Application of the Theory of Functionalism

This study will analyze the use of the theory of functionalism in two ethnographies, The Nuer, by E.E. Evans-Pritchard, and Blood Is Their Argument, by Mervyn Meggitt. The book by Evans-Pritchard represents an early version of functionalist theory (1940) and the work by Meggitt represents a later version (1977). The study will compare the two works in terms of the authors' use of the theory of functionalism, explicit and implicit, and how they applied the theory to the people and societies they were studying.

Functionalism began as a critique of earlier history-based theories. It argued that it was possible to understand a culture without focusing on the history of the culture as a central concern. Functionalism focuses on the "functions" that the interrelated parts of the culture perform. To understand why a people does something is to understand the action itself: "Human societies are natural systems in which all the parts are interdependent, each serving in a complex of necessary relations to maintain the whole" (Bohannan & Glazer, 1988, p. 414).

Evans-Pritchard, in his study of the Nuer, includes the sub-title "A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People." We see, then, that the author aims to focus on the ways that these people produce their food and how they organize their society. In other words, the concerns are economic and political. From a functionalist viewpoint, Evans-Pritchard will examine the interconnectedness of

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to consciously cooperate with one another in a physical organism. Moving to Meggitt's study of "Warfare Among the Mae Enga Tribesmen of the New Guinea Highlands," we find a functionalist perspective applied to a single social activity---war. However, keeping in mind the functionalist emphasis on the interrelatedness of the "separate" elements of social activity, we find in Meggitt the same argument we found in Evans-Pritchard. Meggitt writes, for example, that in analyzing the function of warfare among these people he has found a connection with the territorial and economic aspects of their society. He says in his conclusion that for the people of Central Enga "the desire of local descent groups to gain and hold arable land has been the most powerful motive impelling them to make war on each other" (Meggitt, 1977, p. 182). However, Meggitt has taken the earlier functionalist perspective of Evans-Pritchard a few steps further along the road of theoretical evolution. Evans-Pritchard acknowledges in his conclusions that his work is a preliminary effort to understand the interconnectedness of the political, the social, and the economic, and he openly calls for further research into these connections. However, he does take stands wh

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