Cultural Evolution Functionalism

Methods of Cultural Functionalism:

     Functionalism as a whole seeks to discover newly formed connections in and in between societies, hoping to shape a greater understanding of the word “interconnectedness”. Recently, through a process called enculturation, cultural anthropologists have a taken a more modern approach with their field studies, or as Conrad Phillip Kottak of Cultural Anthropology: Appreciating Cultural Diversity puts it, “boldly going where no scientist has gone before.” Field studies are something anthropologists rely heavily upon- a collaboration of their daily research that further leads to connective patterns. In functionalism, it’s extremely crucial for a cultural anthropologist to locate a significant figure within the community, for instance a story teller, a chief, etc.; this enables the researcher to fully understand how a community works together and functions. In any community, enculturation defines how a child learns his/her culture; in an abstract sense, anthropologists learning about a new culture puts them in an adolescent point-of-view. Enculturation is a critical element to an anthropologists path to understanding the bigger picture.