CRR – Cuturally Relevant Relationships Vocabulary – version 2, 2024/01/10
The CRR Vocabulary aims at identify, make an inventory and formalize the most usual and intuitive culturally relevant relationships holding between heritage objects that make up the collections of heritage collections such as archives, libraries and museums. It was conceived to be used by digital curators in connecting and interlinking such heritage objects one with other and them with digitally represented entities such as agents, concepts, event/processes, places and time. The CRR Vocabulary is conceived to be used within the scope of Linked Open Data technologies.
A complete description of the CRR Vocabulary can be found in the following reference.
MARCONDES, C. H. Towards a Vocabulary to Implement Culturally Relevant Relationships between Digital Collections in Heritage Institutions. Knowledge Organization, v. 47, n. 2, p. 122-137, 2020. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340458785_Towards_a_Vocabulary_to_Implement_Culturally_Relevant_Relationships_Between_Digital_Collections_in_Heritage_Institutions. Access in: Set. 15, 2023.
Available also in: http://eprints.rclis.org/39938/.
Criteria in the specification of each relationships expresses axiomatic restrictions that must be hold between domain and range of each relationship. Different Criteria types are the following:
- (CA): when there is a relationship between two HOs or between a HO and another entity, established not by the creator of any of them, but by a third-party agent, for example, by a curator, a literary or art critic. Cultural association means that the two HOs are existentially independent.
- (CD): when two HOs have a relationship established by the creator of one of them; the creator of one HO intended for the other HO; the two HOs are both artifacts.
- (CI): when two HOs have a relationship established by the creator of one of them, the creator of one HO intended for the other HO, but only one of the HOs is an artifact, whereas the other one is originally a natural object.
- (CD): when two HOs have a relationship established by the creator of one of them; the creator of one HO intended for the other HO; the two HOs are both artifacts.
- (EI): when the two HOs exist independently of each other.
- (IS): both HO share at least one common property, e.g. a common title or belong to the same culture or have the same artistic style, or period, or are made of the same material or technique.
Another criterion that seems to define how two HO are related is the type of expression form. Accordingly, in many cases, the domain and range are specified according to HOs restricted to specific types of expression form.
- (EF): how each object is expressed or manifested” to human senses. An expression form specifies the form 4 in which an original HO is perceived by humans’ senses: 5 taste, sight, touch, smell, and hearing. The classification proposed has seven types of expression forms an HO may 7 have: “three_dimensional objects” (perceived mainly by sight and touch: physical objects such as a sword, a chair, a sculpture), “two_dimensional objects” (perceived mainly by sight: objects frequently classified as iconography such as a painting, a drawing, an engraving, an illustration, a poster, a photograph, maps), “text_objects” (perceived mainly by sight: books, letters, manuscripts), “moving_images objects” (perceived mainly by sight: films), “sound objects” (perceived mainly by hearing: recorded music), “three_dimensional_image objects
Here follows the types of relationships of the CRR Vocabulary.
