Generation Watch

  
Generation Watch
News and Views of America's Living Generations

 
 
BACKGROUND ON GENERATIONAL THEORY

THE THEORY - THE SAECULUM

ARCHETYPES

A generation is composed of people whose common location in history lends them a collective persona.  The span of one generation is roughly the length of a phase of life.  Generations come in four archetypes, always in the same order, whose phase-of-life positions comprise a constellation.

  • The Prophet archetype is born in a High, enters young adulthood in an Awakening, midlife in an Unraveling, and elderhood in a Crisis. 
  • The Nomad archetype is born in an Awakening, enters young adulthood in an Unraveling, midlife in a Crisis, and elderhood in a High. 
  • The Hero archetype is born in an Unraveling, enters young adulthood in a Crisis, midlife in a High, and elderhood in an Awakening. 
  • The Artist archetype is born in a Crisis, enters young adulthood in a High, midlife in an Awakening, and elderhood in an Unraveling.

 

Click here for a table showing correspondences of the archetypes.

To learn more about generations, visit www.fourthturning.com.
Current ages of the living generations
Lost 106+
G.I. 82-106
Silent 64-82
Boomer 46-64
Gen-X 25-46
Millennial ?-25
Homeland ?


Millennial Saeculum
High 1946-1964
Awakening 1964-1984
Unraveling 1984-?
Crisis ?-

   

From The Fourth Turning, William Strauss and Neil Howe, copyright 1996 Broadway Books.
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