Alfred Radcliffe-Brown

Alfred Radcliffe-Brown started out as a philosopher who eventually turned anthropologist. He is known for developing the theory of "structural-functionalism," and is often considered the father of modern social anthropology. Although not much for field work, outside of the Andaman Isles, his travels allowed to him spread his influences to almost every part of the globe and his work influenced many researchers as well as leading to advances in the understanding of human societies worldwide. Radcliffe brown uses information found in Junod’s book entitled “The life of a South African tribe” to create his own hypotheses on a subject that plays a good deal of importance amongst primitive peoples all over the world, that is, the important relationship …show more content…
Radcliffe also explains that the fundamental principle of classification used in the primitive society is the “equivalence of brothers.” (18) He implies that the pivotal moment for this classification of kinship is to develop patterns for the mother’s brother and father’s sister by looking at the two in a different way. He illustrates the pattern between these three cultures by using the South african term malume or umlume which basically mean male mother, among the BaThang the word reran, which is used to describe a female father figure, and the Tongan word tuasina meaning male mother. The undeniable similarities between the Nama and the Tongans do not go unnoticed by Radcliffe-btrown and because of the non-existent connection between the two languages, he finds it “very difficult to conceive that the two regions have adopted the custom of calling the mother’s brother by a term meaning male mother either from one another or from a common source.”