A person can be a member of more than one family, by marriage, for instance.
To outsiders, this won't affect their perception of his individuality
overmuch, but the "representatives" of the families themselves may perceive
radical differences according to their affiliation & disagree quite
fervently about the person's characteristics. It all depends on which
features you invest with significance (or, what's the figure & what's the
ground? For one family, the person's musicality would seem to be a salient
quality, to the other almost tiresomely supererogatory). But do families
matter?
Martin
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