Functional Theories

FUNCTIONAL THEORIES

The Functionalist  School of thinkers are Bronisław Malinowski, Alfred Radcliffe-Brown and Émile Durkheim.

1. Malinowski pointed out that religion is intimately connected with various emotional states, which are states of tension. The human mind always suffers from pain and tension and it seeks relief from all problems and offers them solutions in even an inexplicable manner. Then religion is made to bring about a readjustment between man and the supernatural in upset states of existence. It is a device to secure mental and psychological stability in an individual’s life.

For example, Trobriand Islanders organize religious ceremonies mainly during the time of fishing expeditions which is the main activity for the tribe and around which the pressures and tensions revolve all the time.

2. Radcliffe-Brown takes a different stand. The function of religion is not to purge fear and other emotional strains from the human mind but to instill a sense of dependence in it. The individual should learn to depend on society through some ritual and behavioral norms. Thus, he feels religion is not a device to save individual from his individual stress and strain; rather it is to assure social solidarity and homogeneity. All the members of a particular society come close to one another and share their failures and expectations by practicing religion.

For example, after every twelve years, the Mahalis worship ‘Surji Devi’ or Sun God for the welfare of the village and sacrifice chickens, pigeons, goats, etc.. After the rituals, they take the food together.

Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown lie in conjunction of their views and their viewpoints might appear opposed, but they are not; they are to be taken as complementary. The individual is as important to society as society is to the individual.

4. In part, Malinowski’s and Radcliffe-Brown’s sociological explanations are derived from Emile Durkheim’s theory of religion. Durkheim says that religious notions are born and conceived of when the social group collects together for festivals and other social gatherings. Social life on such occasions is at its intensest and impresses the human mind with the transcendentalism and omnipotence of the group. It is conceived of as the source of all that man has and all that man is. Religion is the recognition of the collective's superiority, moral and physical, over the individual.

Durkheim defines religion with regard to the parts of which it is composed. These parts are beliefs and rites; the former constitutes the static part of religion and the latter the dynamic part. Mere beliefs constitute theology. He offered two important concepts i.e. sacred and profane. Sacred refers to gods and deities who are actually symbolic of society. Profane is not sacred and do not form a part of religion; they are magic, suggestive of individual arrogance, and antisocial.

For example, Mahalis worship ‘Surji Devi’ as a joint performance and offer several animals that are sacred. On the other hand in, each family has its own deity, ‘Orak Bonga,’ nothing is told to the outsiders about this deity, thus telling anything to others is profane.

Thus, religion has a definite purpose of training people in social behaviors. Religion is not related only to supernatural forces that do not have any direct contact with real social life.