Radcliffe-brown notes
AN101-LT- Week 2. On Social structure. Radcliffe-Brown. 1940
-Social anthropology is the natural science of human society, but some view it as the study of culture- which makes it hard to obtain agreement in the formulation of problems.
-We have to deal with relations of association between individual organisms (human beings). (These are social not cultural phenomena)
-Social structure >network of actually exiting relations. Fundamental part of social anthropology.
- “branch of natural science which will have for its task the discovery of the general characteristics of those social structures of which the component units are human beings” (1940:2)
- “the social phenomena which we observe in any human society are not the immediate result of the nature of individual human beings, but are tlie result of the social structure by which they are united” (1940:3)
- Suggests there is more to the term social structure than just a tribe, nation etc.
Must include
- All social relations person to person, e.g father and son, uncle and nephew
-Differentiation of individuals and of classes by their social role.
-Concerned with actually existing relations, at a moment of time. However we must observe the form of the structure.
-The structural form is a dynamic continuity; it’s constantly being renewed. New members enter through birth or migration other got out. Marriages and divorce. Friend become enemies. Etc. However while the actual structure changes the structural form remains the same.
-However it does have the potential for change e.g revolution or military conquests.
-‘social personality’- position occupied by a human being in a social structure. The human being is an individual (biological organism, complex structure that reactions and processes occur both physiologically and psychologically). The human being as a person is a complex of social relationships. (e.g father, accountant, voter of a certain constituency) each of these has their place in the
-Social anthropology is the natural science of human society, but some view it as the study of culture- which makes it hard to obtain agreement in the formulation of problems.
-We have to deal with relations of association between individual organisms (human beings). (These are social not cultural phenomena)
-Social structure >network of actually exiting relations. Fundamental part of social anthropology.
- “branch of natural science which will have for its task the discovery of the general characteristics of those social structures of which the component units are human beings” (1940:2)
- “the social phenomena which we observe in any human society are not the immediate result of the nature of individual human beings, but are tlie result of the social structure by which they are united” (1940:3)
- Suggests there is more to the term social structure than just a tribe, nation etc.
Must include
- All social relations person to person, e.g father and son, uncle and nephew
-Differentiation of individuals and of classes by their social role.
-Concerned with actually existing relations, at a moment of time. However we must observe the form of the structure.
-The structural form is a dynamic continuity; it’s constantly being renewed. New members enter through birth or migration other got out. Marriages and divorce. Friend become enemies. Etc. However while the actual structure changes the structural form remains the same.
-However it does have the potential for change e.g revolution or military conquests.
-‘social personality’- position occupied by a human being in a social structure. The human being is an individual (biological organism, complex structure that reactions and processes occur both physiologically and psychologically). The human being as a person is a complex of social relationships. (e.g father, accountant, voter of a certain constituency) each of these has their place in the