Grandparents and Grandchildren in The Simpsons Intergenerational Rupture and Prefigurative Culture

Abstract

As a television series that hasbeenrunningfor over a quarter of a century, and that has family relationships at his heart, The Simpsonsprovides a unique case study to explore the connection between childhood and old age in American popular culture. In this chapter, we interprettheintergenerational relationships in The Simpsons,specifically those between grandchildren and grandparents,as an instanceof"prefigurativeculture" a conceptintroduced by Margaret Mead in her classic work Culture and Commitment(1978), where she contrasts it withso-called "postfigurative culture,"where changes are gradual and slow. Whenthe technological paradigm for subsistence tends to reproduceitselfwithout significant changes overtime,when the community is not under the control of another community with different rulesorwhen there are no drastic ecological changes, accumulated experience throughout the generations is validated as common knowledge for a specific society(Mead, Culture76). As a consequence, power relations in such postfigurative cultures center around those who have the most accumulated experience and whose knowledge is hence associated with more legitimacy. Indeed, in postfigurativecultures, the oldest people, the elderly, are respected for the knowledge that has been gathered in their own,relatively long life and accumulated through various generations. The more a society relies on spoken language to pass on its knowledge, the more it will depend on the memory of its old people to bring it up to date. In contrast, access to written sources makes it possible for anyone with the requisitepolitical or reading competences to refer to past sources.As such, Mead argues, in prefigurativecultures, the monopoly of knowledge no longer lies in the hands of the elderly.Meadraises the expectation that in postfigurativecultures,the elderly are lovedand revered. The old people, asadults who represent accumulatedknowledge,are consulted and obeyed. An asymmetry arises that is not necessarily based on domination but rather relies on collective certainty. The young no longer want to be young: it is in adulthood and old age where the most exalted values are to be found. The first years are a phase marked by the perception of lack. Childhood, adolescence and youth are defined by the absence of maturity, knowledge and experience, among 2others; absences that the mere passing of time will solve. The children simply have to wait (and prepare themselves) to become adults. This does not mean that the power of the elderly cannot be questioned. In Cultureand Commitment,Mead notes thatat certain times, young people may try to displace the old people from their powerful position. However, due to the postfigurativenature of their own cultural background, these young people do not contribute elements(whether technological or political)that help solve the problems of the present more efficiently than the traditional way. They cannot separate themselves from theinherited traditions thatthey share with the old people who they try to supplant in the exercise of power. In this sense, such rebellions, in fact, consolidate the existingcriteria ofpowerand confirm that seniorcitizens are most competent to rule.In postfigurative cultures, education is understood as intergenerational interchangein broad terms, not only schooling.Emile Durkheim defines education as "the influence exercised by adult generations on those thatare not yet ready for social life. Its object is to develop in the child a certain number of physical, intellectual and moral states which are demanded of him by both the political society as a whole and the special milieu for which he is specifically destined."(237)As this definition makes clear, intergenerational transmission depends on the conservation of a tradition in which old people are active ambassadorsandthe youngare passive recipients until they grow old and assume the position which theirelders pass down. A problem arises when the asymmetric and lineal modelthat ischaracteristic of postfigurativecultures (including the theoretical educational models based on Durkheim´s definition) is applied to cultural models where violent and constant technological development, ecological changes and/or migrationhave led to a decline of the adult-centered monopoly of knowledge.