| Based_on relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0011 | |
| Label | “Based_on”@en, “Baseado_em”@pt, “Basado_en”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0011/ |
| Description | This type of relationship presupposes an original, previous work, and another based_on work. It encompasses all kinds of pragmatic replicas or artistic copies, re-creations, revisits, and re-readings of a work; it is concerned directly with works in the FRBR model sense. A work is based on another if the based-on work carries at least one property of the base work: – a book (lHO) which is based_on another (lHO): cell 22; – an artwork (mHO) which is the base for another mHO): cell 33; – a monument (monHO) which is the base for another (monHO): cell 44. |
| Domain | HO |
| Range | HO |
| Criteria | CD, the expression form of both the Based_on HO and the Base_for HO are the same. |
| Examples | Many works show literary influence of Hamlet (by Shakespeare), such as Hamlet for Kids (Shakespeare Can Be Fun!) by Lois Burdett; the design of Federal Hall in New York City is based_on the design of the Parthenon in Athens; the different based_on versions of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa by artists such as Dali, Botero, Andy Warhol, etc. |
| Similar relationships | The FRBR model has many types of work-to-work relationships such as, frbr:is an imitation of, frbr:is a transformation of, frbr:is an adaptation of; Getty att:pastiche |
| Inverse Relationship | Base_for, Relationship Id: 0012 |
Table 2. Based_on X Base_for relationships
| Created_by relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0021 | |
| Label | “Created_by”@en, “Criado_por”@pt, “Creado_por”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0021/ |
| Description | The relationship between an intellectual, artistic, or technical work embodied in a HO and the Agent responsible for its creation |
| Domain | HO |
| Range | Agent |
| Criteria | |
| Examples | Mona Lisa was Created_by Da Vinci; Guernica was Created_by Picasso; Ford Model T was Created_by Ford Motor Company. |
| Similar relationships | dcterms:created |
| Inverse Relationship | Creator Relationship Id: 0022 |
Table 3. Created_by X Creator relationships
| Design_or_Procedure_for relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0031 | |
| Label | “Design_or_Procedure_for”@en, “Projeto_ou_esboço_para”@pt, “Proyecto_o_esbozo_para”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0021/ |
| Description | Relationships between architectural plans (aHO) and a monument (monHO): cell 14; -between an artwork (mHO) and their preparatory sketches (mHO): cell 33. |
| Domain | HO |
| Range | HO |
| Criteria | CD |
| Examples | The architectural plans of MAC Niterói – Museum of Contemporary Art – and the monument itself; the preparatory sketches and Guernica by Pablo Picasso; the preparatory sketches and the “War and Peace” panels by Brazilian artist Candido Portinari at the United Nations headquarters, New York. |
| Similar relationships | |
| Inverse Relationship | Design_or_Procedure, Relationship Id: 0032 |
Table 4. Design_or_Procedure_for X Design_or_Procedure relationships
| Documents relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0041 | |
| Label | “Documents”@en, “Documenta”@pt, “Documento”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0031/ |
| Description | The relationship between a field notebook and the objects it documents. |
| Domain | HO, with the type of expression form Text_Object |
| Range | HO, any type |
| Criteria | CI; the domain HO always has the type of expression form Text_Object. |
| Examples | Darwin’s Beagle’s expedition field notebook and the species collected by him. |
| Similar relationships | crm:P70 documents (is documented in) |
| Inverse Relationship | Documented_by, Relationship Id: 0042 |
Table 5. Documents X Documented_by relationships
| Has_Contribution_of relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0051 | |
| Label | “Has_theContribution_of”@en, “Teve_aContribuição_de”@pt, “haTenido_laContribuición_de”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0051/ |
| Description | The relationship between an intellectual, artistic, or technical work embodied in a HO and an Agent, other than its creator, that made some contribution to its realization, or production; for example, the translator, compiler or organizer of a work. |
| Domain | HO |
| Range | Agent |
| Criteria | |
