• Sociological functionalism is linked to the structural-functionalist approach in anthropology, focusing on social forms in tribal societies and their role in social cohesion.
• The focus is on ‘ordering’ and ‘patterning’ of the social world, aiming to address the ‘problem of order’ at the societal level.
• Societies are viewed as persistent, cohesive, stable wholes, differentiated by culture and social structural arrangements.
• Key questions raised include: How did various institutions or customs originate? How do they contribute to the broader context? How does the part relate to the whole?
• A.R. Radcliffe-Brown states that the total social structure and social usages form a functional unity, where all parts work harmoniously without persisting conflicts.
• Any belief, rule, custom, or institution must be analyzed by linking elements functionally with the structure of the culture.
• The perspective emphasizes harmony and consistency, rather than conflict and contradiction, defining social order through functional unity.
• Structural-functionalism views society as a persistent configuration of elements where consensus is central.
• Change is seen as a slow, cumulative adjustment process, focusing on how activities fit together and prevent conflicts from altering the structure.
• M.N. Srinivas is credited for introducing structural-functional analysis in India’s sociological and social anthropological research.
• Structural-functionalism borrows concepts from biological sciences, where structure in biology refers to the stable arrangement of relationships in organisms.
• Spencer compares the body social to the human body, applying the same life principles to both.
• Durkheim emphasized structure over elements, particularly social morphology.
• In the 1930s, British social anthropologists like Evans-Pritchard and Radcliffe-Brown contributed to the development of structural-functionalism.
• According to Srinivas, structure and function imply that every society is a whole, with interrelated parts, including groups and categories.
• The structural-functional approach is rooted in fieldwork tradition, giving it a contextual or field view perspective of social phenomena.
• Key followers include M.N. Srinivas, S.C. Dube, McKim Marriott, I.P. Desai, D.N. Majumdar, and others.

Mysore Narsimhacharya Srinivas : Biography

• Mysore Narsimhacharya Srinivas (1916-1999) was born into a Brahmin family in Mysore on 16th November 1916 and passed away at the age of 83 in Bangalore on 30th November 1999.
• Srinivas emerged as a refreshing presence in the over-Brahminized world of Indian scholarship despite his own Brahminic background.
• He pioneered the tradition of basing macro-sociological generalizations on micro-anthropological insights and bringing a broad perspective to anthropological studies of small-scale communities.
• He earned his MA, LLB, and PhD from Bombay, and his D. Phil from Oxford.
• He served as Professor of Sociology at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and University of Delhi, and as Senior Fellow, Sociology Unit at the Institute for Social and Economic Change in Bangalore.
• Srinivas was also the J.R.D. Tata Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore.
• He was a student of G.S. Ghurye at the Department of Sociology of Bombay University.
• An institution-builder, he helped establish the Department of Sociology at M.S. University Baroda, building it from scratch.
• Srinivas later contributed to the establishment of the Department of Sociology at Delhi University.
• Though he went to Oxford in 1951, he did not stay long and left after a short period.
• He joined the Institute of Social and Economic Change in Bangalore after leaving the Delhi School of Economics.
• Srinivas was one of the few who chose to remain a professor throughout his life rather than accepting prestigious government positions.