The Comparative Method in Social Anthropology

Author(s): A. R. Radcliffe-Brown
Source: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland,
Vol. 81, No. 1/2 (1951), pp. 15-22
Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
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 15

THE COMPARATIVE METHOD IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Huxley Memorial Lecture for 1951

BY PROFESSOR A. R. RADCLIFFE-BROWN, M.A.

What is meant when one speaks of ' the comparative results may be obtained from their study, for it shows
method' in anthropology is the method used by such that the human mind develops everywhere according
*awriterasFrazerinhis GoldenBough. But comparisons to the same laws."
of particular features of social life can be made for Boas included these two tasks in the single discipline
either of two very different purposes, which correspond which he called sometimes ' anthropology,' sometimes
to the distinction now commonly made in England 'ethnology.' To some of us in this country it seems
between ethnology and social anthropology. The more convenient to refer to those investigations that
existence of similar institutions, customs or beliefs in are concerned with the reconstruction of history as
two or more societies may in certain instances be taken belonging to ethnology and to keep the term social
by the ethnologist as pointing to some historical anthropology for the study of discoverable regularities
connection. What is aimed at is some sort of recon- in the development of human society in so far as these
struction of the history of a society or people or region. can be illustrated or demonstrated by the study of
In comparative sociology or social anthropology the primitive peoples.
purpose of comparison is different, the aim being to Thus, the comparative method in social anthropology
explore the varieties of forms of social life as a basis is the method of those who have been called ' arm-chair
for the theoretical study of human social phenomena. anthropologists' since they work in libraries. Their
Franz Boas, writing in 1888 and 1896, pointed out first task is to look for what used to be called
that in anthropology there are two tasks to be under- 'parallels,' similar social features appearing in
taken. One kind of task is to -' reconstruct' the different societies, in the present or in the past. At
history of particular regions or peoples, and this he Cambridge sixty years ago Frazer represented arm-
spoke of as being " the first task ". The second task chair anthropology using the comparative method,
he describes as follows:-"A comparison of the social while Haddon urged the need of ' intensive' studies
life of different peoples proves tliat the foundations of of particular societies by systematic field studies of
their cultural development are remarkably uniform. competent observers. The development of field studies
It follows from this that there are laws to which this has led to a relative neglect of studies making use of
development is subject. Their discovery is the second, the comparative method. This is both understandable
perhaps the more important aim of our science. . and excusable, but it does have some regrettable
In the pursuit of these studies we find that the same effects. The student is told that he must consider any
custom, the same idea, occurs among peoples for whom feature of social life in its context, in its relation to the
we cannot establish any historical connection, so that other features of the particular social system in which
a common historical origin cannot be assumed and it it is found. But he is often not taught to look at it
becomes necessary to decide whether there are laws in the, wider context of human societies in general.
that result in the same, or at least similar, phenomena The teaching of the Cambridge school of anthropology
independently of historical causes. Thus develops the forty-five years ago was not that arm-chair anthro-
second important task of ethnology, the investigation pology was to be abandoned but that it must be
of the laws governing social life." " The frequent combined with intensive studies of particular primitive
occurrence of similar phenomena in cultural areas societies in which any particular institution, custom,
that have no historical contact suggests that important or belief of the society should be examined in relation

