A state of creative decline. Derived from archaeology, the term in its strictest sense describes excavations that over time reveal stylistic repetition rather than variation in artifacts such as pottery. In his 1948 text Anthropology, A. L. Kroeber intrepreted it more liberally, arguing that "this principle seems to apply almost equally to aesthetic activities, to intellectual ones, to politico-military or national fortunes, and even to major economic achievements." More recently, anthropologist Steve Barnett has used the term to characterize Douglas Coupland's Generation X and the playing out of patterns in postmodernism. This wider definition might apply to everything from the rediscovery of Halston to the current chic of magazine redesign.
- William O. Goggins Thanks to Gregory A. Finnegan of Harvard's Tozzer Library and Steve Barnett, director of consumer strategic development at Citibank.
IDEES FORTES
Pattern Exhaustion
