On Tue, Feb 18, 2014 at 8:40 AM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Why do you want categories rather than structured data about gender,
religion, and race?
Because that structured data would embody even stronger assumptions that
the current categorisation system? Gender, religion and race are
self-defined on en.wiki; you'd have to get the data first and then prove
that your structure didn't contradict any of the self-definitions.
Coming from a Western, English-language point of view it's very easy to
create structures that declare groups of people such as fa'afafine
incapable of existing. At least with the categories that we have at the
moment we have substantial room for local redefinition of terms.
A great example of this is the perennial proposal to import biographical
details from some library system (usually the *Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
one*), when they have a different definition of gender to en.wikipedia.
cheers
stuart