Bronislaw Malinowski and Radcliffe Brown put forward their own respective theories of functionalism. In this essay, I will first mention the arguments put forward by both of them and then I will attempt to find out similarities and differences in those two theories.

According to Malinowski, functionalism is the study of the natural aspects of the cultural phenomenon. Malinowski’s notion of functionalism also includes the concept that “human institutions, as well as partial activities within these, are related to primary, that is, biological, or derived, that is, cultural needs.” ( Malinowski 1960, p.159). Thus, his main argument was that culture exists just so that it can satisfy our biological needs.  So, we can say that for Malinowski, the culture was a concrete reality and it was the main focus in his theory. Culture cannot exist without institutions as all institutions have functions for the society. For example, the family is an institution and its function in society is to produce children. We can also say that functions are a heuristic device. In the previous example, we took the institution of the family. What if a couple is a homosexual? Then they will not be able to produce any children. In the same way, the function of the law is to give justice but sometimes that does not happen, for example-the Shah Bano case. Each institution has structures and even though the structures may remain the same, the rituals and the techniques may differ.

Malinowski also informed us about the importance of artifacts, which are material objects, which are used by humans to communicate with each other, either by speech or by symbolism. For example, a Hindu woman wears a ‘bindi’ on her forehead and ‘ sindoor’ to show that they are married. In this instance, the ‘bindi’ or the ‘sindoor’ acts as an artifact that shows their commitment to their husbands. He also mentions the importance of language as when an infant is born into a family, the function of the kinship is “to provide the infant with a sociological control of its environment through articulate speech.” ( Malinowski 1960, p. 156)

According to Radcliffe Brown, Social Anthropology deals with the study of human society and the investigation of social relations amongst human beings. Brown’s theory of functionalism was in complete contrast to that of Malinowski as he thought that social structures were more important than culture. Brown considered Social Anthropology to be a branch of natural sciences. Brown also attempted to explain it through the methods of natural science. We get to know this when he explains as different branches of science deal with certain kind of structures, such as atomic physics deals with the structure of atoms, there will be a branch of natural sciences “which will have for its task the discovery of the general characteristics of those social structures of which the component units are human beings.” ( Brown 1940, p.2)

Brown also used the term ‘Social structures’ to denote the complex network of social relations. Social structures include all interpersonal relationships, and also the division of individuals and groups based on their social role. He also compares humans to animals when referring to associations or relations as he gives the example of a beehive and understands the relation between the queen bee, the workers and the drones. He also mentions some social phenomena such as morals, laws, education etc. and that they play a very important role in the existence of social structures.

He also uses the example of Latin as a language to explain how the indirect or direct relationship between a social phenomenon and social structures and the way in which they affect the relations between groups of people.

 He regards social structures as a concrete reality and refers to culture as only a vague abstraction.  He also uses the body as an analogy to describe the continuity of social structure – “Throughout the life of an organism its structure is being constantly renewed; and similarly, the social life constantly renews the social structures” ( Brown 1940, p. 4). He's referring to social structures as being constantly renewed gives us the idea that Brown considers social structures to be stable and never-ending. This idea becomes clearer when Brown gives us the term ‘social evolution’, in which evolution means the emergence of new forms of structures while explaining with the example of how an African culture came in contact with an European or Western culture and then produced Western African culture.

I will now give an example which I think will make the distinction between these two theories clear. Whenever I am hungry I will want to eat food. According to Malinowski, I will only want to have seafood as I am from Goa because I am used to eating seafood as it is part of my Goan culture. If we take the same situation and compare it with Brown’s argument, he will say that if I am hungry then I will have anything to satisfy my hunger and not only try to find seafood. This is because according to Malinowski, the main aim of culture is to satisfy the physical and the biological needs of the individual but on the other hand, Brown does not think culture has an important part to play in any individuals life.

We will first look at the similarities in the theories put forward by Brown and Malinowski. Both Malinowski and Brown and trying to develop a universal understanding of functionalism in which they are trying to attain a method which will be applicable and useful  when comparing different phenomena throughout the world. This is especially true for Malinowski as he talks about his theory being used for the comparative analysis of phenomena in various cultures. Another similarity is that they are using language as a foundation to explain their theories, as we have already seen earlier in the essay.

There are also many differences in their theories. The most visible is their view on the theory of culture. For Malinowski, the function of culture was to satisfy the biological needs of the individual and on the other hand, Brown considered culture to be abstract and claimed culture only played a role in maintaining the society and not to satisfy individual needs. Brown also only considered society as a whole and thus considered individuals as irrelevant or replaceable, in contrast to Malinowski, who emphasizes the importance of individuals.

Even  though there were many similarities and differences in their theories, both Malinowski and Brown had the greatest influence on the development of functionalism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:-

Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1960. A Scientific Theory of Culture and Other Essays. New York: Oxford University Press

Brown, A.R. Radcliffe. 1940. “ On Social Structure”. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 70(1): pp.1-12