This view of Spencer had made him structural functionalist. These different unites of the society contribute valuable functions as a integrated whole for the existence of society and maintenance of social order. He treated society as integrated order of parts like an organism in which parts are interrelated and integrated in order to provide the structure of that particular society. The concept of structure and function was first given by Herbert Spencer in his book, Principles of Sociology (1885, Vol.1), where he talked about fundamental similarities between ‘organism’ and ‘society’. The names of contributors of Structural Functionalism School of Anthropology are given below: Structural Functional School is divided into three main groups, namely, British School of Structural Functionalism, American School of Structural Functionalism and French School of Structuralism. The Structural Functional Theory also got acceptance in America by the sociologist and anthropologists, while in French, Emile Durkheim and Levi Strauss developed Structural-Functional theory to a great extent. As the concepts of structure become wedded with function, this school is also known as Structural Functional school. The gap in opinions of Radcliffe-Brown and Malinowski become so wider that Brown and his associates established a separate school of thought known as Structural-Functional School of Anthropological thought. According to Brown the only acceptable definition of function was, ‘the contribution an institution makes to the maintenance of social structure”. Radcliffe-Brown put great emphasis upon distinguishing on the structural function from the function of Malinowski and others. Radcliffe-Brown who had used the term function earlier than Malinowski was not ready to accept Malinowski, who claimed himself as the father of functionalism on the basis of theory of need for which culture, either in past or at present was functional instrument. In their view the purpose of comparison was to explore socio-cultural institutions of present day societies in terms of their socio-cultural similarities. Malinowski and Radcliffe Brown developed the concept of synchronic functional analysis of culture which was concerned with present and now. This example illustrates that Structural Functionalism is generally seen as being supportive of the status quo. The implication, of course, is that, because society is functioning smoothly with gender stratification, such stratification is acceptable and efforts should not be made to change the arrangement. According to Structural Functionalist thought, a woman being subordinate to men allows the cogs of society to function smoothly as everyone in the society knows his or her respective positions in the hierarchy. Gender inequality offers a good illustration. Thus, one of the key ideas in Structural Functionalism is that society is made-up of groups or institutions, which are cohesive, share common norms, and have a definitive culture. In the structural functionalist model, individuals produce necessary goods and services in various institutions and roles that correlate with the norms of the society. In order for social life to survive and develop in society there are a number of activities that need to be carried out to ensure that certain needs are fulfilled. Structural Functionalism is a theoretical understanding of society that puts social systems as the collective means to fill society’s needs. Structural Functionalism is a sociological theory that attempts to explain why society functions the way it does by focusing on the relationships between the various social institutions that makes up society (e.g., government, law, education, religion etc.)
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