A physician treats every patient by the same professional criteria and confines the relationship to the medical problem. Which pair of Parsons's pattern variables does this illustrate?

Collectivity orientation and diffuseness

Assertion (A): For Lévi-Strauss the incest taboo marks the transition from nature to culture. Reason (R): The taboo compels groups to exchange women and so creates alliances between them. Choose the correct option.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Which statement about the concept of social structure is correct?

For Radcliffe-Brown it is the observable network of relations; for Lévi-Strauss it is a model built by the analyst

Both treat it as the sum of individual needs

For Radcliffe-Brown it is an unconscious model; for Lévi-Strauss it is the observable network of relations

Both treat it as the economic base of society

For Radcliffe-Brown it is the observable network of relations; for Lévi-Strauss it is a model built by the analyst

Structure-Functionalism and Structuralism: Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, Parsons, Merton and Lévi-Strauss

The second block of Unit 1 groups two families of theory that share a word and not much else. Functionalism — in Malinowski's needs-based form, Radcliffe-Brown's structural-functional form, Parsons's grand systems theory and Merton's middle-range revision — asks what a social institution does for the whole. Structuralism, in Lévi-Strauss, asks what hidden logic of the human mind generates the visible variety of kinship, myth and classification. The paper tests both the concepts and the quarrels between these thinkers, so each is set against the others as well as described.

1. Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown: two functionalisms in anthropology

Bronislaw Malinowski (1884–1942) turned fieldwork into a method: his long stay in the Trobriand Islands produced Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922), the study of the kula ring, in which shell necklaces and armshells circulate in opposite directions among islands, creating lasting partnerships rather than profit. He made participant observation the standard of anthropology and urged attention to the 'imponderabilia of actual life'. His functionalism is rooted in the individual: culture exists to satisfy basic (biological) needs, which generate derived (instrumental) and integrative needs (A Scientific Theory of Culture, 1944). His account of magic is a classic: Trobrianders fish in the safe lagoon without magic but perform it before dangerous open-sea fishing, because magic answers anxiety where technique runs out.

A.R. Radcliffe-Brown (1881–1955) rejected needs of individuals as the starting point. Following Durkheim, he defined the function of a recurrent activity as the contribution it makes to the maintenance of the social structure — the network of actually existing social relations — much as an organ contributes to the life of an organism. He distinguished concrete structure from structural form, the general pattern that persists while persons come and go. His works include The Andaman Islanders (1922) and Structure and Function in Primitive Society (1952), which contains his analysis of joking and avoidance relationships as ways of managing relations that combine attachment and potential conflict, such as those with in-laws. He hoped for a 'natural science of society' that would compare structures across societies.

⚠️ Needs versus structure

If an option says function is the satisfaction of biological or psychological needs of individuals, it is Malinowski. If it says function is the contribution to maintaining social structure, it is Radcliffe-Brown — who called himself a comparative sociologist and disliked the label 'functionalism' altogether.

2. Talcott Parsons: action, system and the pattern variables

Parsons (1902–1979) began with The Structure of Social Action (1937), which argued that Marshall, Pareto, Durkheim and Weber converged on a voluntaristic theory of action: the unit act consists of an actor, an end, a situation (means and conditions) and the norms that govern the choice of means. In The Social System (1951) he shifted to systems. Action is organised in four systems — the behavioural organism, personality, the social system and the cultural system — ordered in a cybernetic hierarchy in which the information-rich cultural system controls the energy-rich lower ones. Every system must solve four functional problems, the AGIL scheme: Adaptation (economy), Goal attainment (polity), Integration (law and community), and Latency or pattern maintenance (family, education, religion).

Pattern variable (choice facing the actor)	Traditional pole	Modern pole
Gratification now or restraint	Affectivity	Affective neutrality
Scope of the relationship	Diffuseness	Specificity
Standard applied to others	Particularism	Universalism
Basis for judging others	Ascription (quality)	Achievement (performance)
Whose interest comes first	Collectivity orientation	Self orientation

ℹ️ The sick role

Parsons's analysis of illness in The Social System is his most-cited applied idea. The sick person is exempted from normal duties and not held responsible for the condition, but is obliged to want to get well and to seek competent help. Illness is thus a socially regulated form of deviance, and medicine a mechanism of social control.

