Generation (from the Latin generāre, meaning “to beget”), also known as procreation in biological sciences, is the act of producing offspring.
In kinship terminology it is a structural term designating the parent-child relationship. The term is also often used synonymously with cohort in social science, even though some researchers believe that this usage is misleading; under this formulation the term means “people within a delineated population who experience the same significant event within a given period of time.” Generation in this sense of birth cohort is widely used in popular culture, and has been the basis for much social analysis.
Generational development can be both dependent upon cultural as well as circumstantial consequences. Society can influence the years between generations as can unforeseen situations. It is important to distinguish between familial and cultural generations. Some define a familial generation as the average time between a mother’s first offspring and…