functionalism

In the social sciences, a theory that stresses the interdependence of the patterns and institutions of a society and their interaction in maintaining cultural and social unity. In sociology, functionalism emerged from the work of , who viewed society as a kind of “organism” that carried with it certain “needs” that must be fulfilled. Similar views were adopted in anthropology by A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, who attempted to explain social structures as enduring systems of adaptation, fusion, and integration; and by Bronis, who viewed culture as the expression of the totality of individual and collective achievement, where “every custom, material object, idea, and belief fulfills some vital function.” The U.S. sociologist Talcott Parsons analyzed large-scale societies in terms of their social, psychological, and cultural components and focused on problems of social order, integration, and equilibrium. Later writers argued that functionalism was too rigid to account for the breadth, depth, and contingencies of human social life and that it ignored the role of history in shaping society.

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