“Write short note: The idea of functional indispensability.” (1996)
Functional indispensability is the assumption that certain institutions are so vital that no society could survive without them. Although this question sits in the Parsons block, the concept as examined today comes from Robert K. Merton’s critique of classical functionalism in “Manifest and Latent Functions”, in Social Theory and Social Structure (1949; revised 1957).
Origins of the postulate
- Bronisław Malinowski held that in every culture “every custom, material object, idea and belief fulfils some vital function” and is an indispensable part of a working whole.
- A. R. Radcliffe-Brown linked each usage to the continuity of the total structure.
- Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore (“Some Principles of Stratification”, 1945) treated stratification as a universal necessity for allocating talent. They also saw religion as playing a unique and indispensable part in integrating society.
Merton’s critique
Merton listed indispensability as the third postulate, after functional unity and universal functionalism. He showed that it contains two separate claims:
- Certain functions are indispensable. He accepted this as the idea of functional prerequisites, preconditions a society needs, such as socialisation or social control.
- Certain cultural forms are indispensable for meeting those functions. He rejected this. The same function can be met by a range of functional alternatives, so no single structure is irreplaceable.
- He kept a limit, structural context: interdependent elements narrow the alternatives actually available, so substitution is possible but not unlimited.
- Treating forms as indispensable is ideologically conservative, because it makes existing arrangements look natural and unchangeable.
- Melvin Tumin (1953) similarly argued that stratification may be dysfunctional, wasting talent and deepening hostility, and so cannot be called indispensable.
Indian illustration
- Caste was once treated as the indispensable basis of India’s division of labour and social order. Markets, education and constitutional law now allocate occupations and settle disputes, even though caste endogamy persists: only about 5% of marriages were inter-caste in the India Human Development Survey (2011-12). Persistence shows that caste is entrenched and serves the interests of some groups, not that society needs it.
- Joint family and elder care: the function of caring for the aged is indispensable, but the joint family is not the only form that can meet it. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 gives the state a role as a statutory guarantor, beside old-age pensions and care homes.
Assessment
The critique made functionalism empirical: whether a form is indispensable becomes a question for research, not an assumption. However, Merton could not specify the list of prerequisites, and the charge of teleology remains.
Conclusion
Merton separated necessary functions from the particular forms that happen to meet them. That opened functional analysis to change and reform, and India’s shift from caste and kin obligations to citizenship-based institutions fits his argument.