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 16 A. R. RADCLIFFE-BROWN

to the total social system of which it was a part or lift the stone and take a drink, then replace the stone.
item. Without systematic comparative studies anthro- The crow proceeded to lift the stone, and after he
pology will become only historiography and ethno- had taken a drink of fresh water scratched the lice
graphy. Sociological theory must be based on, and from his head into the water and did not replace
continually tested by, systematic comparison. the stone. The result was that the water escaped and
The only really satisfactory way of explaining a formed the rivers of eastern Australia in which the
method is by means of illustration. Let us therefore lice became the Murray cod that were an important
consider how the method can be applied in a particular item of food for the aborigines just as salmon are
instance. We may take our start with a -particular in north-west America. If we accept the criteria
feature of some tribes in the interior of New South formulated by the diffusionists, such as Graebner,
Wales. In these tribes there is a division of the we ha-ve here what they would say is evidence of a
population into two parts, which are named after historical connection between Australia and the
the eaglehawk and the crow (Kilpara and Makwara). Pacific coast of North America.
There is a rule by which a man should only take a wife Once we begin looking for parallels to the eagle-
from the division other than his own, and that the hawk-crow division of Australia we find many
children will belong to the same division as their instances of exogamous moieties, in some instances
mother. The system is described in technical terms matrilineal, in others patrilineal,- in the rest of
as one of totemically represented exogamous matri- Australia, and frequently the divisions are named after
lineal moieties. or represented by birds. In Victoria we find black
-One way of explaining why a particular society has cockatoo and white cockatoo, in Western Australia
the features that it does have is by its history. As white cockatoo and crow. In New Ireland there is a
we have no authentic -history of these or other similar system in which the moieties are associated
Australian tribes the historical anthropologists are with the sea-ea'gle and the fish-hawk. At this point
reduced to offering us imaginary histories. Thus we may feel inclined to ask why these social divisions
the Rev. John Mathew would explain these divisions should be identified by reference to two species of
and their names by supposing that two different birds.
peoples, one called Eaglehawks and the other Crows, In Eastern Australia the division of the population
met in this part of Australia and fought with each into two sexes is represented by what is called sex
other. Ultimately they decided to make peace and totemism. In tribes of New South Wales the men
agreed that in future Eaglehawk men would only have for their ' brother ' the bat, and the women have
marry Crow women and vice versa. for their ' sister ' the night owl in some tribes and the
Let us begin looking for parallels. There is a very, owlet nightjar in others. In the northern part of New
close parallel to be found amongst the Haida of South Wales the totems are the bat for men and the
north-west America, who also have a division into tree-creeper for women. (It must be remembered
two exogamous matrilineal moieties which are named that the Australian .aborigines classify the bat as a
after the eagle and the raven, two species which 'bird.') So we find another dichotomy of society in
correspond very closely indeed to the eaglehawk and which the divisions are represented by birds.
crow of Australia. The Haida have a legend that Throughout most of Australia there is a very-
in the beginning only the eagle posses-sed fresh water important social division into two alternating genera-
which he kept in a basket. The raven discovered this tion divisions or endogamous moieties. One division
and succeeded in stealing the water from the eagle. consists of all the persons of a single generation
But as he flew with the basket over Queen Charlotte together with those of the generation of their grand-
Island the water was spilled from the heavy basket parents and the generation of their grandchildren,
and formed the lakes and rivers from which all birds while the other division includes all those of the
can now drink; and salmon made their way into the generation of their parents and the generation of their
streams and now furnish food for men. children. These divisions are rarely given names but
In some parts of Australia there are similar legends in some tribes may be referred to by terms, one of
about the eaglehawk and the crow. One is to the which a man applies to his own division and its
effect that in the beginning only the eaglehawk members while the other is applied to the other
possessed a supply of fresh water, which he kept under division. But in one part of Western Australia these
a large stone. The crow, spying on him, saw him endogamous moieties are named after the kingfisher-

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 The Comparative Method in Social Anthropology 17

