Concepts of existence: Greek origins of generational thought.

Abstract

What marks a generation? When the term categorizes a group of people unre lated by blood, the critical criteria defining a generation are endlessly variable, from the nearly meaningless numerical division by decades (the sixties genera tion, for example) the mutual participation in a specific event as profound as Vietnam or as trivial as drinking Pepsi-Cola. Age itself may mark a generation, with specific physical characteristics (gray beard and stooped posture) or behav ioral patterns (as in Gibbon's brisk intemperance of youth) providing the de finitive signals. But our most secure standard for defining a generation rests on the Greek root of the word, genos, whose basic meaning is reflected in the verb genesthai, to come into existence; until 1961 the first definition of the word in Webster's unabridged dictionary1 was still procreation. That moment when a child is born simultaneously produces a new generation separating parent and offspring?gonos ergo genos?and the very concept educes the paradox of an ever shifting threshold in time.

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