SOCI 421 SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY - WordPress.comCollege of Education School of Continuing and Distance...

College of Education

School of Continuing and Distance Education2014/2015 – 2016/2017

SOCI 421

SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Session 7 – Founding Fathers III

Lecturer: Dr. Kodzovi Akpabli-Honu, UG Contact Information: [email protected]

Session Overview

IntroductionWhile diffusionism emerged in criticism to unilinealevolutionism, another theory – Historical Particularism –also emerged in the US led by Franz Boas. It alsocriticized unilineal evolution. While historicalparticularism was gaining grounds in America,functionalism emerged in Great Britain as an alternativeto Franz Boas’ perspective. This session discusses the twotheories.

Dr. Kodzovi Akpabli-Honu, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 2

Session Outline

The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:

• Topic One: Historical Particularism

• Topic Two: Functionalism (Introduction)

• Topic Three: Biopsychological functionalism

• Topic Four: Structural Functionalism


Objectives

By the end of this session, students should be able to:

• explain the main tenet of historical particularism

• explain the main tenet of functionalism

• identify the differences between biopsychologicalfunctionalism and structural functionalism

• articulate the shortfalls of the various theoriesdiscussed in this session


Reading List

• Kottak, C. P. (2004), Cultural Anthropology, Boston, McGraw Hill Corporation.

• Kottak, C. P. (2004), Anthropology: The Exploration of Human Diversity, Boston, McGraw Hill Corporation.

• Nukunya, G. K. (2016), Tradition and change in Ghana: An introduction to sociology, Accra, Ghana University Press.

• Peoples, J and Bailey, G. (1988) Humanity: An introduction to Cultural Anthropology, St Paul: West Publishing Company.

• Crapo R. H. (2002 or newer editions) Cultural Anthropology: Understanding Ourselves & Other, Boston, McGraw Hill.

Dr. Kodzovi Akpabli-Honu, Sociology Dept. UG Slid

Topic One: Historical Particularism

• This the0ry emerged in the us and led by FranzBoas

• It assumes that each way of life is the product ofthe many things that affected it in the past

• Each group of people have their particular historymaking their way of life unique

• This means that each culture must be studied in itsown way

• This means that comparing two cultures is futileDr. Kodzovi Akpabli-Honu, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 6


• The theory stipulates that one’s culture’s judgmente.g. progress must not be used upon anotherculture

• In studying other people’s way of life, the relativisticperspective must be adopted

• Franz Boas propounded this theory in objection tothe unilineal evolutionism which he saw as beingethnocentric, speculative, and based on unprovenassumptions.



• Boas was convinced that unilineal evolutionists neverused empirical data but relied on reports fromuntrained fieldworkers to construct speculativeschemes of progress

• He said the socio-cultural study of a society must bedone by investigating the historical experiences of thesociety concerned

• Franz Boas’ theory has shortcomings; firstly, the criticswondered how could differences and similaritiesbetween cultures be discovered without comparativelystudying them.



• This means that contrary to Boas’ position thatevery culture is unique and should not be comparedto another, there is the need for comparativestudies of cultures

• Historical particularists overlooked how to explainsimilarities between human ways of life due to theirbelief in the uniqueness of human ways of life; thismeans they wished for the neglect of investigationinto similarities and differences between cultures


Topic Two: Functionalism (Introduction)

• Functionalism emerged in Great Britain between 1910and 1950

• Its proposition is that sociocultural characteristics of apeople should be explained by the useful functionsthey perform for the well-being of individuals or societyas a whole

• The functionalists are critical of historical particularistsby arguing that it’s a futile exercise studying about theunique history about preindustrial societies with nowritten records; and that reconstruction of their pastwill be speculative and scientifically valueless


Topic Two: Functionalism(Introd.)

• Instead, the function of the sociocultural elementsof societies should be examined to find out howuseful they are to such societies

• There are two variations of functionalism exist

• They are biopsychological functionalismconstructed by Bronislaw Malinowski and structuralfunctionalism by Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown.


