Alfred Radcliffe-Brown

January 17, 1881 - October 24, 1955

Biography

Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown was an English social anthropologist born in 1881. He was most well known for his work in the development of structural functionalism. He was born in Birmingham, England to Alfred Brown and Hannah Radcliffe. He attended Trinity College in Cambridge where he studied anthropology where he studied under H. R. Rivers and A. C. Haddon. During his time at Trinity College, Radcliffe-Brown was also influenced by the works of Peter Kropotkin, who was a communist philosopher. In 1906, he went to the Andaman Islands where he spent two years tracing genealogies before returning to England. He also went on another field study to Western Australia, which he wrote about in The Social Organization of Australian Tribes (1930). Radcliffe-Brown only went on two field studies because he found field work to be difficult and taxing. After World War 1, he moved to Sydney where he taught at the University of Sydney. While he was at the University of Sydney, Radcliffe-Brown developed a social anthropology program and created the journal Oceania. Eventually, He moved to the University of Chicago in 1931 to teach anthropology. During his time at the University of Chicago, “[h]e expanded his theory of social anthropology, and developed his conceptions of primitive law.” (Anon 2016). After his time in America, Radcliffe-Brown moved back to England in 1937 to teach social anthropology. Radcliffe-Brown finished editing and published African Systems of Kinship and Marriage (1950) and Structure and Function in Primitive Society (1952) after his retirement in 1946. During his retirement, Radcliffe-Brown traveled and taught around the world. Eventually, Radcliffe-Brown died in 1955 because of complications with bronchitis and pneumonia.

Theories and works

Radcliffe-Brown’s most important contribution was the development of the field of structural functionalism (https://courses.lumenlearning.com/intro-to-sociology/chapter/functionalism/). Radcliffe-Brown suggested, “[t]hat a society is a system of relationships maintaining itself through cybernetic feedback, while institutions are orderly sets of relationships whose function is to maintain the society as a system.” (Porth et al. 2017). Radcliffe-Brown’s work was heavily influenced by Émile Durkheim (https://durkheim.uchicago.edu/Biography.html) and was focused on the generalizations about social structures. During his time in Western Australia, he was focused on the study of kinship and his fieldwork revealed a very unique kinship system. Also, in his 1924 paper The Mother’s Brother in South Africa, Radcliffe-Brown studied the interesting relationships that a boy and his maternal uncle in some tribes in South Africa.

Radcliffe-Brown was able to establish an analogy to relate social life to organic life. His main argument was that if the biological organism was still alive and functioning then the continuity of the system is still preserved. Radcliffe-Brown compared humans to these biological organisms, and that humans are connected by social relations. Even if people leave the society by moving or dying, the system’s continuity is still preserved because of more people moving into the society. While Radcliffe-Brown was a leading figure in structural functionalism, he was criticized for not considering the effect of historical changes. Radcliffe-Brown was able to steer away from the traditional sense of anthropology and influence future anthropologists. While Radcliffe-Brown did write some works, he was most known for his incredible teaching ability.

Major works

Radcliffe-Brown's most prominent works were The Andaman Islanders, The Social Organization of Australian Tribes, and Structure and Function in Primitive Society. Published in 1922, The Andaman Islanders focuses on the inhabitants of the islands and their social institutions. The Social Organization of Australian Tribes focuses on the social organization of the tribes in the western part of Australia. One of his final works was Structure and Function in Primitive Society, this paper focuses on the kinship, religion, and law of traditional societies.

The Distribution of Native Tribes in Part of Western Australia (1912)

The Andaman Islanders (1922)

The Mother’s Brother in South Africa (1924)

The Social Organization of Australian Tribes (1930)

A Natural Science of Society (1948)

African Systems of Kinship and Marriage (1950)

Structure and Function in Primitive Society (1952)

learn More

Learn more about functionalism:https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/society-and-culture/social-structures/v/functionalism

Learn more about Structural-functionalism: https://lwtech.instructure.com/courses/1778902/pages/structural-functionalism

Learn more about Radcliffe-Brown: https://www.britannica.com/biography/A-R-Radcliffe-Brown

Learn more about Radcliffe-Brown and his theories: Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology: An Encyclopedia (2013) by R. Jon McGee and Richard L. Warms

Works Cited

Anon. 2016. “Alfred Radcliffe-Brown.” New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 30, 2020 (https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Alfred_Radcliffe-Brown).

Hogbin, Ian. n.d. “Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred Reginald (1881–1955).” in Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.

Porth, Eric, Kimberley Neutzling, and Jessica Edwards. 2017. “Functionalism.” Anthropology Theories. Retrieved September 30, 2020 (https://anthropology.ua.edu/theory/functionalism/).