Radcliffe Brown (1881 – 1955) was an English social anthropologist who developed the theory of Structural Functionalism.
He shared with Lévi-Strauss the notion that a major goal of social anthropology was to identify social structures and formal relationships between them, and that qualitative or discrete mathematics would be a necessary tool to do this. In that sense Radcliffe-Brown may be considered one of the fathers of social network analysis.
In addition to identifying abstract relationships between social structures, Radcliffe-Brown argued for the importance of the notion of a 'total social structure', which is the sum total of social relations in a given social unit of analysis during a given period. The identification of 'functions' of social practices was supposed to be relative to this total social structure.
Society is an organism
Radcliffe-Brown drew from Durkheim the idea that social institutions perform a ‘function’ which corresponds to the needs of the social organism, society. Durkheim attempted to find objective criteria by which to judge whether a given society at given time is normal or pathological, eunomic or dysnomic. He argued that the increase in the rate of suicide was symptomatic of a dysnomic or in his terminology, anomic social condition.
Radcliffe-Brown made an analogy between social life and organic life. An animal organism is an agglomeration of cells, an integrated living whole, an integrated system of complex molecules. The system of relations by which these units are related is the organic structure.
The life of an organism is conceived as the functioning of a structure. It is through the continuity of the functioning that the continuity of the structure is preserved. The function of any part is the part it plays in, the contribution it makes to, the life of the organism.
If we examine such a community as an African or Australian tribe we can recognise the existence of a social structure. Individual human beings, the essential units in this instance, are connected by a definite set of social relations into an integrated whole.
He shared with Lévi-Strauss the notion that a major goal of social anthropology was to identify social structures and formal relationships between them, and that qualitative or discrete mathematics would be a necessary tool to do this. In that sense Radcliffe-Brown may be considered one of the fathers of social network analysis.
In addition to identifying abstract relationships between social structures, Radcliffe-Brown argued for the importance of the notion of a 'total social structure', which is the sum total of social relations in a given social unit of analysis during a given period. The identification of 'functions' of social practices was supposed to be relative to this total social structure.
Society is an organism
Radcliffe-Brown drew from Durkheim the idea that social institutions perform a ‘function’ which corresponds to the needs of the social organism, society. Durkheim attempted to find objective criteria by which to judge whether a given society at given time is normal or pathological, eunomic or dysnomic. He argued that the increase in the rate of suicide was symptomatic of a dysnomic or in his terminology, anomic social condition.
Radcliffe-Brown made an analogy between social life and organic life. An animal organism is an agglomeration of cells, an integrated living whole, an integrated system of complex molecules. The system of relations by which these units are related is the organic structure.
The life of an organism is conceived as the functioning of a structure. It is through the continuity of the functioning that the continuity of the structure is preserved. The function of any part is the part it plays in, the contribution it makes to, the life of the organism.
If we examine such a community as an African or Australian tribe we can recognise the existence of a social structure. Individual human beings, the essential units in this instance, are connected by a definite set of social relations into an integrated whole.
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