Radcliffe-Brown put great emphasis upon distinguishing on the structural function from the function of Malinowski and others.

Radcliffe-Brown who had used the term function earlier than Malinowski was not ready to accept Malinowski, who claimed himself as the father of functionalism on the basis of theory of need for which culture, either in past or at present was functional instrument. In their view the purpose of comparison was to explore socio-cultural institutions of present day societies in terms of their socio-cultural similarities. Malinowski and Radcliffe Brown developed the concept of synchronic functional analysis of culture which was concerned with present and now. This example illustrates that Structural Functionalism is generally seen as being supportive of the status quo. The implication, of course, is that, because society is functioning smoothly with gender stratification, such stratification is acceptable and efforts should not be made to change the arrangement. According to Structural Functionalist thought, a woman being subordinate to men allows the cogs of society to function smoothly as everyone in the society knows his or her respective positions in the hierarchy. Gender inequality offers a good illustration. Thus, one of the key ideas in Structural Functionalism is that society is made-up of groups or institutions, which are cohesive, share common norms, and have a definitive culture. In the structural functionalist model, individuals produce necessary goods and services in various institutions and roles that correlate with the norms of the society. In order for social life to survive and develop in society there are a number of activities that need to be carried out to ensure that certain needs are fulfilled. Structural Functionalism is a theoretical understanding of society that puts social systems as the collective means to fill society’s needs. Structural Functionalism is a sociological theory that attempts to explain why society functions the way it does by focusing on the relationships between the various social institutions that makes up society (e.g., government, law, education, religion etc.) 33. Milton Singer Mckim Marriott, Dumont.30. Science Technology and Society Studies.25. Practice Theory: Bourdieu Giddens, Ortner.22. Modernization and dependency/Theories in development Anthropology.19. Biological Theories of Culture and Sociobiology.18. Ecological theories: cultural ecology, system ecology and political ecology.17. Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology.

16. Cognitive Anthropology, Ethno Science, Etic Emic, New Ethnography.15. Structuralism: Levi Strauss and Edmund Leach.14. Interactionist Theories and Transactionalism.13. Manchester School: Conflict theories.12. Culture and civilization: Robert Redfield.11. Culture and Personality studies: Spiro, Mary Doughlas, A.10. Culture and Personality studies: Mead, Benedict, Kardiner, Linton, Cora-du-Bois.9. Structural- functionalism: Radcliffe Brown.7. Configuration and Pattern – Kroeber and Benedict.6. Historical Particularism: Boas School.

2. Foundation of anthropological thoughts.1. Introduction to Theories in Anthropology.

Structural functional theory criticism