Title

Descent-line, Life-line and Generation

Description

Cleverly concealed behind the apparently innocent graph of the line of descent is an assumption that persons are brought into being – that is, generated – independently and in advance of their entry into the lifeworld, through the bestowal of a set of ready-made attributes from their antecedents. This assumption lies at the very core of the genealogical model, and all its remaining features can be derived from it. In particular, it implies that the generation of persons is not a life process. On the contrary, life and growth are conceived as the enactment of identities, or the realisation of potentials, that are already in place. It is descent, the passing down of the components of being underwriting one life-cycle to the site of inauguration of another, that generates persons. Thus the genealogical model, in separating out the generation of persons from their life in the world, also splits the descent-line from the life-line. In so doing it establishes the conventional notion of the generation, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘offspring of the same parent regarded as a step in a line of descent from an ancestor’. Whereas life goes on within each generation, descent crosses from one generation to the next in a cumulative, step-by-step sequence.
With each new generation, those preceding it regress ever further into the past. Life, however, is lived in the present. Thus the present is set over against the past along the lines of generational succession and replacement.

Designer

Ingold, Tim

Date

2000

Source

The perception of the environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill.

Bibliographic Citation

Ingold, Tim. (2000). The perception of the environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. Routledge.

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use feature

English Brace