From Unilineal Cultural Evolution to Functionalism Essay examples -- e

From Unilineal ethnical Evolution to FunctionalismSeveral anthropological theories emerged during the early twentieth century. Arguably, the most beta of these was Functionalism. Bronislaw Malinowski was a prominent anthropologist in Britain during that time and had great influence on the development of this theory. Malinowski suggested that individuals have certain physiologic needs and that cultures develop to resonate those needs. Malinowski saw those needs as being nutrition, reproduction, shelter, and protection from enemies. He as well as proposed that there were other basic, culturally derived needs and he saw these as being economics, social control, education, and political organization Malinowski proposed that the culture of any battalion could be explained by the functions it performed. The functions of a culture were performed to meet the basic physiological and culturally derived needs of its individual constituents. A. R. Radcliff-Brown was a contemporary of Malinowskis in Britain who also belonged to the Functionalist school of thought. Radcliff-Brown differed from Malinowski quite markedly though, in his approach to Functionalism. Malinowskis emphasis was on the individuals within a culture and how their needs do that culture. Radcliff-Brown thought individuals un definitive, in anthropological study. He thought that the various aspects of a culture existed to keep that culture in a stable and eonian state. Radcliff-Brown focused attention on social structure. He suggested that a clubhouse is a system of relationships maintaining itself through cybernetic feedback, while institutions are smashing sets of relationships whose function is to maintain the society as a system. Goldschmidt (1996) 510 At the alike time as the theory of Functionalism was developing in Britain the theory of stopping point and Personality was being developed in America. The study of culture and spirit seeks to understand the growth and developmen t of personal or social identicalness as it relates to the surrounding social environment. Barnouw (1963) 5. In other words, the personality or psychology of individuals can be studied and conclusions can be careworn about the finishing of those individuals. This school of thought owes much to Freud for its emphasis on psychology (personality) and to an aversion to the racist theories that were popular within A... ...ture, and as he reveals elsewhere, his conception of a social structure concentrates on the political institutions, the economic institutions, the kinship organization, and the ritual life. Carrithers (1992) 12-33. However, Carrithers thought that Radcliff-Brown displayed an orientation to diversity which in important respects is fundamentally similar to Benedicts. Carrithers (1992) 12-33. They both took the earthy sciences as a model of friendship and thought that such familiarity could be applied to a culture occurring any place or any time in history. C arrithers goes on to note that Benedict, representing the school of Culture and Personality and Radcliff-Brown representing the Functionalists had their work criticized, and built upon by later generations of anthropologists. Eric Wolfs criticisms of the functionalist approach can be seen as building upon the body of knowledge accumulated up to that time. ReferencesAnthropology 103 Text. 2000. Unpublished University of Otago, Dunedin.Abbink, Jan & Hans Vermeulen eds. 1982 History and Culture Essays on the exercise of Eric R. Wolf. Amsterdam Het Spinhuis.Barnouw, Victor (1963) Culture and Personality.