Social Structure is a Reality: A.R. Radcliffe-Brown’s Contribution Spencer coined the term social structure, but he did not offer a theoretical perspective on it, except for advancing the analogy between societies and organisms. His ideas influenced later scholars in developing the concepts of structure and function. For example, Emile Durkheim and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, who was a student of the diffusionist W.H.R. Rivers, and had carried out his first-hand fieldwork with the Andmand Islanders from 1906 to 1908. Throughout his teaching, he emphasised the importance of the study of social structure. This submission of Radcliffe-Brown was closely linked to his notion of social anthropology, which he quite willing to call after Durkheim, ‘Comparative Sociology’ for the discussion of society.
(a) A Natural Science of Society: According to Radcliffe-Brown (1948), ‘social anthropology is the theoretical natural science of human society’. This means that social phenomena are investigated by methods similar to those used in natural and biological sciences.
(b) The Content of Social Structure: Talking about structure, we have in mind, some kind of arrangement of parts or components. The basic part of social structure is the person. Here, Radcliffe-Brown (1952) makes an important distinction between an individual and a person.
As an individual, ‘he is a biological organism’, comprising a number of molecules oganised in a complex way, and who is studied by biological and psychological sciences.
As a person, the human being is a ‘complex of social relationships’. It is the subject of study for sociologists and social anthropologists.
(c) Structural Type: A social anthropologist actually investigates is society’s structure, i.e. an actually existing concrete reality, to be directly observes. However, from what he observes, he abstracts a general picture of that society. Here, Radcliffe-Brown makes a distinction between ‘social structure’ and ‘structural type or form’. While social structure continues over time, a kind of continuity that Radcliffe-Brown calls ‘dynamic continuity’. It is like the ‘organic structure of a living body’. Similar to a living body which constantly renews itself by replacing its cells energy level, in the same way, the actual ‘social life’ renews the social structure. As time passes, relations between people change. New members get recruited in a society because of birth or immigration.
(d) Society and Social Structure: When we view social structure as a collectivity of interpersonal relations, real and observable then what would be society? Radcliffe-Brown answer Claude Levi-Strauss that ‘When I pick up a particular sea-shell on the beach, I recognize it as having a particular structure’ ( Kuper, 1977). What do I study? The sea-shell or its structure? I may find other shells of the same species which have a similar structure, so that I can say there is a form of structure characteristic of the species. Moreover, what Radcliffe-Brown understands by the term ‘structural type’ is what many understand by the term ‘social structure’ and what Radcliffe-Brown calls ‘social structure’ is what many would call society. This difference is very important to remember for the study of society.
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