Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown (1881 – 1955) b. Sparkbrook, Birmingham, England.
Radcliffe-Brown was seen as the classic to Bronislaw Malinowski's romantic. Radcliffe-Brown brought French sociology (namely Emile Durkheim) to British anthropology, constructing a rigorous battery of concepts to frame ethnography. Although he often rejected it, Radcliffe-Brown was associated with Functionalism, specifically considered to be the founder of Structural Functionalism. While Malinowski was attributed with the methodological foundations of anthropological fieldwork, Radcliffe-Brown was attributed with developing a sophisticated functionalist theoretical framework.
Radcliffe-Brown also contributed extensively to the anthropological ideas on kinship.
University appointments:
- University of Cape Town (1920-25)
- University of Sydney (1925-31)
- University of Chicago (1931-37)
- The Andaman Islanders (1922)
- Social Organization of Australian Tribes (1931)
- Structure and Function in Primitive Society (1935)
