Exam 9: Functionalism, the Pure and the Hyphenated

Malinowski argued that cultural practices develop to satisfy seven individual needs universal to all humans.

Critics have faulted functionalist theories for being non-falsifiable in that their "explanations" of cultural practices cannot be disproven.

Radcliffe-Brown largely agreed with Boas and Malinowski that anthropology should focus on the study of culture.

To understand social structure, according to Radcliffe Brown, it was necessary to understand how it evolved and changed over time, leading him to adopt a "multi-chronic" perspective on society.

Assuming that all people in a particular society follow social rules in the same fashion, Radcliffe-Brown claimed that it was only necessary to know the rules of society in order to understand the behavior of the people who belong to it.

Malinowski viewed magic as an attempt to control events in which there is high risk or uncertainty and an inability to control those events by other, more direct means; as such, he said, it was found in both "primitive" and "civilized" societies.

In analyzing the trading partnerships of the kula ring in the Trobriand Islands, Malinowski set out to show how the assumptions of western formal economics apply everywhere.

Reflecting prevalent theories of the time in archaeology and cultural anthropology, African Political Systems showed that stratified societies in Africa were those with the highest population densities.

The edited volume African Political Systems examined in great detail how colonialism had altered African societies.

Because of its assumption that social practices fulfill the needs of society, functionalism is particularly well-suited to understanding how culture changes as social and individual needs change.