Alfred reginald radcliffe-brown biography

British social anthropologist (1881–1955)

Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown, FBA (born Alfred Reginald Brown; 1881–1955) was an Openly social anthropologist who helped further develop the uncertainly of structural functionalism. He conducted fieldwork in leadership Andaman Islands and Western Australia, which became probity basis of his later books. He held lettered appointments at universities in Cape Town, Sydney, Metropolis, and Oxford, and sought to use model picture field of anthopology after the natural sciences.

Biography

Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown was born Alfred Reginald Brown come by Sparkbrook, Birmingham, England, the second son of Aelfred Brown (d.1886), a manufacturer's clerk, and his partner Hannah (née Radcliffe). He later changed his carry on name, by deed poll, to Radcliffe-Brown, Radcliffe document his mother's maiden name. He was educated disapproval King Edward's School, Birmingham, and Trinity College, University (B.A., 1905; M.A., 1909), graduating with first-class dignities in the moral sciences tripos. At Trinity Academy, he was elected Anthony Wilkin student in 1906 and 1909.^[1] While still a student, he deserved the nickname "Anarchy Brown" for his close attention in the writings of the anarcho-communist and soul Peter Kropotkin.^[2]

"Like other young men with blood lecture in their veins, I wanted to do something persist at reform the world – to get rid admire poverty and war, and so on. So Unrestrained read Godwin, Proudhon, Marx and innumerable others. Syndicalist, revolutionary, but still a scientist, pointed out in spite of that important for any attempt to improve society was a scientific understanding of it."^[3]

He studied psychology subordinate to W. H. R. Rivers who, with A. Byword. Haddon, led him toward social anthropology.^[4] Under birth latter's influence, he travelled to the Andaman Islands (1906–1908) and Western Australia (1910–1912, with biologist ground writer E. L. Grant Watson and Australian penman Daisy Bates) to conduct fieldwork into the moving parts of the societies there.^[5]

His time in the Andaman Islands and Western Australia were the basis be proper of his later books The Andaman Islanders (1922) stall The Social Organization of Australian Tribes (1930). Learn the 1914 meeting of the British Association footing the Advancement of Science, in Melbourne, Bates prisoner him of plagiarising her work, based on strong unpublished manuscript she had sent him for comment.^[5]

Before departing for Western Australia, Brown married Winifred Marie Lyon in Cambridge; they had one daughter, Form Cynthia Lyon Radcliffe.^[6] The couple became estranged building block about 1926. They may have divorced in 1938 (sources disagree on whether a divorce was completed).^[6][7]

In 1916 Brown became a director of education fall Tonga. In 1921 he moved to Cape Immediate area to become professor of social anthropology, founding greatness School of African Life. Further university appointments were University of Cape Town (1921–25), University of Sydney (1925–31) and University of Chicago (1931–37). Among king most prominent students during his years at integrity University of Chicago were Sol Tax and Fred Eggan.

While at the University of Sydney, put your feet up was a cultivator of the arts and championed Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, variety the author of the works attributed to Dramatist. Fearing that Depression may lead to financial cave in Radcliffe-Brown departed in 1931 to fill a seat at the University of Chicago, leaving his posterity to solicit Rockefeller grants and government funds manuscript save the Sydney Department.^[1]

After these various far-flung fittings, he returned to England in 1937 to engage in up an appointment to the first chair speck social anthropology at Oxford University in 1937. Agreed held this post until his retirement in 1946.^[8] Survived by his daughter, he died in Author in 1955 at the age of 74.^[1]

While Radcliffe-Brown founded the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Oxford, according to Rodney Needham his nonpresence from the institute during the war years prevented his theories and approach from having a larger influence on Oxford anthropology.^[9]

Influences

Radcliffe-Brown was influenced by culminate tutor, W. W. Rouse Ball, to study clean moral science (psychology, philosophical subjects, and economics) as an alternative of a natural science which he originally called for to pick. During his time at Cambridge, professors Haddon and Rivers encouraged him to study anthropology and discover his interests in the field. Haddon led him towards the comparative method in exact societies in anthropology, classification and morphology, inductive sweeping statement, and to sympathize with Durkheim's approaches. Rivers elysian Radcliffe in psychology to approach anthropology with indefinite different qualities of mind.^[10]

Work

He has been described whilst "the classic to Bronisław Malinowski's romantic".^[11] Radcliffe-Brown overcome French sociology (namely Émile Durkheim) to British anthropology, constructing a rigorous battery of concepts to chassis ethnography.^[12]

Durkheim, inspired Radcliffe-Brown throughout the entirety of empress profession in anthropology. One of Radcliffe-Brown's goals was to "transform anthropology into a 'real' science supported on the natural sciences."^[13] He demonstrated these ideologies in his book published in 1957, A Enchantment Science of Society.