3. Robert K. Merton: middle-range theory and the functional paradigm revised

Merton (1910–2003), Parsons's student, rejected grand theory in favour of theories of the middle range — theories close enough to data to be tested, such as reference group theory. In Social Theory and Social Structure (1949) he criticised three postulates of earlier functionalism: functional unity (every item functional for the whole society), universal functionalism (every standardised item has a positive function) and indispensability (only this item could fulfil the function). His replacements: an item can be dysfunctional or non-functional; functional alternatives (equivalents) can fulfil the same function; and functions may be manifest (intended and recognised) or latent (unintended and unrecognised) — the Hopi rain dance does not bring rain but does reinforce group identity.

Adaptation to anomie	Cultural goals	Institutional means
Conformity	Accepted	Accepted
Innovation	Accepted	Rejected
Ritualism	Rejected	Accepted
Retreatism	Rejected	Rejected
Rebellion	Rejected and replaced	Rejected and replaced

Reference group and relative deprivation: people judge their lot against groups they compare themselves with, not by absolute conditions — developed from The American Soldier studies; anticipatory socialisation is adopting the values of a group one hopes to join.
Self-fulfilling prophecy: a false definition of a situation evokes behaviour that makes it come true, as in a rumoured bank run.
Role-set (the array of role relationships attached to one status) and status-set (the several statuses one person occupies).
Sociology of science: the norms of science — communism (common ownership of findings), universalism, disinterestedness and organised scepticism — and the Matthew effect, by which recognition accrues to already eminent scientists.

4. Claude Lévi-Strauss: structuralism

Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009) borrowed his model from structural linguistics — Saussure and Roman Jakobson — where meaning lies not in single sounds but in the system of differences between them. For him, structure is not the observable network of relations (Radcliffe-Brown's sense) but an unconscious model built by the analyst, generated by the mind's tendency to think in binary oppositions (raw/cooked, nature/culture). In The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949) he founded alliance theory: the incest taboo is the rule that marks the passage from nature to culture, because by forbidding a man his own sisters and daughters it obliges him to exchange them with other groups. Marriage is therefore an exchange of women between groups, either restricted (direct, between two groups) or generalised (in a circle, as in matrilateral cross-cousin marriage).

His other works extend the method: Structural Anthropology (1958), which analyses myths into their smallest units (mythemes); The Savage Mind (1962), which describes mythical thought as bricolage — making do with whatever materials are to hand — and insists it is as logical as science, only working with concrete signs; the four volumes of Mythologiques, beginning with The Raw and the Cooked (1964); and the travel memoir Tristes Tropiques (1955). His structuralism is the direct target of the post-structuralists in the fourth block.

🧠 Two meanings of 'structure'

Radcliffe-Brown: structure is empirical, the real network of relations you can observe. Lévi-Strauss: structure is a model, the underlying logic you cannot observe directly. Remember 'observed versus inferred' and the classic matching question answers itself.

Key takeaways

Malinowski grounds function in individual biological needs and made participant observation the anthropologist's method; Radcliffe-Brown grounds function in the maintenance of social structure.
Parsons moved from the voluntaristic unit act to the social system: AGIL, the pattern variables and the cybernetic hierarchy of four action systems.
Merton replaced grand theory with middle-range theory, and the three postulates of functionalism with dysfunction, functional alternatives and the manifest/latent distinction.
Merton's five adaptations — conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion — follow from accepting or rejecting cultural goals and institutional means.
Lévi-Strauss treats structure as an unconscious model built on binary oppositions; his alliance theory reads the incest taboo as the origin of exchange between groups.