| Examples | Brazilian edition of the Hamlet by L&PM Editor Has_theContribution_of Millôr Fernandes as the translator. The Anthology of Medieval Literature Has_theContribution_of Rebecca Berg Manor as editor. Anthology of Medieval Literature. Rebecca Berg Manor (ed). Beautiful Feet Books, 2013. The Baptism of Christ by Andrea del Verrocchio, painting that belongs to the Uffizi Gallery Collection in Florence Has_theContribution of Leonardo Da Vinci; according to some art historians Leonardo painted the angel on the left of the picture |
| Similar relationships | dc:contributor |
| Inverse Relationship | Contributor, Relationship id: 0052 |
Table 6. Has_theContribution_of X Contributor relationships
| Has_Subject relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0061 | |
| Label | “Has_Subject”@en, “Tem_Assunto”@pt, “Tiene_asunto”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0041/ |
| Description | Relationships between a book that has letters as a subject; -between a book that has another book as a subject; -between a book that has a monument as a subject; -between a letter commenting on or describing a book and the book itself; -between a letter commenting or describing an artwork and the artwork itself; between a book, a biography of a historical character (range Agent). |
| Domain | HO entity having the type of expression form Text_Object |
| Range | HO, any external entitie |
| Criteria | CD; EI |
| Examples | La Joconde : essai scientifique / sous la direction de Christian Lahanier, as many other books, has as a subject, or describes, or analyses, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa; a letter from Brazilian writer Machado de Assis to his colleague Joaquim Nabuco commenting on the idea for a future book, Ayres Memorial (Jackson 1998); the book Brunelleschi’s Dome: The Story of the Great Cathedral in Florence (King, 2008) has as subject the construction of Brunelleschi’s Dome of Santa Maria del Fiori church; the book Napoleon: a life, by Andrew Roberts (2015). |
| Similar relationships | |
| Inverse Relationship | Is_Subject_of, Relationship Id: 0062 |
Table 7. Has_Subject X Is_Subject_of relationships
| Influenced relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0071 | |
| Label | “Influenced”@en, “Influenciou”@pt, “Influenciado”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0051/ |
| Description | Relationships between a work that influenced the creation of another work, according to someone. Or, the relationship between a work and the Agent – artist, writer – that influenced it. This relationship is assigned by someone, an art or literature critic or historian. |
| Domain | HO |
| Range | HO, Agent |
| Criteria | CA, EI. |
| Examples | According to several literary critics, the work Don Quijote by Cervantes Saavedra influenced many others literary works; or the “List of works influenced by One Thousand and One Nights”; and “How Did Edgar Allan Poe Influence Literature”? One of the two HO is intended for the other or to an Agent. |
| Similar relationships | crm: P15 was influenced by (influenced), didbpedia.org/ontology:influencedBy |
| Inverse Relationship | Influenced_by, Relationship Id: 0072 |
Table 8. Influenced X Influenced_by relationships
The formalization of the Influenced relationship is a challenging issue. Here we documented the relationships of an HO that influenced other HOs, and an HO influenced_by an Agent. It is usual in art and literature critics to say that an author or artist influenced others, as such a claim means that the works of an author or artist as whole a influenced the works of many others, as for example in the exhibition Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry. The latter would be a relationship between two Agents, which is out of the scope of the relationships we are dealing with here. A cultural heritage cloud will integrate cultural heritage collections published as linked data with data hubs as Wikipedia, Wikidata (Wikidata:WikiProject Authority Control), DBpedia (Estermann 2018) and authority control databases (Klein and Kyrios 2013) such as VIAF (Agenjo-Bullón and Hernández-Carrascal 2018).
| Inspired relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0081 | |
| Label | “Inspired”@en, “Inspirou”@pt, “Inspirado”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0061/ |
| Description | Relationship -between a book which inspired a painting or drawing; -between an artwork and a book. Relationships between two independent works with different authors. |
| Domain | HO |
| Range | HO |
| Criteria | CD; EI, both works may have the same or different expressions forms but they must have different authors. |