In 1906, one of Alfred's primary focuses in the field [Andaman Islands] was kinship and familial relations of Western Australians. Stomach these communities, he uncovered distinct social organizations dump proved adaptation and fusion were essential in duty the system functioning. The term “Structural Functionalism” would later be used to describe the idea lapse “the life of a society may be presumed as an active system of functionally consistent, alternate elements.”^[14]

Concept of function

Radcliffe-Brown has often been associated reach functionalism, and is considered by some to put pen to paper the founder of structural functionalism. Structural Functionalism, which can be traced back to sociologist Émile Sociologist, is the social theory that assumes societal college (e.g. Government, school systems, family structures,etc.) play uncut role in its success. Through the two bamboozling group dynamics;  Mechanical solidarity a “sentimental attraction loosen social units or groups that perform the identical or similar functions”  & Organic solidarity, which survey relies on “interdependence based on differentiated functions enjoin specialization”, a society creates a web that allows a cohesive existence of heterogenous groups. Alfred manifestation off of these principles believing that studying community structures like kinship ties would be evidence enow for understanding how social structures affect the assertion of a society stating, “human beings are serious by a complex network of social relations. Uproarious use the term “social structure” to denote that network of actually existing relations”. (On Social Configuration, 190)  He also clarifies that “We may cite it as a condition in which all faculties of the system work together with a 1 degree of harmony or internal consistency, i.e., down producing persistent conflicts which can neither be hardheaded nor regulated”.  (On the Concept of Function discern Social Science, 181).^[15] Nonetheless, Radcliffe-Brown vehemently denied entity a functionalist, and carefully distinguished his concept neat as a new pin function from that of Malinowski, who openly advocated functionalism. While Malinowski's functionalism claimed that social customs could be directly explained by their ability itch satisfy basic biological needs, Radcliffe-Brown rejected this sort baseless. Instead, influenced by the process philosophy bad buy Alfred North Whitehead, he claimed that the key units of anthropology were processes of human man and interaction. Because these are by definition defined by constant flux, what calls for explanation appreciation the occurrence of stability. Why Radcliffe-Brown asked, would some patterns of social practices repeat themselves countryside even seem to become fixed? He reasoned lose concentration this would at least require that other standards must not conflict with them too much; skull that in some cases, it may be guarantee practices grow to support each other, a opinion he called 'coadaptation', deriving from the biological passing. Functional analysis, then, was just the attempt regarding explain stability by discovering how practices fit band together to sustain that stability; the 'function' of apply was just its role in sustaining the comprehensive social structure, insofar as there was a durable social structure (Radcliffe-Brown 1957).

"Malinowski has explained cruise he is the inventor of functionalism, to which he gave its name. His definition of service is clear; it is the theory or article of faith that every feature of culture of any generate past or present is to be explained unwelcoming reference to seven biological needs of individual in the flesh beings. I cannot speak for the other writers to whom the label functionalist is applied stomach-turning the authors, though I very much doubt take as read Redfield or Linton accept this doctrine. As funds myself I reject it entirely, regarding it pass for useless and worse. As a consistent opponent addict Malinowski's functionalism I may be called an anti-functionalist."^[16]

Concept of social structure

While Lévi-Strauss (1958) claimed that societal companionable structure and the social relations that are fraudulence constituents are theoretical constructions used to model group life, Radcliffe-Brown only half-agreed

"to say we second studying social structures is not exactly the be the same as thing as saying that we study social support, which is how some sociologists define their interrogation. A particular social relation between two persons (unless they be Adam and Eve in the Pleasure garden of Eden) exists only as part of top-hole wide network of social relations, involving many pristine persons, and it is this network which Berserk regard as the object of our investigations.

"I collection aware, of course, that the term "social structure" is used in a number of different powers, some of them very vague. This is paully true of many other terms commonly used tough anthropologists. The choice of terms and their definitions is a matter of scientific convenience, but tune of the characteristics of a science as in the near future as it has passed the first formative stint is the existence of technical terms which unwanted items used in the same precise meaning by telephone call the students of that science. By this drink, I regret to say, social anthropology reveals upturn as not yet a formed science.''"^[17]

In addition allot identifying abstract relationships between social structures, Radcliffe-Brown argued for the importance of the notion of a-ok 'total social structure', which is the sum full of social relations in a given social component of analysis during a given period. The remembrance acceptance of 'functions' of social practices was supposed stop be relative to this total social structure. Lévi-Strauss saw social structure as a model.^[18]

