Functionalism and Transactionalism Flashcards
functionalism
-british
-emphasis on what people do i. e. on the social (instead of what people believe, think, the ideational)
-TELEOGICAL (phenomena have a ‘function’, serve a purpose)
-main guiding ideas:
1) societies are integrated systems of social institutions (kinship, politics, law, religion etc)
2) social and cultural phenomena to be explained by their current functions (unlike evolutionsts)
two different functionalisms
bio-psychological functionalism and structural functionalism
context of origin British functionalism
early 20th century
dissatisfaction with diffusionism (belief that cultural traits start somewhere and spread over large areas) and evolutionism:
1) they were too speculative and
2) no understanding of the workings, cohesion, reproduction of social structure.
French influence from Comte and Durkheim - saw societies as an organic whole of interdependent, coherent institutions.
british functionalisms motivations and scientific core values
-emphasis on empirical research as the scientific core foundation of anthropology
- richer data of all aspects of daily life in ‘primitive’ societies > long-term fieldwork instead of surveys
-salvage anthropology: documenting ‘disappering’ ways of life
bio-psychological functionalism
Founder: MALINOWSKI
theory: humans have universal needs, which are satisfied in different ways in different societies)
Malinowski defining function
“function means, therefore, always the SATISFACTION OF A NEED, from the simplest act of eating to the sacramento performance in which the taking of the communion is related to a whole system of beliefs determined by a cultural necessity to be one with the living God”
structural functionalism
Founders: RADCLIFFE-BROWN and EVANS-PRITCHARD
-a society consists of INTERRELATED SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS (kinship, law, religion etc.) whose funtion is to REPRODUCE the social structure
-the historical origin of an institution is not a central concern, the focus of attention is on an institution’s function in the present
R-B defining function
“the concept, as I use it, is one that enables us to study the interrelations of structure and an associated process. as organism has a structure of organs and tissues and fluids. what we call the life of an organism is a process. the structure determines the process; life consists of actions and interactions of organs. the process determines the structure, by renewing and keeping it alive. this mutual relation between structure and process is an organism is what is referred to when speak of function in physiology” (foreshadowing Giddens with ‘duality of structure’?)
Transactionalism
Every person has agency that is used to achieve goals.
Individual actors STRATEGICALLY enter into transactions with others, about everything (power, status etc.)
- society is a result of all these TRANSACTIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS
- emphasis on informal social networks
- agency LIMITED BY STRUCTURAL FORCES (class, caste descent etc.)
- creates a model relationships between the microlevel of interpersonal relations and macrolevel of social systems
negative factors transactionalism
-risk of neglecting historical factors
-too much focus on big men
-how free are individuals to really enter into transactions
Barth on his transactionalist model
“my basic point was that anthropologists need to study processes, not merely patterns, and construct generative models that can explain how social forms come about, rather than simply summarize and charactrize such forms”
Positive sides of bio-psychological functionalism
1) emphasis on NATIVE’S POINT OF VIEW (emic) while also
2) emphasizing SYSTEMATIC COMPARISON and
3) aiming at GENERATLIZATION
4) recognizes IMPORTANCE OF ‘NATURE’ AND ‘EMOTION’ in relation to culture
5) regognizes IMPORTANCE OF INDIVIDUAL AND AGENCY (in contrast to structural-functionalists)
Malinowski - Methodological principles
1)Systematic observations of all daily actions
2) Transparency with regard to the conditions and the methods data was collected
3) Transparency in analysis by showing data selection and how generalizations were made
Malinoswki’s list of basic needs and their cultural responses
1) Metabolism — Commissariat
2) Reproductivity — Kinship
3) Bodily comforts — Shelter
4) Safety — Production
5) Movement — Activities
6) Growth — Training
7) Health — Hygiene
Positive sides of structural-functionalism
1)Looks at internal relatedness of social institutions
2)insight to society’s reproduction
3) allows systematic comparison
