Scope note

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An instance of membership status is the collective ascription of a membership relationship between an actor and some group by a community. The substance of the membership status is the communal recognition of the ascribed membership relation between the actor and the group in question.

Instances of membership status are recognizable through evidence of community members adopting the intentional stance  and behaviour indicated as proper to this relation, as observable from direct witnesses, through the reports of competent observers or through evidence of a declarative act [e.g.: ZE22 Declarative Joining] initiating this status.

Instances of membership status may come to be through a formal process such as a declarative act of declarative joining or may have arisen through habit, fiat or be of unknown origin. Instances of membership status may end either though a formal process [e.g.: ZE23 Declarative Leaving], or may simply fade out, be eliminated by fiat or for unknown reasons. 

Language

en