23
STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM The dominant theoretical paradigm of the British school of social anthropology, 1930– 1955. Associated with the theoretical writings of A. R. Radcliffe- Brown in Structure and function in primitive A. R. Radcliffe-Brown 1881- 1955

STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM

  • Upload
    giona

  • View
    146

  • Download
    2

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM. The dominant theoretical paradigm of the British school of social anthropology, 1930–1955. Associated with the theoretical writings of A. R. Radcliffe-Brown in Structure and function in primitive society. A. R. Radcliffe-Brown 1881-1955. A.R . Radcliffe-Brown. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Citation preview

Page 1: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM

The dominant theoretical paradigm of the British school of social anthropology, 1930–1955.

Associated with the theoretical writings of A. R. Radcliffe-Brown in Structure and function in primitive society

A. R. Radcliffe-Brown 1881-1955

Page 2: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

A.R. Radcliffe-Brown• Born: Alfred Reginald Brown• Birmingham, England, 1881• Family of modest means• Last of three children• Had tuberculosis--left his lungs impaired

• In 1926 he added his mother's maiden name to his own, becoming famous as A. R. Radcliffe-Brown.

2

Page 3: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Education• King Edward’s High School in Birmingham and Trinity

College, Cambridge

• Turn of the century important developments in field of philosophy and in anthropology

• Radcliffe- Brown spent the years 1906-1908 in Andaman Islands

• His fellowship for Trinity College was a reconstruction of Andamanese culture history

Page 4: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Andaman Islanders

Page 5: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Andaman Islands

Page 6: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Influences• French Sociologists:•Durkheim•Mauss in particular

• Thereafter was concerned primarily with the meaning and function of rites, myths, and institutions

Page 7: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Career•Most of working life spent outside England. • He held chairs of social anthropology at:• Cape Town, 1920-1925 • Sydney, 1925-1931 • Chicago, 1931-1937 • Oxford, 1937-1946

• Visiting professor at Yenching, China in 1935 and• Sao Paulo, Brazil from 1942 to 1944.

Page 8: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Career• After retirement from Oxford:

• Professor of social science and director of Institute of Social Studies at Farouk University, Alexandria, Egypt from 1947 to 1949

• Later held special appointment at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, from 1951 to 1954.

Page 9: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

• “I conceive of social anthropology as the theoretical natural science of human society, • the investigation of social phenomena by methods

essentially similar to those used in the physical & biological sciences.

• While I have defined social anthropology as the study of human society, there are some who define it as the study of culture.

• It might be thought that this difference is of minor importance.

• Actually it leads to two different kinds of study” 9

Page 10: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

• “In a hive of bees there are the relations of association of the queen, the workers & the drones. • These are social phenomenon; I do not suppose

that anyone will call them cultural phenomena.

• Let us consider what are the concrete, observable facts with which the social anthropologist is concerned. • We can observe the acts of behavior of these

individuals. • We do not observe a culture since that word is but

an abstraction. • I use the term “social structure” to denote this

network of actually existing relations” 10

Page 11: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Biopsychological Functionalism or “Needs” Functionalism (Malinowski)

Structural Functionalism (Radcliffe-Brown)

Exchange Functionalism (Mauss)

Page 12: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Malinowski•Biopsychological Functionalism or “Needs” Functionalism

•Society meets the needs of individuals

Page 13: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Marcel Mauss: Exchange Functionalism

• Emile Durkheim’s nephew•Classic work The Gift, Mauss argued

that gifts are never "free". •Gifts give rise to reciprocal exchange

• "What power resides in the object given that causes its recipient to pay it back?"

Page 14: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Marcel Mauss

•The answer is simple: The giver does not merely give an object but also part of himself, for the object is indissolubly tied to the giver.

•The objects are never completely separated from the men who exchange them.

Page 15: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Marcel Mauss• Because of this bond between giver and gift, • The act of giving creates a social bond with

an obligation to reciprocate on part of the recipient. • To not reciprocate means to lose honor and

status, • But the spiritual implications can be even

worse: • In Polynesia, failure to reciprocate means to

lose mana, one's spiritual source of authority and wealth.

Page 16: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Radcliffe-BrownStructural Functionalism

•Structure – Organized arrangement of the parts of society

•Function – The contribution of the parts to the maintenance of the whole

Page 17: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Structural Functionalism

•People exist to meet the needs of society• Individuals are cogs in the social system

•Malinowski: Funeral meets psychological needs of the individual

•Radcliffe-Brown: Funeral creates social solidarity of the group

17

Page 18: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Structural Functionalism

• Societies have structure and order

•All phenomena occurring within the culture are seen to have the

•Underlying goal of maintaining the overall societal structure and order, despite individual motivation..

Page 19: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

1. Society is seen as an organically structured whole akin to a biological organism.2. Society has a social structure - an ordered arrangement of parts.3. Structure is ideally integrated, unified, and exists in equilibrium.

Five Basic Principles

Page 20: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Five Basic Principles

4. This structure is the object of analysis; the most valued data is the structure you can abstract.

5. The function of Social activities and institutions is ultimately interpreted in terms of maintaining the whole social structure of the society

Page 21: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Function Of Institutions Is To Maintain The Structure

• The problem for society is to survive — to maintain its structure

• But basic human nature is inherently selfish and

• Is therefore hostile to that survival.

Page 22: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

Society’s Survival• Therefore the behavior of individuals

must be molded to the requirements society needs to survive

• Conflict must be restrained and• The conduct of persons in their

interrelations with each other must be controlled by norms or rules of behavior

• Failure of the individual to follow these norms results in sanctions

Page 23: STRUCTURAL  FUNCTIONALISM

MALINOWSKI: Society seen as a nurturing, comforting, cocoon emanating from, and responding to, human needs

RADCLIFFE-BROWN: Society seen as a tyrannical entity, often at odds with human nature, which controls humans by injecting fears and anxieties into their psyches, and if necessary sacrificing them for its own sake