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Articles: Arts and Culture | A Scientific Theory of Culture
- Mr. Vachaspati V.
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This is continuation of my series that is on ‘Culture and Civilization’.
A Scientific Theory of Culture: A Functionalist View of Culture
In his book, Scientific Theory of Culture, Malinowski defined culture as the integral whole consisting of implements and consumers good, of constitutional characters for the various social groupings, of human ideas and craft, beliefs and customs, whether we consider a very simple or primitive culture or an extremely complex or civilized culture, we are confronted by a vast apparatus, partly material, partly human and partly spiritual, by which man is able to cope with the concrete specific problem that face him. These problems arise out of the fact that man has a body subject to various organic needs and that he lives in an environment, which is his best friend that it provides the raw materials of man’s handy work, and also his dangerous enemy, for that is harbors many hostile forces.
He was of opinion that the theory of culture must take its stand on biological fact, as Human beings are an animal species. They are subject to elemental conditions, which have to be fulfilled so that individuals may survive, the population continues, organisms, one and all to be maintained in working order. From the above description, it appears that the satisfaction of organic or basic needs of man and of the race is a minimum set of conditions imposed on each culture. The problem set by man’s nutritive, reproductive and hygienic needs must be solved. They are solved by the constructive of a new, secondary or artificial environment. This environment, which is neither more or less than culture itself, has to be permanently reproduced, maintained and managed. This creates a new standard of living, which depends upon the cultural level of community, on the environment, and on the efficiency of the group. A cultural standard of living means that the new needs appear and new imperatives or determinants are imposed on human behavior. Clearly, cultural tradition has to be transmitted from each generation to the next. Methods and mechanism of an educational must exist in every culture. Order and law has to be maintained, since cooperation is the essence of every cultural achievement. In every community, there must exist these arrangements for sanctioning of customs, ethics, and the law. The material substratum of culture has to be renewed and maintained in working order. Hence, some forms of economic organization are indispensable, even in the most primitive culture.
Thus, man has, first and foremost, to satisfy all the needs of his organism. He has to create arrangements and carrying out activities for feeding, heating, housing, hunting, clothing, or protection from cold, wind, disease and weather. He has to protect himself and organize for such protection against external enemies and dangers, physical, animal or human. These primary problems of human beings are solved for the individual by artifacts, organization into cooperative groups, and also by the development of knowledge, a sense of value and ethics. Thus, a theory can be established in which basic needs and their cultural satisfaction can be linked up with derivation of new cultural needs, which impose upon man and society a secondary type of determinism. A distinction can also be activities such as economic, normative, educational, and political, and integrative imperatives arising out of knowledge, religion and magic. Artistic and recreational activities are related directly to certain physiological characteristics of human organism and also to show their influence and dependence upon modes of concrete action, magical, industrial and religious belief.
The scientific analysis of culture, can point to another system of realities that also conforms to general laws and can thus, be used as a guide for fieldwork, as a means of identification of cultural realities and as the basis of social engineering. The relations between cultural performance and human need, basic or derived may be termed functional. For function cannot be defined in any other way than the satisfaction of a need by an activity in which human beings cooperate, use artifacts, and consume goods. The essential concept here is that of organization. In order to achieve any purpose, reach any end, human beings have to organize. Organization implies a very definite scheme of structure, the main factors of which are universal in that they are applicable to all organized groups, which again, in their typical form, are universal throughout mankind. The unit of human organization is institution. The concept of institution implies an agreement on a set of traditional values for human beings come together. This is also implies that these human beings stand together in definite relation to one another and to a specific physical part of their environment, natural and artificial under the character of their purpose or traditional mandate, obeying the specific norms of their association, working through the material apparatus, which they manipulate, human beings act together and thus satisfy some of their desires, which also producing an impression on their environment.
On the basis of universally valid principles of institutional action, we may lay a scientific foundation for our empirical and theoretical pursuits.
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