Taxonomies

[ladislav]

There is such a term as “taxonomy” which is a system of classifying things. In this case, human beings. And these taxonomies vary with location, culture, political system, religion and most importantly, the language in which they are being expressed.

Also, is it official or non-official?

Confused yet? Let me explain:

Let’s take the most well known system in the English language, the American one. In it, originally you have races: white, black, Asian, American Indian, etc. These are broad categories.

Then, you have the next break down which is ethnicities which basically refers mostly to “ where did your ancestors come from?”. So, people say, “I am half German and half Irish”. “I am mostly Mexican with some Italian mixed in. “ I am Puerto Rican”. It may be official or non official.

And then you have the nationality which ideally means: “of what country are you a citizen? “

But it’s all screwed up most of the time.

The system is always changing, and is not followed strictly by the people. Some will say they are black by ethnicity. Some will say “ My nationality is Irish “ ( but he is not an Irish citizen and has never been there). Some will say that “ he is Hispanic by race”.

Place of birth outside of the USA makes one a foreigner or immigrant until death. At least informally. Even if he has a US nationality.

In other words, it is fluid and non consistent.

Are you with me yet?

Then, you have other countries which would classify people in another language.

And their taxonomy would be totally different. For example, in Thailand, they have ‘ samchat’ which is citizenship ( nationality) and they have “ chuachat” which means ethnicity. And then, they have “ pan” which is race. “ Pan” is almost never used at all. Instead, people would just call others by citizenship and by ethnicity. A Thai citizen who is of Chinese parents will have Thai citizenship but Chinese ethnicity, but his children will be Thai in both. And this is just an example of one country out of some 200 countries.

In France, for example, there is nothing official except one thing: is a person a French citizen or not? Meaning is his nationality French or not French? No race or ethnicity exists officially. Place of birth is also immaterial. But of course, out on the streets, people will see someone who looks or sounds different and informally label him as this or that.

In Arab countries, two distinctions are made: citizenship and religion. Nothing else is marked formally. There is a word “ uruk” which means “ race” but it is rarely used and not used officially. “ Ethnicity” is almost never used even though some dictionary words exist. Then, in some countries, last names indicate a tribe, but it is not written anywhere

And so it goes. In 200 countries speaking 7000 different languages, people are classified differently. This will warrant an interesting study.