Critically examine the functionalist approach to the study of Caste.

The functionalists believe that all the functions carried out by various parts of the society are functional for its survival. But they are not equal in importance. The people who perform higher functions are ranked higher. People differ in terms of their innate ability and talent. Positions differ in terms of their importance for the survival and maintenance of society. Certain positions are more functionally important than others. A most important function of stratification as believed by the functionalists, is to match the most able people with the functionally most important positions. It does this by attaching high rewards to those positions. The aim for such rewards motivates people to compete for them and in theory the mall talented will win through. Functionalists like Davis and Moore argued that social stratification is a device by which societies insurance that the most important positions are honestly filled by the most qualified persons. Parsons believes that stratification system are just, right and proper, since they are basically an expression of shared values. He called these shared value as social values norms. Each society devises its own values and norms which are best suited for maintaining order and stability. Shared values are a necessary part of all social systems. He argued that power and prestige differentials are essential for the coordination and integration of a social system. It serves to further collective goods which are based on social values. But Parsons did not neglected the conflict aspect here because he further said that there will be conflict when the social values are challenged.

Functionalists view society as a system that is a set of interconnected parts which together form a whole. The basic unit of analysis is society and its various parts are understood primarily in terms of their relationship to the whole. They took society as an organism they tried to explain how a society is able to survive. The underlying assumption here is that all societies want stability, order and peace. They presume that there are certain basic needs of every society which they called functional prerequisites these needs have to be met for the stability of society. Thus functionalist theory explains how stratification contribute for the maintenance of stability and order in society.

Davis and Moore argued thal all social system share certain functional prerequisites which must be met if the system is to survive and operate efficiently the first functional prerequisite is effective role allocation and performance. This will ensure that the right people are placed in proper positions. There are four aspects of this prerequisite:

(i) All roles in society must be filled,

(ii) The most able people must fill these positions, 

(iii) Training for them be undertaken, 

(iv) Roles be performed conscientiously. 

They believed that stratification is the Mechanism to ensure effective role allocation by providing unequal rewards of different positions.

Functionalists view society as a system that is a set of interconnected parts which together form a whole. The basic unit of analysis is society and its various parts are understood primarily in terms of their relationship to the whole. They took society as an organism they tried to explain how a society is able to survive. The underlying assumption here is that all societies want stability, order and peace. They presume that there are certain basic needs of every society which they called functional prerequisites these needs have to be met for the stability of society. Thus functionalist theory explains how stratification contribute for the maintenance of stability and order in society.

Social values are the shared belief of a society. These values arise out of the need of every society to maintain order and stability. Each society develops its own values which are best suited for maintenance of stability. They emerge out of consensus of the member of that society. Any person who performs according to the values is better rewarded. If a person violates the consensus he or she is punished. On the basis of values, individuals are evaluated and placed in the hierarchy. Differences in the strata or the rank are justified by the value system. So stratification is defined by parsons as the ranking of units in a social system in accordance with the common values system. Hence it is the value consensus which creates stratification in a society. They believed that stratification is the mechanism to ensure effective role allocation by providing unequal rewards of different positions. 

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