| Examples | Inspired is a loose relationship in comparison to Influenced or Based_on. The previously mentioned aquatint by Picasso portraying Don Quijote and Sancho Panza and the book Don Quijote de La Mancha by Cervantes Saavedra; or the romance Iracema by the Brazilian writer José de Alencar and a painting with the same title by José Maria Medeiros; or the Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and the romance Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson (1997); or the romance Buenos Aires Memorial by Antonio Fernando Borges (2006) and the romance Aires Memorial by Machado de Assis, among many others. |
| Similar relationships | wikim:inspired, LRM21:is inspiration for; frbr:has a transformation/is a transformation of, edm:isRelatedTo |
| Inverse Relationship | Inspired_by, Relationship Id: 0082 |
Table 9. Inspired X Inspired_by relationships
| Is_Illustrated_by relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0091 | |
| Label | “Is_Illustrated_by”@en, “É_Ilustrado_por”@pt, “Es_Ilustrado_por”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0071/ |
| Description | Relationship: -between a book that is illustrated by a painting or drawing, or -between a book that is illustrated by an Agent |
| Domain | HO, type of expression form Text_Objects |
| Range | HO, type of expression form must be Two_Dimensional Objects |
| Criteria | CD, ED, domain lHO has the expression form Text Objects, range mHO has the expression form iconographic, Two_Dimensional Objects |
| Examples | Aristophanes’ Lysitrata (1934), edited by the Limited Editions Club, which is illustrated by six signed etchings of Pablo Picasso; James Joyce’s Ulysses (1999), edition illustrated by Henri Matisse’s rare etchings. |
| Similar relationships | |
| Inverse Relationship | Illustrated, Relationship Id: 0092 Illustrates |
Table 10. Is_Illustrated_by X Illustrated relationships
| Link_to_Agent relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0101 | |
| Label | “Link_to_Agent”@en, “Vinculação_a_Pessoa”@pt, “Vinculación_a_la_persona”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0081/ |
| Description | The relationship between a HO and an Agent that this HO belonged, used or has some kind of relationship |
| Domain | HO |
| Range | Agent |
| Criteria | CA |
| Examples | The HMS Victory was the flagship of Admiral Nelson at “Battle of Trafalgar” on 21 October 1805. |
| Similar relationships | edm:HasMet |
| Inverse Relationship | Link_Agent_to_Object, Relationship Id: 0102 |
Table 11. Link_to_Agent X Link_Agent_to_Object relationships
| Link_to_Event_Process relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0121 | |
| Label | “Link_to_Event_Process”@en, “Vinculação_a_Evento_Processo”@pt, “Vinculación_a_Evento_Proceso”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0091/ |
| Description | The relationship between a HO and an Event or Process in which this HO was present or has some kind of relationship |
| Domain | HOs |
| Range | Event_Process |
| Criteria | CA |
| Examples | The HMS Victory ship and the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. |
| Similar relationships | crm: P12 occurred in the presence of (was present at), edm:HasMet |
| Inverse Relationship | Link_Event_Process_to_Object, Relationship Id: 0122 |
Table 12. Link_to_Event_Process X Link_Event_Process_to_Object relationships
| Mentioned_in relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0131 | |
| Label | “Mentioned_in”@en, “Mencionado_em”@pt, “Mencionado_en”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0111/ |
| Description | This is the usual relationship between a HO that is mentioned in a document – a letter, an inventory, an exhibition catalog or a book. |
| Domain | HO |
| Range | HO, Expression form is Text_Objects |
| Criteria | CI, EI |
| Examples | A letter (602) from Vincent Van Gogh (1888) to his brother Theo, Arles, Tuesday, 1 May 1888, mentioning a drawing “Public garden and pond in front of the Yellow House.” The painting “The Prodigal Son in the Tavern” by Rembrandt is mentioned in the Rembrandt catalog raisonné, by Christian and Astrid Tümpel (1986). |
| Similar relationships | dcterms:isReferencedBy |
| Inverse Relationship | Mentioned, relationship id: 0132 |
Table 13. Mentioned_in X Mentioned relationships
| Part_of relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0141 | |
| Label | “Part_of”@en, “Parte_de”@pt, “Parte_de”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0111/ |
| Description | The relationship between a HO that is a part or a fragment of another HO. |
