THEORY OF CULTURE

The structural-functional theory and the social-conflict theory of Culture

Structural-functional theory and the social-conflict theory of Culture

Introduction

In this paper, we present a comparison between structural-functional and social conflict theory of culture.

Structural-functional Theory

The structural-functional theory revolves around the fact that total societal system, where its constituent elements present an evolutionary scheme of interpretation.

For Durkheim, the structure of the society revolves around a set of pillars. However, do not confuse this concept with Durkheim's characterization of God and religions, as given in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, describes the religious beliefs expressed in rituals, symbols, emblems or abstract ideas representations to state its meaning, its purpose as such. The beliefs are evident to the father of classical sociology as indispensable for the reproduction of society, both carry a moral (and thus, speaking of our beliefs regarding the subjective factor in the thinking of Durkheim, as to give effect to social ties is necessary that the components of society to appropriate the internalized beliefs and act according to them.

Structural functionalism distinguishes from the traditional logic of causal argument where a cause should precede its consequences. Functionalists identify a causal loop, or feedback, linking cause and effect. For example, when an anthropologist asks: “. The functionalist concludes that if the rain dance did not have this positive function, it would not be reproduced. Functionalists generalized this to argue that all societies have to meet some universal and interconnected requirements—as well as group solidarity, economic subsistence, social control, sexual reproduction, socialization, education of new generations, and management of sickness and death—and that these can be the means of access into “alien” cultures and can form the basis of cross-cultural comparisons.

While the theory has its roots in sociology, critical approaches structural functionalism, also has a relationship and dialogue with certain philosophical schools, especially phenomenological, the analysis of common language proposals Wittgenstein, who question the concept of a single individual and pre-constituted as a source of knowledge, morality and society, and recover aspects of inter-subjectivity and conceptuality from understanding the language, not only as an instrument of thought, or ability individual but also as an expression of the existence of structures, meanings and symbolism and social groups (Dahrendorf, 2002).

Margaret Mead argues that culture is a set of learned behavior patterns, which reflect value judgments about the conditions of life and conveys a procedure by symbolic (language, myth, knowledge) from generation to generation; cultural dimension through the institutions created by the people, resulting in that culture is the subject itself and not the person who produces it. Kluckhohn argues that in general, patterns of behavior, as they take influence from the cultural factors, are the concrete expressions that reflect the senses or generalized values, and to the extent that individual personality is a product of education in a particular cultural tradition, are also significant differences in the level of general social value.

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