Structural functionalism

Structural functionalism:

• How each social structure e.g. kinship, religon, law work together to shape society and keep it functioning

Radcliffe-Brown main ideas:

•  Focused on social needs rather than biological needs, shifting the focus onto society and how it was built up as a social structure

• Societies could be studied scientifically, with social structures functioning to maintain social equilibrium 

• Structures such as: kinship, political organisations, religious institutions exist independantly

Joking and avoidance:

• In the Andaman Islands, these types of relationships function to maintain harmony and structure in kinship systems:

  • Joking relationships: allow humour/familiarity to ease tensions

  • Avoidance relationships: enforce respect/formality where needed

Evans-Pritchard key ideas:

• Belief in witchcraft served as a social explanation for misfortune & belief in magic helped maintain order and address social tensions

• The Neur is a society without government but they maintained order through lineage: ‘ordered anarchy’

• Within fueds, lineage groups united and everyone adhered to rules of conflict making ‘peace in the fued’: reinforcement of social cohesion

Criticisms of structural functionalism:

• Presents societies as overly static and harmonious, downplaying conflict and change

• Richards, Leach and Gluckman proposed new models to replace ‘equilibrium assumption’ such as prioritising material needs, suggesting social dynamics fluctuate frequently

• RB prioritised theoretical arguments rather than empirical investigation which caused a lot of these criticisms