{ "model": { "rank": 2097, "code": "thing-q41710", "model_id": "vr.tr.ethnic-group", "name": "ethnic group", "purpose": "Let an agent handle ethnic groups respectfully by self-identification, language, population and rights, using community names and sourced data.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q41710/", "tier": 2, "score": 115, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Southeast Asians", "indigenous peoples in Ecuador", "Lost Canadians", "North Halmahera peoples", "Karo Batak pople", "Waranka", "Ginting Suka", "confessional community", "ethnoreligious group", "El", "Bajo", "diaspora or migration by origin and host country", "ethnic community", "ethnic minorities in Czechoslovakia", "Smasside", "ethnic minority group", "ethnic groups in Taiwan", "Nature people", "Atyap subgroups and clans", "ethnic group by settlement in Macedonia", "ethnic groups in Nigeria", "agricultural people", "De'Aruhuä", "Refugee indigenous peoples", "ethnonational group", "Rugii", "ethnic groups in New Caledonia", "ethnic groups in Bhutan", "West Sudanese peoples", "ethnic minorities in Azerbaijan", "ethnic groups in Pakistan", "individual ethnic group", "ethnic groups in Hungary", "ethnic groups in Mauritania", "ethnic groups in Mozambique", "ethnic groups in Europe", "pastoral people", "unreached people group", "itinerant groups of Europe", "Finnish tribes" ], "aliasCount": 85, "merged": 85, "knownIn": 115, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.ethnic-group", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q41710", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q41710", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T07:15:41Z", "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": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q41710", "registryId": "vr.tr.ethnic-group", "name": "ethnic group", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q41710/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.ethnic-group", "name": "ethnic group", "purpose": "Let an agent handle ethnic groups respectfully by self-identification, language, population and rights, using community names and sourced data.", "definition": "A group of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes such as ancestry, language, culture, history, religion or homeland, as distinct from other groups.", "what_it_is_for": "Recognising shared identity, culture and heritage.", "affordances": [ "learn about a group from its own sources", "use preferred names", "cite census data with definitions", "protect minority rights" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Shared identity and heritage", "Self-defined", "Boundaries fluid and contested", "Distinct from race and nationality" ], "appearance": "Not defined by appearance; identity is self-defined and cultural.", "visual_identification": [ "Self-identification", "Language and cultural markers", "Census categories differ by country" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "national majorities", "ethnic minorities", "Indigenous peoples", "diaspora communities", "regional and subgroup identities" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "population group", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "shares", "target": "language and culture", "why": "attributes" }, { "relation": "is protected by", "target": "minority rights law", "why": "law" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "race and nationality", "why": "concepts" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities", "UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples", "National census standards" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Using exonyms considered offensive", "Stereotyping", "Unsourced population figures" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity", "name": "Identity", "description": "Which group.", "rationale": "Identity is self-defined.", "layers": [ { "id": "names", "name": "Names", "description": "Self-designation.", "findings": [ { "id": "names-finding", "name": "Names", "description": "Names.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does the group call itself?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which names are outdated or offensive?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "markers", "name": "Markers", "description": "Language and culture.", "findings": [ { "id": "markers-finding", "name": "Markers", "description": "Shared attributes.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which language, culture or history is shared?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "According to community sources?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "population", "name": "Population", "description": "Numbers and places.", "rationale": "Figures need definitions.", "layers": [ { "id": "numbers", "name": "Numbers", "description": "Census data.", "findings": [ { "id": "numbers-finding", "name": "Numbers", "description": "Population.", "questions": [ { "text": "How many people identify with the group, according to which census?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "How is identity recorded?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "distribution", "name": "Distribution", "description": "Where.", "findings": [ { "id": "distribution-finding", "name": "Distribution", "description": "Distribution.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where do members live?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is there a diaspora?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "rights", "name": "Rights", "description": "Minority protection.", "rationale": "Rights protect groups.", "layers": [ { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Legal status.", "findings": [ { "id": "law-finding", "name": "Law", "description": "Legal status.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the group recognised as a minority or Indigenous people?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What rights follow?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "concerns", "name": "Concerns", "description": "Rights bodies.", "findings": [ { "id": "concerns-finding", "name": "Concerns", "description": "Rights concerns.", "questions": [ { "text": "Have rights bodies raised concerns about treatment of the group?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which bodies?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "culture", "name": "Culture", "description": "Heritage.", "rationale": "Culture is living.", "layers": [ { "id": "heritage", "name": "Heritage", "description": "Traditions.", "findings": [ { "id": "heritage-finding", "name": "Heritage", "description": "Heritage.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which traditions are central?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How are they safeguarded?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "language", "name": "Language", "description": "Vitality.", "findings": [ { "id": "language-finding", "name": "Language", "description": "Language vitality.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the heritage language still spoken?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "Are there revitalisation efforts?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "How should self-designations be prioritised?", "How should census categories be linked?", "How should contested identities be represented?" ], "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 ethnic group, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent handle ethnic groups respectfully by self-identification, language, population and rights, using community names and sourced data.", "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: Southeast Asians, indigenous peoples in Ecuador, Lost Canadians, North Halmahera peoples, Karo Batak pople, Waranka, Ginting Suka, confessional community, ethnoreligious group, El, Bajo, diaspora or migration by origin and host country.", "85 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 115 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 ethnic group, 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": [ "Southeast Asians", "indigenous peoples in Ecuador", "Lost Canadians", "North Halmahera peoples", "Karo Batak pople", "Waranka", "Ginting Suka", "confessional community", "ethnoreligious group", "El", "Bajo", "diaspora or migration by origin and host country" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 115 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 85 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 ethnic group from another, and a ethnic group 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a ethnic group, 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a ethnic group, 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a ethnic group 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group.", "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 ethnic group and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a ethnic group, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a ethnic group, 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a ethnic group sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a ethnic group, 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a ethnic group, 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group 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 ethnic group is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a ethnic group, 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 ethnic group, 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 ethnic group 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 } } } }