{ "model": { "rank": 5575, "code": "thing-q27443", "model_id": "vr.tr.hunter-gatherer", "name": "hunter-gatherer", "purpose": "Let an agent explain the hunter-gatherer way of life and its diversity, describe contemporary and historical peoples respectfully in their own terms, distinguish ancient genetic population labels from living peoples, and present research and debates with attribution.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.STA", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q27443/", "tier": 2, "score": 66, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Himba people", "fowler", "Caucasian Hunter-Gatherer", "Western hunter-gatherer", "Eastern Hunter-Gatherer", "Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherer" ], "aliasCount": 6, "merged": 6, "knownIn": 66, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.hunter-gatherer", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q27443", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q27443", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T04:49:18Z", "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-Q27443", "registryId": "vr.tr.hunter-gatherer", "name": "hunter-gatherer", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.STA" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q27443/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.hunter-gatherer", "name": "hunter-gatherer", "purpose": "Let an agent explain the hunter-gatherer way of life and its diversity, describe contemporary and historical peoples respectfully in their own terms, distinguish ancient genetic population labels from living peoples, and present research and debates with attribution.", "definition": "A way of life in which people obtain food by hunting animals, fishing and gathering wild plants rather than by agriculture or herding, practised by all humans before the development of farming and continued today by some peoples who describe themselves in their own terms, and studied through ethnography, archaeology and ancient genomics, where labels such as Western, Eastern and Caucasian hunter-gatherers denote ancient genetic populations rather than living peoples.", "what_it_is_for": "Subsistence by hunting, fishing and gathering.", "affordances": [ "explain the way of life", "describe peoples respectfully", "distinguish genetic labels", "present research" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Wild food subsistence", "Mobility and diversity", "Deep prehistory", "Contemporary peoples" ], "appearance": "Not physical; a way of life.", "visual_identification": [ "Subsistence from wild resources", "Contemporary peoples, prehistory, ancient genetic populations", "Pastoralists herd animals; farmers cultivate; many peoples mix strategies" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "contemporary hunter-gatherer peoples", "prehistoric hunter-gatherers", "ancient genetic populations such as Western and Eastern hunter-gatherers", "fishing and fowling specialisations", "mixed subsistence societies" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "way of life", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "Indigenous peoples", "why": "many hunter-gatherer peoples are Indigenous" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "fishing", "why": "a subsistence activity" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "exploration", "why": "anthropological study of subsistence" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Indigenous rights frameworks", "Research ethics for ethnography and ancient DNA", "Land and hunting rights law" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Romanticising or primitivising peoples", "Confusing ancient genetic labels with living peoples", "Ignoring self-designations" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What the way of life is.", "rationale": "Anthropology.", "layers": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "Concept and diversity.", "findings": [ { "id": "concept-finding", "name": "Concept", "description": "Concept.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the hunter-gatherer way of life, and how diverse are its forms across environments?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is a living people, a prehistoric society or a genetic population meant?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "peoples", "name": "Peoples", "description": "Contemporary peoples.", "findings": [ { "id": "peoples-finding", "name": "Peoples", "description": "Peoples.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which contemporary peoples practise hunting and gathering, how do they describe themselves, and how do they engage with modern states?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation respectful and attributed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "prehistory", "name": "Prehistory", "description": "Prehistory and genetics.", "rationale": "Science.", "layers": [ { "id": "archaeology", "name": "Archaeology", "description": "Archaeology.", "findings": [ { "id": "archaeology-finding", "name": "Archaeology", "description": "Archaeology.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does archaeology reveal about prehistoric hunter-gatherers and the transition to farming?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the Neolithic transition?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "genetics", "name": "Genetics", "description": "Ancient genetic populations.", "findings": [ { "id": "genetics-finding", "name": "Genetics", "description": "Genetics.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do labels such as Western, Eastern, Scandinavian and Caucasian hunter-gatherers mean in ancient genomics, and how should they be distinguished from living peoples?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which findings are contested?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "society", "name": "Society", "description": "Rights and debates.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "rights", "name": "Rights", "description": "Rights.", "findings": [ { "id": "rights-finding", "name": "Rights", "description": "Rights.", "questions": [ { "text": "What rights issues affect hunter-gatherer peoples today, including land and hunting rights, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "debates", "name": "Debates", "description": "Anthropological debates.", "findings": [ { "id": "debates-finding", "name": "Debates", "description": "Debates.", "questions": [ { "text": "What debates exist about egalitarianism, affluence and the category itself, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits anthropology?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "Research and teaching.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "research", "name": "Research", "description": "Research ethics.", "findings": [ { "id": "research-finding", "name": "Research", "description": "Research.", "questions": [ { "text": "What ethical standards govern research with hunter-gatherer peoples and their ancestors?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can hunter-gatherer societies be taught without stereotypes?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should specific peoples be separate entries?", "How should ethnographic resources be linked?", "How should ancient DNA population labels be presented?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "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 hunter-gatherer, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain the hunter-gatherer way of life and its diversity, describe contemporary and historical peoples respectfully in their own terms, distinguish ancient genetic population labels from living peoples, and present research and debates with attribution.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Himba people, fowler, Caucasian Hunter-Gatherer, Western hunter-gatherer, Eastern Hunter-Gatherer, Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherer.", "6 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 66 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 hunter-gatherer, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "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. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "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": [ "Himba people", "fowler", "Caucasian Hunter-Gatherer", "Western hunter-gatherer", "Eastern Hunter-Gatherer", "Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherer" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 66 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 6 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 hunter-gatherer from another, and a hunter-gatherer 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 hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer 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 hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer 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 hunter-gatherer 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 hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer 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 hunter-gatherer from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer 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 hunter-gatherer 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 hunter-gatherer between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer 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 hunter-gatherer, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a hunter-gatherer 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 hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What hunter-gatherer is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of hunter-gatherer are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is hunter-gatherer operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of hunter-gatherer and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of hunter-gatherer?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as hunter-gatherer?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a hunter-gatherer 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 hunter-gatherer and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer 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 hunter-gatherer is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer, 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 hunter-gatherer is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }