STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM: RADCLIFFE BROWN
ALFRED REGINALD RADCLIFFE BROWN
ü Born
in Sparkbook, Birmingham, England on 17th January 1881
ü His
name of Alfred Reginald Brown but he later changed his name as Radcliffe Brown
ü He
entered Cambridge University in 1901, studied philosophy, psychology, economics
and natural science.
INFLUENCES:
He was influenced by
his professors at Cambridge : W.H.R Rivers, Emile Durkheim, Prof Hadden and
W.W. Rouse Ball.
WORK
Radcliffe Brown brought
French sociology to British anthropology as he was influenced by E. Durkheim
FIELD
WORK
Studied Andaman Islander
and Western Australian aboriginals.
IMPROTANT
PUBLICATIONS:
THE ANDAMAN ISLANDERS:
A STUDY IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY (1922)
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF
AUSTRALIAN TRIBES (1931)
STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION
IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY (1935)
STRUCTURAL
FUNCTIONALISM:
There are two aspects :
one is structure and the other is function, so together it is called structural
functionalism which has been improvised by Radcliffe Brown.
Earlier
the concept of functionalism was given by B. Malinowski so Radcliffe Brown took
further the concept of Malinowski and he elaborated to … just it is not only
the functions but there is a larger structure which dues more understanding of
cultures in a given society.
So
to understand – Why society and societies functions the way it does by focusing
on the relationship between various social institutions that make up a society.
For example what are the various social institutions?
Family,
marriage, religion, kinship, political organization, economy etc (these are
different social institutions). How there is a relationship between these institution
and individual members of society.
The
whole structural functionalism has taken from the concept of Malinowski’s
functionalism.
functionalism
basically give more attention on the existing societies, how a particular
society is functioning and what are the elements contributes to the overall
functioning to the society.
Malinowski’s
functionalism is based on the theory of need. Individual have certain needs and
how society satisfies these individual needs through various social
institutions. For example one has to reproduce so how this reproduction take
place : through marriage
Malinowski
has given more rigorous training and approach to what he called Scientific
methodology. Evolutionism, Diffusionism not give much scientific understanding
of how all cultures operates but it is with Malinowski that he has given new
ways of understanding culture through scientific methodology.
Leading scholars of
British School of Structural Functionalism
A.R. Radcliffe Brown
S.F. Nadel
E.R. Leach
R. Firth
Meyer Fortes
E.Evans Pritchard
These scholars tried to
identify that societies or cultures can be identified from this perspective of
structural functionalism.
Radcliffe
Brown’s emphasis on social function is derived for the influence of the French
Sociological School. This school develops in the 1890’s around the work of
Emile Durkheim who argued “Social phenomena constitute a domain or order of
reality that is independent of psychological and biological facts. Social
phenomena therefore must be explained in terms of other social phenomena and
not by reference to psychological needs derives impulses and so forth.
E. Durkheim
argued that ethnographers should study the function of social institutions and
how they function together to maintain the social whole.
Radcliffe
Brown shared the emphasis of studying the conditions under which social
structure are maintained. He also
believes that the functioning of societies like that of other natural system is
governed by laws that can be discovered through systematic comparison.
Radcliffe
Brown established an analogy between social life and organic life to explain
the concept of function. He emphasized the contribution of phenomena to
maintain social order.
However
Radcliffe Brown disregard for individual need was apparent in this analogy. He
argued that as long as biological organism lives, it preserves the continuity
of structure not preserve the unity of its constituents parts. That is over a
period of time while the constituents cells do not remain the same, the
structural arrangements of the constituents units remain similar.
He
suggested that human beings as essential units are connected by a set of social
relations into an integrated whole. Like the biological organism the continuity
of the social structure is not destroyed by changes in the units. Although
individual may leave the society by death or other means, other individual may
enter it. Therefore the continuity is maintained by the process of social life
which consists of the activities and interactions of individual human beings,
and of organized groups into which they are united. The social life of a
community is the functioning of the social structure.
The
function of any recurrent activity is the part it plays in the social life and
thereby the contribution it makes to structural continuity.
In
the words of Radcliffe Brown “Social structure, therefore is to be defined
as the continuing arrangements of persons in relationships defined or controlled
by institutions i.e. socially established norms or patterns of behavior”.
