Should we rename our country tags to be cultural tags?

Question

We have several country or location tags - e.g. india, russia - as an attempt to get questions to specify what culture they're from, because cultural norms are inherently relevant to interpersonal issues.

But we also encourage using these tags when it's not taking place in, e.g., India, but those involved in the situation described in the question are of that culture.

So the point of these tags is not the location, but culture.

Would it make sense to rename these tags to focus on the cultural influence at play, rather than the location? Knowing that all people involved are Chinese is going to be much more helpful than the fact that it's taking place in New York... although that's certainly relevant as well.

So instead of tagging a question india, the question would be tagged indian-culture.

Would this be less ambiguous and more reflective of how these tags are supposed to be used?

Answer 1

Should we rename our country tags to be cultural tags?

I'd say no. But you raise a very good point IMO.

The location AND the culture can be (are?) important.

I don't think we can answer the question the same way if we have:

1. Indian culture in Bombay.
2. Indian culture in Atlanta (Georgia - USA).
3. Indian culture in Valencia (Spain - Europe).

Or even Indian Culture if you're [ European / Chinese / South American ] living in Bombay.

So, I believe that it's important to ask OP to clarify, using comments.

We could keep the india tag and create the indian-culture then use the most relevant. And even use the cross-culture tag. Make use of any combination of relevant tags if needed.

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Here's an exemple of "mixed / cross-culture" where location and culture are different and both are needed, or, at least, would help: cashier / India - USA

EDIT: another exemple kosher food / Israel - Russia

Answer 2

I personally don't think so - as far as I'm aware we're already largely basing the use of these tags on culture itself, as shown in this meta question and answer. I feel that actually these locations tags do represent cultural regions rather than the geographical regions we've given them the names of. As you can see, we have separate tags for united-kingdom and india because they are vastly different in terms of culture, but as also have latin-america because those countries are often of the same cultural opinion.

In addition, if we look at the tag bio for each of these countries (which should be all the same as I spent many an hour making sure they all had one):

Questions that have a specific focus on people in India, or Indian culture.

All the tags already refer to the tag being used for culture, as well as the people living there, and as long as we bear this in mind for the future, I don't feel there's much need to go around and rename every single tag just for technicalities.

We already use these tags for cultural purposes, I say we should leave them as they are. Unless we start running into issues of people not reading the tab bio properly, that is.

Answer 3

But we also encourage using these tags when it's not taking place in, e.g., India, but those involved in the situation described in the question are of that culture.

So the point of these tags is not the location, but culture.

That is a good point. I say yes, rename the country tags to be culture tags.

The main reason why the country tags exist is for the answerers to deduce the culture from it. When a question is tagged with india, then the answerer knows that his answer should account for the indian culture. Whether the OP is located in India or somewhere else is less important but can/should still be mentioned in the question!