| Domain | HO, both having the same type of expression form |
| Range | HO |
| Criteria | CD |
| Examples | The angel playing an organ is Part_of the Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece, housed in the Cathedral of St. Bavo, Ghent, Belgium. |
| Similar relationships | The crm:P5 consists of (forms part of), dc:isPartOf, |
| Inverse Relationship | Has_part, Relationship Id: 0142 |
Table 14. Part_of X Has_part relationships
| Portrays relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0151 | |
| Label | “Portrays”@en, “Retrata”@pt, “Retrata”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0121/ |
| Description | The relationship between a HO and another HO, Agent, Event_Process or Place that HO portrays. |
| Domain | HO, type of expression form Two_Dimensional Objects |
| Range | HO, Agent, Event_Process, Place |
| Criteria | CD |
| Examples | Several paintings made by French Impressionist artist Monet portraying the Rouen Cathedral. The Louvre Museum has a portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte painted by Antonine Jean Gros. |
| Similar relationships | The crm:P62 depicts (is depicted by), edm:hasView |
| Inverse Relationship | Is_Portrayed_by, Relationship Id: 0152 |
Table 15. Portrays X Is_Portrayed_by relationships
| Provenance relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0161 | |
| Label | “Provenance”@en, “Proveniência”@pt, “Procedencia”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0131/ |
| Description | The relationship between a HO and its place of creation |
| Domain | HO, any |
| Range | Place |
| Criteria | CA |
| Examples | The mask of Tutankhamun, now at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, and Valley of the Kings, Egypt, where it was discovered. Duplicate objects or donations sent from an institution to another |
| Similar relationships | dcterms:provenance |
| Inverse Relationship | Place_of_Provenance, Relationship Id: 0162 |
Table 16. Provenance X Place_of_Provenance relationships
| Similar_item relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0171 | |
| Label | “Similar_item”@en, “Item_similar”@pt, “item_relacionado”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0141/ |
| Description | The relationship between similar items, according to a collection curator |
| Domain | HO, both Domain and Range have the same type of expression form |
| Range | HO |
| Criteria | CA, IS |
| Examples | Similar items, as in Museums in Israel[1]. Greek pottery from Greece and from south Italy. |
| Similar relationships | |
| Inverse Relationship | The relationship is symmetric |
Table 17. Similar_item relationship
| Incollection relationship | |
| Relationship Id: 0181 | |
| Label | “Incollection”@en, “NaColecao”@pt, “EnColeccion”@es |
| URI | http://culturally_relevant_relationships.org/0181/ |
| Description | The relationship between a HO and the heritage institution who holds it |
| Domain | HO, any |
| Range | Agent of type heritage institution |
| Criteria | CA |
| Examples | The Mona Lisa and Louvre Museum |
| Similar relationships | crm:E78 Collection |
| Inverse Relationship | IsInColletion, Relationship Id: 0182 |
Table 18. InColletion X IsInColletion relationships
A synthesis of the relationships proposed follows.
| RELATIONSHIP | INVERSE RELATIONSHIP |
| Id: 0011 Based_on | Id: 0012 Base_for |
| Id: 0021 Created_by | Id: 0022 Creator dc:creator |
| Id: 0031 Design_or_Procedure_for | Id: 0032 Design_or_Procedure |
| Id: 0041 Documents | Id: 0042 Documented_by |
| Id: 0051 Has_Contribution_of | Id: 0052 Contributor |
| Id: 061 Has_Subject | Id: 0062 Has_Subject ? Is_Subject |
| Id: 0071 Influenced | Id: 0072 Influenced_by |
| Id: 081 Inspired | Id: 0082 Inspired_by |
| Id: 0091 Is_Illustrated_by | Id: 092 Illustrated |
| Id:0101 Link_to_Agent | Id: 0102 Link_Agent_to_Object |
| Id: 0121 Link_to_Event_Process | Id: 0122 Link_Event_Process_to_Object |
| Id: 0131 Mentioned_in Mentined_by_in | Id: 0132 Mentioned Mentions |
| Id: 0141 Part_of | Id: 0142 Has_part |
| Id: 0151 Portrays | Id: 0152 Is_Portrayed_by |
| Id: 0161 Provenance | Id: 0162 Place_of_Provenance |
| Id: 0171 Similar_item | |
| Id: 181 Incollection See crm:E78 Collection For at, in, on, see https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/prepositions-place-at-in-on.htm, http://www.rfi.fr/en/culture/20191007-mona-lisa-returns-renovated-home-louvre-museum | 182 Id:isIncollection |
| AssociatedWith |
Table 18. Synthesis of the relationships proposed
The following Figure shows the schema of the CRR Vocabulary
[1] Example suggested by Ram Shimony.