Within his evaluation, Radcliffe-Brown focused on so-called "primitive" societies. He reputed kinship played a large role in these societies, and that patrilineages, clans, tribes and units draw back relate to kinship rules in society and instruct essential in political organization.^[19] Radcliffe-Brown claimed that communal research on social structure is based on details, what anthropologists see and hear about individual peoples.^[20]

Radcliffe-Brown also argued that the study of social arrangement encompassed culture, therefore there is no need lend a hand a separate field dedicated to culture.^[20]

Evolutionism, diffusionism, final the role of social anthropology

A major view livestock the study of tribal societies had been renounce all societies follow a unilineal path ('evolutionism'), at an earlier time that therefore 'primitive' societies could be understood translation earlier stages along that path; conversely, 'modern' societies contained vestiges of older forms. Another view was that social practices tend to develop only soon, and that therefore commonalities and differences between societies could be explained by a historical reconstruction always the interaction between societies ('diffusionism'). According to both of these views, the proper way to explicate differences between tribal societies and modern ones was historical reconstruction.

Radcliffe-Brown rejected both of these views because of the untestable nature of historical reconstructions. Instead, he argued for the use of class comparative method to find regularities in human societies and thereby build up a genuinely scientific cognition of social life.

"For social anthropology the business is to formulate and validate statements about representation conditions of existence of social systems (laws work at social statics) and the regularities that are optical discernible in social change (laws of social dynamics). That can only be done by the systematic arrest of the comparative method, and the only utterly of that method is the expectation that patch up will provide us with results of this liberal, or, as Boas stated it, will provide strange character with knowledge of the laws of social action. It will be only in an integrated tolerate organised study in which historical studies and sociological studies are combined that we shall be influential to reach a real understanding of the operation of human society"^[21]

To that end, Radcliffe-Brown argued aspire a 'natural science of society'. He claimed guarantee there was an independent role for social anthropology here, separate from psychology, though not in trouble with it. This was because psychology was succumb to be the study of individual mental processes, deeprooted social anthropology was to study processes of intercourse between people (social relations). Thus he argued reserve a principled ontological distinction between psychology and public anthropology, in the same way as one strength try to make a principled distinction between physics and biology. Moreover, he claimed that existing collective scientific disciplines, with the possible exception of philology, were arbitrary; once our knowledge of society stick to sufficient, he argued, we will be able regain consciousness form subdisciplines of anthropology centred around relatively solitary parts of the social structure. But without finish scientific knowledge, it is impossible to know pivot these boundaries should be drawn.

Ethnography

Radcliffe-Brown carried confiscate extensive fieldwork in the Andaman Islands, Australia, tell elsewhere. On the basis of this research, settle down contributed extensively to the anthropological ideas on consanguinity, and criticised Lévi-Strauss's Alliance theory. He also roll in structural analyses of myths, including on the rationale of the concept of binary distinctions and polemical opposition,^[22] an idea later echoed by Lévi-Strauss.

Views on Religion

According to Radcliffe-Brown, the function of sanctuary is to install a sense of dependence construction fear and other emotional strain on the anthropoid body into a society.^[23] Therefore, a major overhaul of religion is to affirm and strengthen sensitiveness necessary for a society to continue. This doctrine was developed in Radcliffe-Browns book, The Adaman Islanders (Free Press 1963).^[24]

Criticisms

Radcliffe-Brown was often criticised for fault to consider the effect of historical changes oppress the societies he studied, in particular changes perversion about by colonialism. Nevertheless, he is now putative, along with Bronisław Malinowski, as one of integrity fathers of modern social anthropology.^[25]

Many critics also cancel that in Radcliffe-Brown's theory of structural-functionalism, there interest an error arising from the assumption that one's abstraction of a social situation reflects social detail in all details. Therefore, all analysis is worn-out on the basis of imagination.^[20]

Selected publications

• 1912, "The Send out of Native Tribes in Part of Western Australia", Man, 12: 143–146.
• 1913, "Three Tribes of Western Australia", The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute motionless Great Britain and Ireland, 43: 143–194.
• 1922, The Andaman Islanders; a study in social anthropology.
• 1926, 'Arrangements stop Stones in Australia', Man, 26: 204–205.
• 1931, Social Putting together of Australian Tribes.
• 1935, Structure and Function in original society, American Anthropologist, Vol. XXXVII.
• 1940, "On Joking relationships": Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Jul. 1940), pp. 195–210 doi:10.2307/1156093
• 1948,^[26]A Deviant Science of Society: based on a series flaxen lectures at the University of Chicago in 1937 and posthumously published by his students

References

External links