Practice questions (10)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

Which of Merton's adaptations describes a bureaucrat who has given up hope of promotion but follows every rule meticulously?
1. Innovation
2. Rebellion
3. Ritualism
4. Retreatism
Show answer
Answer: C — Ritualism
Ritualism rejects (or scales down) the cultural goal of success while clinging to the institutional means — the rule-bound official is Merton's own example. Innovation keeps the goal and rejects the means.
In Parsons's AGIL scheme, which subsystem of society primarily performs the latency (pattern maintenance) function?
1. Family, education and religion
2. The economy
3. The legal system
4. The polity
Show answer
Answer: A — Family, education and religion
Latency is the transmission and renewal of values and motivation, handled by family, schooling and religion. The economy performs adaptation, the polity goal attainment, and law and community integration.
A physician treats every patient by the same professional criteria and confines the relationship to the medical problem. Which pair of Parsons's pattern variables does this illustrate?
1. Universalism and specificity
2. Ascription and affectivity
3. Particularism and diffuseness
4. Collectivity orientation and diffuseness
Show answer
Answer: A — Universalism and specificity
Applying the same standard to all is universalism; limiting the relationship to one defined purpose is specificity. Parsons used the medical profession as his model of modern, universalistic and functionally specific roles.
Which of the following postulates of earlier functionalism did Merton criticise? Select all that apply.
1. Universal functionalism
2. Indispensability
3. Latent functions
4. Functional unity of society
Show answer
Answer: A — Universal functionalism; B — Indispensability; D — Functional unity of society
Merton attacked the postulates of functional unity, universal functionalism and indispensability. Latent functions are not a postulate he criticised but a concept he introduced in their place.
Assertion (A): For Lévi-Strauss the incest taboo marks the transition from nature to culture. Reason (R): The taboo compels groups to exchange women and so creates alliances between them. Choose the correct option.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: A — Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
The taboo is universal (like nature) yet a rule (like culture); its positive side is the obligation to give women to other groups, which founds exchange and alliance — so R is exactly why the taboo is the hinge between nature and culture.
Which work contains Malinowski's account of the kula ring?
1. The Andaman Islanders
2. Argonauts of the Western Pacific
3. The Savage Mind
4. Structure and Function in Primitive Society
Show answer
Answer: B — Argonauts of the Western Pacific
Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922) describes the Trobriand kula exchange. The Andaman Islanders and Structure and Function in Primitive Society are Radcliffe-Brown's; The Savage Mind is Lévi-Strauss's.
Which statement about the concept of social structure is correct?
1. Both treat it as the sum of individual needs
2. For Radcliffe-Brown it is an unconscious model; for Lévi-Strauss it is the observable network of relations
3. Both treat it as the economic base of society
4. For Radcliffe-Brown it is the observable network of relations; for Lévi-Strauss it is a model built by the analyst
Show answer
Answer: D — For Radcliffe-Brown it is the observable network of relations; for Lévi-Strauss it is a model built by the analyst
Radcliffe-Brown meant the empirically existing network of social relations; Lévi-Strauss insisted that social structure has nothing to do with empirical reality but with models built after it.
Lévi-Strauss described mythical thought as a kind of intellectual do-it-yourself that makes use of whatever materials are at hand. Give the French term he used.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: bricolage
In The Savage Mind (1962) the bricoleur works with a finite set of heterogeneous materials; mythical thought likewise rearranges existing signs, whereas the engineer (science) works with concepts designed for the task.
The Hopi rain ceremony does not produce rain but strengthens the group's solidarity. In Merton's terms, strengthening solidarity is the ceremony's:
1. Dysfunction
2. Manifest function
3. Functional alternative
4. Latent function
Show answer
Answer: D — Latent function
The intended purpose, rain, would be the manifest function; the unintended and unrecognised consequence, reinforcing group identity, is the latent function — Merton's own illustration.
Which of the following is NOT one of the norms of science identified by Merton?
1. Value-rationality
2. Organised scepticism
3. Universalism
4. Disinterestedness
Show answer
Answer: A — Value-rationality
Merton's four norms are communism, universalism, disinterestedness and organised scepticism. Value-rationality is one of Weber's four types of social action.