User:Fylindfotberserk/sandbox

Why I am not in favor of sorting based on "Population"

The word Population has multiple meanings when it comes to South Asians. For others it means "ethnolinguistic" groups and thus can be much more easily sorted alphabetically. South Asians have complex social stratification. Genetic tests have been done on the basis of Castes, Sub-Castes, Tribes, Clans, Religion, Language-families, Zones, States, Districts, Countries, etc. How is it reasonable to bring together e.g. Marathas(an ethnic group), Marathi Brahmin(a caste), Marathi Konkanastha Brahmin(a sub-caste), Marathi Tribals, Marathi Muslims when they belong to separate tiers on top of that we have entries like New Delhi(a city), India(West)(a zone), Hindus, Indo Aryan Low Castes, Sri Lanka(country) adding to the confusion. A reader ignorant of South Asian society might think Marathi and Marathi Brahmin to be separate "populations".
There's a lot of ambiguity in some entries/sources. e.g Rajput, Chamar, Maharashtra Brahmins, Andhra Tribals are ambiguous groups since they have sub-groups and are multi-regional. We don't know from which specific ethnic group the samples have been taken. It is important because researches sometimes are revised and they sometimes refer to older papers. What if the name of sample population change in the new edition or in a newer research? As an example, Underhill 2009 referred some data from Battaglia et al. 2008. But it changed the name of some sample populations.
If we sort (Indian Shia, Iranian Shia, Shia), (Madhya Pradesh Gonds (India), Uttar Pradesh (South) Gonds (India), Gujarat Bhils) or (Sunni vs Indian Sunni) together, the table wouldn't look alphabetically sorted defeating the whole purpose. I've explained that in the talk page.
It is extremely tedious to put "Populations" Manually Alphabetically into table down to the last alphabet especially if the "Referenced Scholarly Article" has high number of Sampled groups and most of the time, the papers don't arrange sampled groups alphabetically in their tables.
There seems no rule on how we should sort a table as per WP:SORT, so I don't see a need to consider other tables as a Standard for this table when there are a lot difference between them.

So either we get ethical and build an "All Encompassing" table with columns like Country, Caste, Tribe, Region which will only make our work cumbersome and future edits more difficult. Or we can sort as per Time of Publication and rid us of unnecessary hassles like this. After all, the sources are mostly primary and it is better to represent them as it is as per WP:PSTS.

Why I am in favor of sorting based on "Time of Publication"

It is easier to put new research data into(based on year), easier to put whole tables almost as it is from the published sources, easier to put missed data into as it is(based on research) and is easier to refer to this article if it is based on month/year. And yes, I believe most readers have basic know how of genetic researches.
It is much easier to cross verify entries with the source data.
The table is sortable, alphabetic sorting is just one click away. There is no need to make it permanent when it has all the problems I listed above.