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But what is a thene? (Being countable implies discrete things/examples, perhaps it shouldn't be countable.) Mild inspiration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emic_and_etic_units
If I understand correctly, genes are an emic unit and alleles would be the corresponding etic units (since they are the concrete, reified variants of a gene).
Thus, Church One through Church Four would appear to be different surface representations of the thene that codes for “church as a social organization”. Not sure what to call such units though.
I do like the word. Thenetic disorders. Human Thenome Project. Epithenetics. Thenetic drift. Thenetic fallacy. The possibilities are endless.
In a community without widespread knowledge of genetics, or one like ours where most people learn genetics in school but compartmentalise it as dangerous knowledge only be used on biology exams, "family" or "blood" or "lineage" or equivalent is the emic unit and genes are an etic unit. To be emic, it has to be something that the community under discussion bellyfeels.
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