What is your definition of a generation?

Question:

What is your definition of a generation?

We all know what a generation is, but can you define it exactly? For example, four friends at a table. One born in 1952, another born in 1963, the third born in 1971 and the fourth born in 1985.
How many generations d you see here? Surely there must be an overlap here somewhere. You could hardly say that the 1952 person is from the same generation as the one born in 1985, whereas the person in 1971 could arguably say she is in the same generation as the person from 1964, and also as the one from 1985. Or am I missing something here?

Your views and comments are all welcome.

thanks.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Ted Pack's definition that in genealogy a generation is on the same level of the family tree doesn't necessarily involve ages: for instance, two siblings could be members of the same generation genealogically speaking, but belong to completely different historical "generations", meaning approximately a time span of about 22 years. For example, their parents, John Smith and Mary Jones, ages 21 and 18 respectively, could marry in 1906, and the following year Mary could give birth to John Junior. John Junior if still alive today would be celebrating his 100th birthday. He would have come of age during the Roaring Twenties and fought in World War II. His children would now be collecting their Social Security checks. In 1929 on the eve of the Great Depression, Mary, now age 41, could have given birth to a child, Mary Evelyn (a very 20s name). Mary Evelyn is now about 78 and her children, Debbie and Bobby, are probably Baby Boomers, now in their mid-50s.

William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book "Generations" define seasonal cycles of history approximately equal to the span of a human life. All civilizations experience generational conflict brought about by crisis or turning points every 70 to 90 years, roughly the period of time it takes for an experienced older generation to die out and their descendants to forget the lessons they learned. The time period in which individuals live brings about certain personality characteristics (or so the theory holds).

Strauss and Howe list an Anglo/American cycle of generations since the late Middle Ages (about the time that accurate records first begin to appear documenting Middle or Merchant classes):

Generation / Type / Characteristics / Years Born

Late Medieval Saeculum (life span):
Arthurian / Hero (civic)/ rational / 1433-1460
Humanist / Artist / adaptive / 1461-1482

Reformation Saeculum (life span):
Reformation / Prophet / idealist / 1483-1511
Reprisal / Nomad / reactive / 1512-1540
Elizabethian / Hero (civic) / rational / 1541-1565
Parliamentarian/ Artist / adaptive / 1566-1587

New World Saeculum (life span):
Puritan / Prophet / idealist / 1588-1617
Cavalier / Nomad / reactive / 1618-1647
Glorious Rev. / Hero (civic)/ rational/ 1648-1673
Enlightenment/ Artist / adaptive / 1674-1700

Revolutionary Saeculum (life span):
Awakening / Prophet / idealist / 1701-1723
Liberty / Nomad/ reactive / 1724-1741
Republican / Hero (civic)/ rational/ 1742-1766
Compromise/ Artist / adaptive/ 1767-1791

Civil War Saeculum (life span):
Transcendental/ Prophet/ idealist / 1792-1821
Gilded / Nomad/ reactive / 1822-1842
Progressive / Artist / adaptive / 1843-1859

The American Civil War is such a catastrophic event that it disrupts this time sequence, deleting an heroic generation.

Great Power Saeculum (life span):
Missionary/ Prophet / idealist / 1860-1882
Lost Gen. / Nomad/ reactive / 1883-1900
G. I.or Great / Hero (civic) / rational/ 1901-1924
Silent / Artist / adaptive / 1925-1942

Millenium Saeculum (life span):
Boomers / Prophet / idealist/ 1943-1960
13th/Gen X/ Nomad/ reactive/ 1961-1981
Millenial or Gen Y / Hero (civic) rational/ 1982-2003
? / Artist/ adaptive / 2004--

Like in physics, for every action--and generation--there is an equal and opposite reaction:
Prophets or Idealists are born during civilization highs, live their adult years struggling with spritual and intellectual awakenings, live their midlife unraveling what they thought they knew, and spend their old ages in crisis. During World War II think Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, and coming of age between 1966 and 1970 think Hippies, George W. Bush, Hilary and Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Charles and Camilla.

Nomads: These cunning realists reacting against the idealism of an earlier generation. Think George Washington (1732) during the American Revolution, and much later Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson, followed by Lady Diana Spenser and Madonna.

Heroes: These rational institution builders are mid-life advocates of technological progress, economic prosperity, social harmony, and public optimism. Think Thomas Jefferson and John Paul Jones during the American Revolutionary, G. I. Joe, John F. Kennedy, and present-day young adults now serving in Iraq, recent college and high school graduates.

Artists: These iconoclasts argue for fairness, inclusion, and since they are creative types, they tie up loose ends. Think Martin Luther King, Elvis, James Dean, the Beatles, and much, much earlier the Romantics, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron. Shakespeare is off two-years being included in the "Artist" paradigm.

Turning ponts occur almost every life span. The last turning point was the Great Depression and World War II. Some generation-theorists hold that 9-11 was also a turning point.