How to be Human Lecture: Talkin' About My Generation

Why do US Americans find taxonomic stereotypes like horoscopes, MyerBriggs types, Harry Potter houses, and generations so pleasurable to think with? In this talk, Ilana Gershon, Professor of Anthropology, Rice University, will focus on generations, and in particular, workshops about multigenerational workplaces. Generations as a taxonomic stereotype function differently than race or gender. As Teri Silvio in Puppets, Brands, Gods has pointed out, taxonomic stereotypes -- stereotypes based on buckets of qualities -- operate according to very different principles than dyadic stereotypes -- or stereotypes based on binary oppositions. Part of why Americans find generations so appealing is that it enables a social analysis that links structural changes to personality traits that one can self-select as appropriate for oneself -- but also encourages a social analysis that allows people to sidestep the inequities and injustices of the dyadic stereotypes they live with on a daily basis. Part of why so many workshops spring up to teach taxonomic stereotypes is how readily they can be turned into templates for managing people as human capital.