{ "model": { "rank": 8615, "code": "thing-q1068640", "model_id": "vr.tr.folk-religion", "name": "folk religion", "purpose": "Let an agent describe folk religions accurately and respectfully with attribution to practitioners and scholars, avoid pejorative labels, distinguish folk religion from organised religion and from new religious movements, and support cultural understanding.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q1068640/", "tier": 2, "score": 50, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Izanagi school", "Rodnovery", "Ong Yah worship", "Khurafat", "Benzhuism", "Taiwanese folk religion", "Slavic Native Faith in the Czech Republic", "Slavic Native Faith in Belarus", "Slavic Native Faith in Ukraine", "Slavic Native Faith in Poland", "Slavic Native Faith in Russia", "Taoist big talisman papers" ], "aliasCount": 12, "merged": 12, "knownIn": 50, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q1068640", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1068640", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T20:58:16Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q1068640", "registryId": "vr.tr.folk-religion", "name": "folk religion", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q1068640/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.folk-religion", "name": "folk religion", "purpose": "Let an agent describe folk religions accurately and respectfully with attribution to practitioners and scholars, avoid pejorative labels, distinguish folk religion from organised religion and from new religious movements, and support cultural understanding.", "definition": "Religious beliefs and practices of a people or region that exist alongside or outside organised, institutional religion, often blending local deities, ancestor veneration, spirits, seasonal rites and healing practices, such as Chinese and Taiwanese folk religion, Benzhuism, Slavic native faith movements and local cults within larger religions; folk religion is studied in anthropology and religious studies, and its practitioners describe it in their own terms.", "what_it_is_for": "Understanding popular and local religious practice.", "affordances": [ "describe a folk religion as its practitioners describe it", "explain the concept and its scholarly debates", "distinguish related categories", "find ethnographic sources" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Popular and local", "Syncretic", "Orally transmitted", "Scholarly category" ], "appearance": "Not physical; practices, shrines, festivals and rites.", "visual_identification": [ "Local and popular practice", "Often blended with institutional religion", "Organised religions have formal doctrine and clergy" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "Chinese and Taiwanese folk religion", "folk religion within Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Hinduism", "ethnic and Indigenous traditional religions", "revived native faith movements", "local cults and healing traditions" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "religion", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "folk culture", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "Taoism", "why": "overlapping traditions" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "divination", "why": "associated practices" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Freedom of religion under human rights law", "UNESCO intangible heritage listings for some practices", "National laws affecting religious practice" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Pejorative labelling such as superstition", "Presenting one tradition view as neutral", "Confusing folk religion with new religious movements" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "describe", "name": "Describe", "description": "A folk religion.", "rationale": "Practitioners first.", "layers": [ { "id": "practices", "name": "Practices", "description": "Beliefs and practices.", "findings": [ { "id": "practices-finding", "name": "Practices", "description": "Practices.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do practitioners of this folk religion describe their deities, spirits, rites and festivals?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How do scholars describe them, with attribution?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "terms", "name": "Terms", "description": "Respectful terminology.", "findings": [ { "id": "terms-finding", "name": "Terms", "description": "Terminology.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which terms do practitioners use for their tradition, and which labels, such as superstition or pejorative words, should be avoided?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Is the tradition described as a living religion?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "The category.", "rationale": "Scholarly debate.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "What folk religion means.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do scholars define folk religion, and what are the debates about the category?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How does it relate to institutional religion in this context?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "related", "name": "Related", "description": "Related categories.", "findings": [ { "id": "related-finding", "name": "Related", "description": "Related categories.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is this tradition better described as folk religion, an ethnic religion, a revived movement or a new religious movement, and by whom?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which entry fits?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Society and law.", "rationale": "Neutral description.", "layers": [ { "id": "status", "name": "Status", "description": "Legal and social status.", "findings": [ { "id": "status-finding", "name": "Status", "description": "Status.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the legal and social status of this folk religion, and how is it treated by the state and institutional religions, with attribution?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Are contested matters presented neutrally?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "heritage", "name": "Heritage", "description": "Heritage and festivals.", "findings": [ { "id": "heritage-finding", "name": "Heritage", "description": "Heritage.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which festivals and practices are recognised as heritage, and how can visitors engage respectfully?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which etiquette applies?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "conduct", "name": "Conduct", "description": "Agent conduct.", "rationale": "Respect.", "layers": [ { "id": "neutral", "name": "Neutral", "description": "Neutrality.", "findings": [ { "id": "neutral-finding", "name": "Neutral", "description": "Neutrality.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the response avoid asserting or denying religious claims and treat practitioners with respect?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Are sources balanced between practitioners and scholars?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "limits", "name": "Limits", "description": "Harmful requests.", "findings": [ { "id": "limits-finding", "name": "Limits", "description": "Limits.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the request seek to demean a community or its practices?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "How should the agent decline?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each folk religion be a separate entry?", "How should ethnographic sources be linked?", "How should registry aliases that are pejorative be handled?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a folk religion, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent describe folk religions accurately and respectfully with attribution to practitioners and scholars, avoid pejorative labels, distinguish folk religion from organised religion and from new religious movements, and support cultural understanding.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Izanagi school, Rodnovery, Ong Yah worship, Khurafat, Benzhuism, Taiwanese folk religion, Slavic Native Faith in the Czech Republic, Slavic Native Faith in Belarus, Slavic Native Faith in Ukraine, Slavic Native Faith in Poland, Slavic Native Faith in Russia, Taoist big talisman papers.", "12 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 50 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a folk religion, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Izanagi school", "Rodnovery", "Ong Yah worship", "Khurafat", "Benzhuism", "Taiwanese folk religion", "Slavic Native Faith in the Czech Republic", "Slavic Native Faith in Belarus", "Slavic Native Faith in Ukraine", "Slavic Native Faith in Poland", "Slavic Native Faith in Russia", "Taoist big talisman papers" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 50 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 12 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one folk religion from another, and a folk religion from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a folk religion, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a folk religion, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a folk religion is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a folk religion, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a folk religion, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a folk religion is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a folk religion sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a folk religion, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a folk religion, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a folk religion is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a folk religion from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a folk religion, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a folk religion, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a folk religion is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a folk religion passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a folk religion between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a folk religion, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a folk religion, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a folk religion is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a folk religion, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a folk religion is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a folk religion, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a folk religion, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a folk religion is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a folk religion.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a folk religion and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a folk religion, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a folk religion, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a folk religion, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a folk religion is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a folk religion and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a folk religion sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a folk religion, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a folk religion, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a folk religion is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What folk religion is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does folk religion take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of folk religion, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in folk religion and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of folk religion may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does folk religion have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a folk religion came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a folk religion and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a folk religion, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a folk religion, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a folk religion is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a folk religion is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a folk religion, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a folk religion, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a folk religion is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }