Study Guide for

Radcliffe-Brown readings

1a.  On page 178, Radcliffe-Brown speaks of the importance of avoiding “teleology” when identifying the “function” of a “social institution.”  What does “teleology” mean?

1b.   As an example, consider the “social institution” in American social life of “mandatory schooling through grade 12.”  Now, as an exercise, present a statement that identifies a “function” of this “social institution” that errs in the way Radcliffe-Brown warns against.  In other words, offer an identification of a “function” of this institution that falls into the trap of “teleology.”

1c. According to Radcliffe-Brown, what must be identified when identifying the “function” or “functions” of a social institution in order to avoid this trap?

1d.  Finally, as an exercise, present a statement that identifies a “function” of this “social institution” that avoids being teleological. (Please note: it is crucial to keep in mind that the assigned exercise is to produce a proposition that illustrates Radcliffe-Brown’s theoretical position.  This does not require that the proposition be true or even that it be something you believe; indeed, the proposition you formulate may well be one you think is wrong or even offensive; what is crucial, though, is that you model R-B’s theoretical perspective about how to identify a “function” [of a social institution] while avoiding teleology.  In other words, if we asked you to present a statement that exhibits a social evolutionary claim about “polygamy” or “alternating sounds,” you would identify certain phenomena as “primitive”—without indicating one way or the other that you believed such claims.  In sum: this is an exercise in modeling a particular theoretical perspective—nothing more and nothing less.  Your job is to ventriloquate—to have Radcliffe-Brown speak through you.)

2a.  What analogy does Radcliffe-Brown identify as the basis of “the concept of function applied to social life” (178)?

2b.  In this analogy, as exhibited in R-B’s writings, what social phenomenon is identified as analogous to an “animal organism”?

2c.  What two phenomenon are placed into analogy in “the paleolothic equation”?  And how about in the “comparative method” more generally?

2c.  Whenever an analogy is made between two things, there are some ways the two things are analogous and some ways they are not.   Thus we can speak of the limits of any analogy.  Consider the analogy R-B draws between an “animal organism” and your answer to 2b.   Identify any limits of this analogy that occur to you, upon reflection.  That is, identify ways that the two analogized phenomena are not analogous.

3a.  Explain the distinction Radcliffe-Brown makes between “[social] structure as an actually existing concrete reality, to be directly observed,” on the one hand, and
“structural form,” on the other.

3b.  As an exercise, illustrate each of these with some example drawn from the observable world around you.  (As with 1d above, the point is to model R-B’s thinking, without regard to the soundness of the distinction he draws here.)

3c.  Re-read pages 192-193 carefully.  Can the “field-worker” identify “social structure” (in the sense of “structural form”) without doing one of the following things: collecting examples distributed (a) in physical space and/ or (b) in a sequence of time?

3d. For discussion (not to write up): how does the field-worker determine what range or space and/or time to use?  [After you have mulled over this question, go back to question 2c and see if thinking about 3d raises any additional points about the ways the analogy between an “animal organism” and R-B’s social “organism” breaks down.  Feel free to revise your answer to 2c in light of mulling over 3d.]

4.  After reading Radcliffe-Brown’s essay “The Mother’s Brother in South Africa,” answer the following questions.

a. What is an example, in this essay, of Radcliffe-Brown’s identification of “social structure” (in the sense of “structural form”)?

b.  R-B introduces this essay by distinguishing his views from those of scholars who regard the special “relationship” between “mother’s brother and sister’s son” as evidence that a society “had at some time in the past been matrilineal” (15).  Against which previous theoretical paradigm is R-B positioning himself in this passage?

5.  After reading Radcliffe-Brown’s essay “On Joking Relationships, answer the following questions.

a.  On p. 97, Radcliffe-Brown writes: “the joking relationship is a method of ordering a relation which combines social conjunction and disjunction” (compare this with the passage on page 95 that begins: “The theory…”).  In offering this account/explanation of “the joking relationship,” is Radcliffe-Brown identifying a “function”?  If so, in a way that commits or avoids “teleology”?

b. When R-B states that for “the native societies of Africa,” “we can only indulge in conjecture” about the antecedents of social structure, which previous theoretical paradigm is he criticizing (emphasis added)?

6.  Thinking about both “The Mother’s Brother” and “On Joking Relationships,” answer the following questions:

a.  As discussed by Radcliffe-Brown in these essays, is “social structure” something that is highly specific to a particular “society” or “context” (so that different societies or contexts have very different social structure) or can we find more or less the same “social structure” in “societies” or “contexts” in widely different locations in time and space?

b. Take your answer to 6a and use it to formulate a comparison of R-B in this regard to (i) Victorian social evolutionists and (ii) Boas.

BONUS QUESTION: Keep a diary during the week of any time you hear anyone (even yourself) say something that illustrates the use of the concept of (i) a “function” of a social institution and (ii) “social structure” (in the sense of “structural form”).

BONUS QUESTION: Identify and make a record of passages in which Radcliffe-Brown distinguishes “primitive” societies from “modern” societies.