records?
Blue Mad Bay genealogy in Eastern Arnhem Land
Graphical database in Central Desert
Linkage project with Prof. Nakata’s project
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Prof. Oshima’s fieldnote and genealogy in TSI in 1970’
Another linkage project in near future
New Project
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Extended and/or new project
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Tiwi population study and Melbourne population study
Database project:
• To examine XML-based database compatibility
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Contribution to indigenous society research?
• Kinship database, genealogy, and demography
Graphical solution
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User interface
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Fieldworker (anthropologists) - conservative triangle and circle
as a signs: another possibility?
Database and as a analysis tool kit
• Analytic path to Pajek, or other network analysis
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Why 3D?
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More interactive
Tangled relations in consanguinial and afinal relationship
Multiple layers (windows)
Geo-spacial linkage with Alliance
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James Rose case
GoogleEarth API
Interface solutions
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Interface format
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CSV
GEDCOM
XML
External solution
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Historical demography converter
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possible
• P-graph
• API linkage: GoogleEarth
• GIS softwares
New Alliance
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On the go
WebAlliance
 Time-basedAlliance
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Planning
NetworkAlliance
 GeospaceAlliance
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Visualisation of genealogy (1)
Visualisation of genealogy (2)
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Left: James Rose, personal communication
Right: Prof. Douglas White (UC Irvine):
http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/~drwhite/pgraph/p-graphs.html
Basic concept of WebAlliance
PC
Basic logic of the Alliance
Java VM
(Java Runtime environment)
Database
We are using HSQLDB, now,
however, we change any
other xml-based database.
Alliance Engine
database
HTTP
Communication
module
Browser
(Internet Explorer,
FireFox etc.
Communication module to
HTTP browser.
We are using Tomcat, now.
Key image is small web server is working
in your PC.
James Rose case
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His presentation in ”Tradition, Adaptation,
The ‘Tide of History’ Workshop” at UQ on
23/07/2008
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sample
Abstructs: titled as “Structural event
indexing and social network analysis”
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P-graph analysis: D. White
James Rose
Moving Pattern Analysis
Kinship
Network
Geni.Com
Verwandt.de
Thoroughbred
Ancestry.Com: sample family
tree
Ancestry.Com: top page
GenographicProject: National
Geography and IBM
CyndisList
Wikipedia: GEDCOM