Topic Three: Biopsychological Functionalism

• Malinowski is associated with biopsychologicalfunctionalism, a theory he formulated following hisethnographic study of the Trobraind Islanders ofthe Pacific

• The theory postulates that sociocultural elementsexist to meet certain biological and psychologicalneeds of humans which he indicates are basicimperatives

• Examples of basic imperatives are nutrition,reproduction and shelter



• He says every society needs these basic imperativessurvival and well-being

• The basic imperatives are cultural universals butsocieties meet them differently through purposivelydeveloped institutions

• The institutions are their need-serving activities

• These activities are given regularity and theybecome easily predictable

• Certain things must be done in order to maintainthe group and the need-serving institutions



• These things are the regulation of the behaviour ofgroup members; assigning statuses to members,natural resources must also be assigned, etc.

• These he calls derived needs which are necessaryfor maintaining and perpetuating the group and itsinstitutions

• To Malinowski the group must be committed to thenorms and standards that guide their behaviour(derived needs) to achieve the requirement of thegroups and their institutions



• The required commitment is achieved through creationof attachment to the whole way of life of the group

• The commitment is achievable by the enculturation(socialization) of the individuals to value their way oflife

• This is done through provision of symbolic acts andobjects that give meaning and purpose to human life

• So elements such as cultural values and religion areexplained by how they function to create sentimentalattachment to the entire sociocultural system



• The main problem with this theory is thatindividuals cannot explain why socioculturalsystems differ in the way they meet their needs

• It is difficult as to why different people satisfy theirbiological and psychological needs differently

• Human needs are relatively constant acrosssocieties and cannot by themselves explainsociocultural variations.


Topic Four: Structural Functionalism

• Proponents of this theory led by Alfred ReginaldRadcliffe-Brown are referred to as structuralfunctionalist

• They consider the contribution of a cultural elementto the persistence of the entire social structure

• Radcliffe-Brown compares human societies to livingorganisms which are made up of cells and organsperforming essential tasks for the functioning andmaintenance of the body

• The functions of the organs are complimentaryDr. Kodzovi Akpabli-Honu, Sociology Dept. UG Slide 17


• The functions of the parts of the sociocultural system(the body social) are analogous to that of the biologicalorganism

• The relationships or activities among individual andgroups within the social system can be compared to thefunctioning of the cells and organs of the biologicalorganism

• These relationships must be orderly and predictable

• If some parts fail to work properly (disease) there mustbe compensating mechanisms to correct them andrestore the malfunction to normalcy - equilibrium



• Many puzzling customs play useful functions tomaintain the steady state of society by regulatingany potential conflict that might disturb it

• He used potentially conflictual social relationshipsand how the potential conflict has been avoidedthrough some cultural practices illustration of theusefulness of sociocultural elements

• For instance, the obligatory avoidance relationshipas between the father and the first son in Talensiillustrates the case



• Another example of a norm is the jokingrelationship that Radcliffe-Brown studied inpatrilineal societies in South Africa

• Individuals have been permitted to poke fun at eachother without resulting in conflict but which mayinvoke conflict in another context

• Usually brothers-in-law with expected havingsupposedly contradictory elements in theirrelationship but united in common interest insisters poke fun at each other



• By this, tension which might result from belongingto conflicting groups, reduces

• Structural functionalism contends that the variouscustoms and beliefs of a people form an integratedsystem

• Each of them cannot stand on its own else will notbe understood is isolation



• The theory has its shortcomings from its concern forthe equilibrium and steady state of society

• It has not addressed the question of whysociocultural systems change

• Due to its stand against historical investigation ofhistorical particularism, little attention is paid to theorigins of sociocultural elements

• Structural functionalists see conflict as abnormal

• Modern anthropologist, however, see conflict as anormal condition of almost all societies


Summary

• In this session we discussed two theories: historical particularismand functionalism

• Historical particularism is against unilineal evolutionism and thinkssocieties must be studied in their unique ways without comparingthem

• Functionalism is in two part: biopsychological functionalism byMalinowski and structural functionalism by Radcliffe-Brown

• Although both examine sociocultural elements they do sodifferently

• While Malinowski contends that sociocultural elements exist tomeet basic imperatives; Radcliffe-Brown is of the view theirusefulness to the social system can only ascertained if theircontribution to the maintenance of the body social known


SOCI 421 SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY - WordPress.comCollege of Education School of Continuing and Distance...

Documents

Transcript of SOCI 421 SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY - WordPress.comCollege of Education School of Continuing and Distance...