RE: [huml-comment] PC-33 -Section 4.4.6-race

[Ranjeeth Kumar Thunga <rkthunga@humanmarkup.org>]

I do remember that there was a distinction between sex and gender.

Sex: biological
Gender: cultural

"Gender" is accounted for separately, but then "sex" seems appropriate
for me to be included within physical descriptors...in addition.

(Was it mentioned at one point, maybe on our discussion list, there were
7 different anthropologically defined "genders"?)

Ranjeeth Kumar Thunga


-----Original Message-----
From: Bullard, Claude L (Len) [mailto:clbullar@ingr.com] 
Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 2:01 PM
To: 'dennis.hamilton@acm.org'; humanmarkup-comment@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [huml-comment] PC-33 -Section 4.4.6-race


From: Dennis E. Hamilton [mailto:dennis.hamilton@acm.org]

>That's a big step from a measurable physical characteristic.  Is this 
>going to be added to the specification?

It would depend on the codelist.  And that is application dependent.
It's 
a good point though; race is probably not a physical characteristic
until 
it is enumerated further or measurable.  On the other hand, it can be a 
a simple codelist for an observation and all the user does is pick from 
the list.   Here is the standard codelist one finds in many public
safety 
applications.  It is itself, specified by a standard as many codelists 
are:

RACE A = Asian B = Black I = Indian W = White U = Unknown 

One could probably take an average individual, give them an 
average group, and they would select among these choices 
correctly a reasonable number of times for some values of 
"correct" and "reasonable".  What is done with these values 
once recorded is a separate issue, not of insignificant 
concern but not of concern in the primary.

>PS: How is it that gender is not reflected as a physical characteristic

>in the Human ML scheme of things?

Oversight.

SEX  M = Male F = Female U = Unknown 

Every now and then, there is an argument to change that to "gender" 
but most forms use "sex" and don't quibble.

len

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