STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM 2023 with verified questions and answers

structural functionalism theory - focuses on organization of society and the relationships between broad social units (institutions) - group is a unit of analysis - allows major institutions such as economy, religion, polity, education and family to be considered groups background and history - early functionalists were anthropologists (Levi Strauss, Radcliffe-Brown etc) - seminal thinkers of the 1800s who made direct observations of primitive cultures theory of early functionalists - about the organization of these folk in relation to Western society; theories were often quite simple and required few assumptions - individual and group behavior, more often than not, serves a FUNCTION for the larger society claude levi-strauss - father of structural anthropology - proposed that the proper focus of anthropological investigations was on the underlying patterns of human thought that produce the cultural categories that organize worldviews - believed that these processed were not deterministic of culture but instead operated within culture - heavily influenced by Emile Durkheim, Marcel Mauss and Prague School of Structural Linguistics - derived the concept of binary contrasts which was fundamental in his theory from Nikolai Troubetzkoy bronislaw malinoski and a.r. radcliffe-brown - greatest influence on the development of functionalism from their posts in Great Britain - 'functionalism was a reaction to the excesses of the evolutionary and diffusionist theories + historicism' two versions of functionalism - malinowski's biocultural (psychological) functionalism - radcliffe-brown's structural-functionalism malinowski's biocultural functionalism - individuals have physiological needs (reproduction, food, shelter) - social institutions exist to meet these needs - culturally-derived need and four basic 'instrumental' needs (economics, social control, education and political organization) - each institution = personnel, charter, rules, activities, material, function radcliffe-brown's structural functionalism - focused on social structure - society is a system of relationships maintaining itself through cybernetic feedback while institutions are orderly sets of relationships whose function is to maintain the society as a system - was inspired by Augustus Comte (society constituted a separate level of reality distinct from those of biological forms and inorganic matter) - argued that explanations of social phenomena had to be constructed within the social level - individuals were replaceable, transient occupants of social roles - unlike malinowski, radcliffe-brown considered individuals irrelevant augustus comte - provided an analysis of social evolution through his Law of Three Stages - provided a theory of society and man's cognitive progression from religious and abstract concepts to a scientific perspective - identified tradition and other social structures as elements in shaping the society herbert spencer - compared society to the human body; overaching idea of structural functionalism - each social structure, just like a body part, has a purpose and function in the overall well-being of the society - progress or decline of a society will be determined by how it handles constant problems perspective simply a way of looking at the world (functionalists' perspectives) theory set of interrelated propositions or principles designed to answer a question or explain a particular phenomenon; provides us with a perspective (functionalists' perspectives) sociological theories help us to explain and predict the social world which we live in (functionalists' perspectives) the functionalists' perspectives - based largely on the works of herbert spencer, emile durkheim, talcott parsons and robert merton - emphasizes the interconnectedness of society by focusing on how each part influences and is influenced by other parts functionalism society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole functional society the society is functional if they contribute to social stability dysfunctional society the society is dysfunctional if they disrupt social stability two types of functions manifest and latent manifest functions - are consequences that are intended and commonly recognized latent functions - are consequences that are unintended and often hidden talcott parsons - most functional-anthropological notions were drawn by him - influenced by max weber, herbert spencer and emile durkheim - structural functional theory became the paradigm theory in sociology