In this definition of social structure two phrases require further classification
:
The continuing arrangement of
persons
Socially established norms or
patterns of behaviour
The continuing
arrangement of persons
According
to Brown social structure is continuing arrangements of persons in relation to
each other. This arrangement of person is different in a village, a city or a
primitive tribe. The characteristic of this arrangement are in fact the characteristics
of social structure. In other words the characteristics of social structure are
the characteristics of social groups which constitute it.
Structural Features of Social Life
: According to Brown the most important structural features of social life are
as follows
1. Existence of social groups:
Social structure consists of all kinds of social group within it
2. Internal structure of group:
These groups again have specific internal structure. For example the family
group consists of the relation of father, mother, children and grandparents to
each other.
3. Arrangement into social classes:
These groups again are arranged into social classes and categories such as the
castes in Indian society and the economic classes in Western societies.
4. Social distinction
: There is again a system of social distinction between different classes based
upon sex, authority, economic distinction, caste distinction etc. One finds a
system of social distance between them as can be seen between Brahmins and
Shudras in India.
5. Arrangements of persons in dyadic
relationship: Dyadic relationship are person to
person relationship such as those found between master and servant. In social
structure one finds arrangements of persons in dyadic relationship.
6. Interaction between groups and
persons: Finally the most important feature of social
structure is the interaction between groups and the interactions between
persons. Interaction between persons can be seen in social processes involving
cooperation, conflict, accommodation etc.
Constituents of
Social Structure : Social
structure is constituted by continuing arrangement of persons in relationship.
these arrangements of persons are generally in the form of social group.
According to Brown by social group we mean a body of person having certain
cohesion. The social groups are named differently according to their different
forms such as a family, a horde, a clan, a kinship, a tribe etc. R. Brown has
clearly defined each of these types of social groups :
THE FAMILY:
According to Brown the family as a group was formed by marriage and the birth
of children and came to an end as a separate group on the death of the husband thus
having continuous existence for only a limited number of years. thus family is
composed of man with his wife or wives and their young children. It is a
domestic group.
THE HORDE:
The internal structure of the horde consists of families. According to Brown a
horde may be described as being politically autonomous under the authority of
the old men and as being very largely self sufficient economically. The horde
constitute a clan.
THE CLAN:
Several hordes together constitute the social structure of the clan. Men
connected with a particular territory form a distinct social group known as
clan. The clan constituted a wider system of structure known as tribe.
THE TRIBE:
In the words of Radcliffe Brown “A number of clans had the same language and
similar custom, they therefore formed a linguistic community which is referred
to as a tribe. Tribe is not a politically united group. Its members do not
unite in any combined action.
THE KINSHIP SYSTEM:
Persons of different hordes and of different tribes are linked by means of
kinship system. Kinship relationships were classified into a number of
categories. Each category was denoted by one kinship term distinguish as being
nearer or more distant to other kinship relationship. Person used to visit
kinship members in other clans and tribes. Thus kinship cuts across clans. Each
person had his own particular position in the total kinship structure due to
his status in descent, marriage etc.
THE MOIETIES:
Sometimes a primitive social structure is divided into two moieties. Each
moiety includes a number of tribes. Each clan belongs to one of the moieties.
SOCIAL SECTIONS:
According to Brown the primitive society may have a further dichotomy into
alternating generation divisions. Each clan contains at all times the adults
and the children, males and females.
TOTEMIC GROUP:
Each clan is a distinct totemic group having its own sacred totem centres, its
own myth, its own rites. Each clan has its own totemic solidarity and continuity
which differentiate it from other clans. There are totemic ceremonies. Thus
totemic groups maintain solidarity of primitive society. They provide the
religious structure of society.
SOCIAL CLASSES:
According to Brown in some primitive societies one may find division of social
structure into several classes. An example of such a division is the division
between chief and commoners in Polynesia, Social classes however are not found
in all the primitive societies.
Radcliffe
Brown formulates the important principles concerning the description of social
structure:
1 The description of social structure
should include not only the social groups and social classes but the whole set
of socially fixed relationships of person to person as in kinship system.
2 Thus the social structure at a particular
place and time consists of the whole set of social relationship among members
3 Social relationship should be defined in
terms of social institutions.
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