We show that relations in Homflypt type skein theory of an oriented
3-manifold M are induced from a 2-groupoid defined from the fundamental
2-groupoid of a space of singular links in M. The module relations are
defined by homomorphisms related to string topology. They appear from a
representation of the groupoid into free modules on a set of model objects. The
construction on the fundamental 2-groupoid is defined by the singularity
stratification and relates Vassiliev and skein theory. Several explicit
properties are discussed, and some implications for skein modules are derived.Comment: 55 pages, 1 figur
