{ "model": { "rank": 10492, "code": "thing-q756820", "model_id": "vr.tr.cult", "name": "cult", "purpose": "Let an agent explain cult in its religious studies sense, relay ancient and Christian forms and theological distinctions from religious studies sources with attribution, describe the named cults, note the separate pejorative sense and point people concerned about coercive groups to support organisations, and distinguish cult from religion, sect, new religious movement and personality cult.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.ACT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q756820/", "tier": 2, "score": 44, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "ruler cult", "cult of saints", "cult of Athena", "cult of Zeus", "hero cult", "hyperdulia", "cargo cult", "mortuary cult", "religious heritage", "litholatry", "demonolatry", "Christolatry", "death and cult of the dead in ancient Greece" ], "aliasCount": 13, "merged": 13, "knownIn": 44, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q756820", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q756820", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T22:21:40Z", "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": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q756820", "registryId": "vr.tr.cult", "name": "cult", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.ACT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q756820/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.cult", "name": "cult", "purpose": "Let an agent explain cult in its religious studies sense, relay ancient and Christian forms and theological distinctions from religious studies sources with attribution, describe the named cults, note the separate pejorative sense and point people concerned about coercive groups to support organisations, and distinguish cult from religion, sect, new religious movement and personality cult.", "definition": "In religious studies, the system of veneration, rites and devotion directed toward a particular deity, saint, hero or ruler, the original and neutral sense of cult from Latin cultus, care or worship, including ancient cults of Athena and Zeus, hero cults, ruler cults such as the Roman imperial cult, and the Christian cult of saints, with Catholic theology distinguishing latria owed to God, dulia given to saints and hyperdulia given to the Virgin Mary; in modern popular usage cult also names high-control groups, a contested pejorative that many scholars avoid in favour of new religious movement. The model keeps these senses distinct and attributes characterisations.", "what_it_is_for": "Understanding veneration practices.", "affordances": [ "explain the religious studies sense", "relay ancient and Christian forms", "describe named cults and distinctions", "note the pejorative sense with attribution" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Veneration focus", "Rites and places", "Neutral academic sense", "Pejorative modern sense" ], "appearance": "Not a single appearance; seen in temples, shrines, relics, festivals and rites.", "visual_identification": [ "System of veneration toward a figure", "Ruler cult, cult of saints, cult of Athena, cult of Zeus, hero cult, hyperdulia", "Religion is broader; sects split from traditions; new religious movement is the scholarly term for newer groups; personality cults are political" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "Latin root", "typical_range": "cultus, care or worship", "unit": "note", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "Catholic distinctions", "typical_range": "latria, dulia, hyperdulia", "unit": "list", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "Roman imperial cult", "typical_range": "from Augustus", "unit": "note", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "cults of deities", "hero cults", "ruler and imperial cults", "cult of saints and relics", "Marian devotion" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "spiritual practice", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "imperial cult", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "new religious movement", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "cult of personality", "why": "" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Freedom of religion laws", "Catholic canon law on veneration" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Using the pejorative sense without attribution", "Disrespectful framing of devotion", "Conflating senses" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What cult means here.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a cult in religious studies, and how does it differ from religion, sect, new religious movement and personality cult?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about ancient worship, saints, or concern about a coercive group, where support organisations and authorities can help?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "forms", "name": "Forms", "description": "Named forms.", "findings": [ { "id": "forms-finding", "name": "Forms", "description": "Forms.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are ruler cults, the cult of saints, cults of Athena and Zeus, hero cults and hyperdulia?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific cult?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ancient", "name": "Ancient", "description": "Ancient cults.", "rationale": "Sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "greek", "name": "Greek", "description": "Greek cults.", "findings": [ { "id": "greek-finding", "name": "Greek", "description": "Greek.", "questions": [ { "text": "How were Athena, Zeus and heroes worshipped in Greek cities?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "ruler", "name": "Ruler cults", "description": "Ruler cults.", "findings": [ { "id": "ruler-finding", "name": "Ruler cults", "description": "Ruler cults.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did Hellenistic and Roman ruler cults work?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "christian", "name": "Christian", "description": "Christian veneration.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "saints", "name": "Saints", "description": "Cult of saints.", "findings": [ { "id": "saints-finding", "name": "Saints", "description": "Saints.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did the cult of saints and relics develop in late antiquity?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits veneration of saints?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "distinctions", "name": "Distinctions", "description": "Latria and dulia.", "findings": [ { "id": "distinctions-finding", "name": "Distinctions", "description": "Distinctions.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does Catholic theology distinguish latria, dulia and hyperdulia, and how do Protestant traditions view them, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral and attributed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Modern usage.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "pejorative", "name": "Pejorative", "description": "Pejorative usage.", "findings": [ { "id": "pejorative-finding", "name": "Pejorative", "description": "Pejorative.", "questions": [ { "text": "Why do many scholars avoid cult as a label for groups, and what debates exist, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits new religious movement?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "coercion", "name": "Coercive control", "description": "Coercive groups.", "findings": [ { "id": "coercion-finding", "name": "Coercive control", "description": "Coercive control.", "questions": [ { "text": "What resources exist for people leaving high-control groups?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits coercive control?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should the pejorative sense be a separate entry?", "How should religious studies sources be linked?", "Should hyperdulia be moved to Marian veneration entries?" ], "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 cult, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain cult in its religious studies sense, relay ancient and Christian forms and theological distinctions from religious studies sources with attribution, describe the named cults, note the separate pejorative sense and point people concerned about coercive groups to support organisations, and distinguish cult from religion, sect, new religious movement and personality cult.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: ruler cult, cult of saints, cult of Athena, cult of Zeus, hero cult, hyperdulia, cargo cult, mortuary cult, religious heritage, litholatry, demonolatry, Christolatry.", "13 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 44 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 cult, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "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": [ "ruler cult", "cult of saints", "cult of Athena", "cult of Zeus", "hero cult", "hyperdulia", "cargo cult", "mortuary cult", "religious heritage", "litholatry", "demonolatry", "Christolatry" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 44 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 13 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 cult from another, and a cult 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 cult, 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 cult, 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 cult 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 cult, 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 cult, 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 cult 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 cult 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 cult, 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 cult, 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 cult 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 cult from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a cult, 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 cult, 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 cult 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 cult 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 cult between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a cult, 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 cult, 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 cult 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 cult, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a cult 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 cult, 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 cult, 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 cult is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a cult proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a cult, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a cult and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a cult, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a cult, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a cult is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a cult consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a cult takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a cult, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a cult, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a cult 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 cult 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 cult 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 cult 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 cult 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 cult?", "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 cult?", "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 cult 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 cult and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a cult, 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 cult, 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 cult 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 cult is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a cult, 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 cult, 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 cult 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 } } } }