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Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown (1881 Birmingham -1955 London)

Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown (1881 Birmingham -1955 London). His Understanding and Views of Social Anthropology: - Social anthropology is the theoretical natural science of human society. - One may call it ’comparative sociology’.

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Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown (1881 Birmingham -1955 London)

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  1. Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown (1881 Birmingham -1955 London) His Understanding and Views of Social Anthropology: - Social anthropology is the theoretical natural science of human society. - One may call it ’comparative sociology’. - from 1910 onwards, sociological approach (Durkheim, Steinmetz, Westermarck) - The task of the anthropologist is simply to provide scientific appraisal of the situation which the administrator faces, not to advocate policies. - sudden move a way from Rivers and Hadon ( regarded genealogies of native by Rivers as failure) -devotion to natural sciences, basically humanitarian and French - Cultures (societies) are like organisms and should be studied by the methods of natural sciences (biology, zoology). Also: “ Societies are not organisms;they do not experience parturition nor death” ( Kuper 1996:47) - Social structure is a reality ( Kuper 1996:50), not deducted but observed. - social structures are in flux, social forms are comparatively stable (Kuper 1996:52) Coaptaion = mutual adjustment of the interests of the members of a society - common set of ways of feeling and thinking - Laws of social change are deduced from laws of continuity and thus secondary in importance - Law of the necessity of functional consistency

  2. Criticism on RB’s Functional Structuralism • Functional structuralism

  3. His Life • 1904: became River’s first pupil in anthropology • at Cambridge • 1906-08: Andaman Islands • 1909-10: Lectures at Cambridge, advocating Durkheim’s views • 1910-12: Australian aborigines: ‘survey and slavage ethnography’, research of traditional marriage systems (Rivers, Seligmann) with Grant Watson, Mrs Daisy Bates, Olsen. • 1914: school-master in Sydney • 1916-19: Director of Education in the Kingdom of Tonga • 1921: Established Dept. of Anthropology and a School of African Studies at the University of Cape Town: beginning of important publications. • 1926-31: Established Dept. Of Anthropology in Sydney (unsuccessfully) • 1930-31: “The Social Organisation of Australian Tribes” • 1931: Chicago • 1937-46: appointed to the first chair of social anthropology at Oxford

  4. Influences • By Durkheim (before Wold War I): The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, meanings and purpose of customs should be analysed in their contemporary context. Theories of function of ceremonial customs were applied mechanically by RB. • Durkheim insisted that social facts should be treated as objective phenomena. • Année-School: French school of sociology by Durkheim before WWI • 1931, Chicago, American school of Ant.:trends: diffusionist approach of Boas; movement towards ‘culture and personality’ studies, influenced by psychology, psychoanalysis and gestalt theory. RB influenced Eggan, Tax and Warner • RB was influenced by the evoluntionism of Spencer

  5. RB Methods • Abstract the social form in a number of societies is followed by comparison and classification • One should compare societies that are culturally and ethnically related and uncover the general characteristics • understand peculiarities by comparison with better-known examples (Kuper 1996:51) • Ultimate goal: to formulate generalisations about common features in all human societies. These generalisations would constitute social laws. (Kuper 1996:51)

  6. The contributions of Radcliffe-Brown • introduced the intellectual discipline of French sociology • constructed new concepts to order ethnographic material • focus on the formal situation, rules and ritual (in opposition to Malinowski’s interest in individual motivation and strategy) • set an example of analytic method with his first monograph in 1922. • divided customs into three types: 1. Techniques, 2. Rules of behaviour, 3. Ceremonial customs (formal weeping in Andamanese ceremonies) • presented a remarkable synthesis of Australian social organisation, though his models have been recast • after WWI, RB and Mauss developed Durkheim’s sociology • Mauss’ theory was joined by RB to the theory of Malinowskian tradition of fieldwork. (Kuper 1996:49) • direct and personal impact on British anthropology, particularly after 1937.

  7. RB Publications • A Natural Science of History: transcript of a seminar, Chicago 1937 • 1935: • 1940: • 1952: Structure and Function in Primitive Society

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