and the bee-eater, while in another part they are structure. In other words, instead of asking " Why
named after a little red bird and a little black bird. all these birds ? " we can ask " Why particularly
Our question " Why all these birds?" is thus eaglehawk and crow, and other pairs ?"
widened in its scope. It is not only the exogamous I have collected many tales about Eaglehawk and
moieties, but also dual divisions of other kinds that Crow in different parts of Australia, and in all of
are identified by connection with a pair of birds. It is, them the two are represented as opponents in some
however, not always a question of birds. In Australia sort of conflict. A single example must suffice and
the moieties may be associated with other pairs of it comes from Western Australia. Eaglehawk was
animals, with two species of kangaroo in one part, the mother's brother of Crow. In these tribes a man
with two species of bee in another. In California one marries the daughter of a mother's brother so that
moiety is associated with the coyote and the other Eaglehawk was the possible father-in-law of Crow, to
with the wild cat. whom therefore he owed obligations such as that of
Our collection of parallels could be extended to providing him with food. Eaglehawk told his nephew
other instances in which a social group or division is to go and hunt wallaby. Crow, having killed a
given an identity and distinguished from others by wallaby, ate it himself, an extremely reprehensible
association with a natural species. The Australian action in terms of native morality. On his return to
moieties are merely one instance of a widely spread the camp his uncle asked him what he had brought,
social phenomenon. From the particular phenomenon and Crow, being a liar, said that he had succeeded in
we are led, by the comparative method, to a much more getting nothing. Eaglehawk then said, " But what is
general problem-How can we understand the customs in your belly, since your hunger-belt is no longer
by which social groups and divisions are distinguished tight ? " Crow replied that to stay- the pangs of
by associating a particular group or division with a hunger he had filled his belly with the gum from the
particular natural species ? This is the general acacia. The uncle replied that he did not believe
problem of totemism, as it has been designated. I do him and would tickle him until he vomited. (This
not offer you a solution of this problem, as it seems incident is given in the legend in the form of a song
to me to be the resultant of two other problems. of Eaglehawk-Balmanangabalu ngabarina, kidfi-kidfi
One is the problem of the way in which in a particular malidyala.) The crow vomited the wallaby that he
society the relation 6f human beings to natural species had eaten. Thereupon Eaglehawk seized him and
is represented, and as a contribution to this problem rolled him in the fire; his eyes became red with the
I have offered an analysis of the non-totemic Andaman fire, he was blackened by the charcoal, and he called
Islanders. The other is the problem of how social out in pain " Wa ! Wa ! Wa!" Eaglehawk pro-
groups come to be identified by connection with some nounced what was to be the law "You will never be
emblem, symbol, or object having symbolic or a hunter, but you will for ever be a thief." And that
emblematic reference. A nation identified by its flag, is how things now are.
a family identified by its coat of arms, a particular To interpret this tale we have to consider how these
congregation of a church identified by its relation to birds appear to the aborigines. In the first place they
a particular saint, a clan identified by its relation to a are the two chief meat-eating birds and the Australian
totemic species; these are all so many examples of a aborigine thinks of himself as a meat-eater. One
single class of phenomena for which we have to look method of hunting in this region is for a number of
for a general theory. men and women to come together at an appropriate
The problem to which it is desired to draw your season for a collective hunt. A fire across a stretch
attention here is a different one, Granted that it is of country is started in such a way that it will be
for some reason appropriate to identify social divisions spread by the wind. The men advance in front of
by association with natural species, what is the the fire killing with spear or throwing stick the
principle by which such pairs as eaglehawk and crow, animals that are fleeing from it, while the women
eagle and raven, coyote and wild cat are chosen as follow the fire to dig out such animals as bandi-
representing the moieties of a dual division ? The coots that have taken refuge underground. When
reason for asking this question is not idle curiosity. such a hunt has been started it will not be long
We may, it can be held, suppose that an understanding before first one and then another eaglehawk makes
of the principle in question will give us an important its appearance to join in the hunting of the animals
insight into the way in which the natives themselves in flight from the advancing flames. Eaglehawk is
think about the dual division as a part of their social the hunter.
(845) B

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 18 A. R. RADCLIFFE-BROWN

The crow does not join in this or any other kind of The various species no longer form one society of
hunt, but when a camp fire is started it is rarely very friends.
long before a crow makes his appearance to settle There is a very similar tale in the Andaman Islands.
in a tree out of reach of a throwing stick and wait The various species of animals originally formed a
for the chance of thieving a piece of meat for his single society. At a meeting one of them brought
dinner. fire. There was a general quarrel in which they all
Amongst the tales told by the Australians about threw fire at each other. Some fled into the sea and
animals we can find an immense number of parallels became fishes, others escaped into the trees and
to this tale of Eaglehawk and Crow. Here, as an became birds, and birds and fishes still show the marks
example, is one about the wombat and the kangaroo of the burns they suffered.
from the region where South Australia adjoins A comparative study therefore reveals to us the
Victoria. In this region the wombat and the kangaroo fact that the Australian ideas about the eaglehawk
are the two largest meat animals. In the beginning and the crow are only a- particular instance of a
Wombat and Kangaroo lived together as friends. widespread phenomenon. First, these tales interpret
One day Wombat began, to make a 'house' for the resemblances and differences of animal species in
himself. (The wombat lives in a burrow in the terms of social relationships of friendship and antagon-
ground.) Kangaroo jeered at him and thus annoyed ism as they are known in the social life of human
him. Then one day it rained. (It is to be remembered beings. Secondly, natural species are placed in pairs
that in these tales whatever happens is thought of as of opposites. They can only be so regarded if there
happening for the first time in the history of the is some respect in which they resemble each other.
world.) Wombat went into his 'house' out of the Thus eaglehawk and crow resemble each other in
rain. Kangaroo asked Wombat to make room for being the two prominent meat-eating birds. When
him, but the latter explained that there was only room I first investigated the, sex totems of New South
for one. Thus Wombat and Kangaroo quarrelled Wales I supposed, quite wrongly, that what was the
and fought. Kangaroo hit Wombat on the head with basic resemblance of the bat and the night owl or
a big stone, flattening his skull; Wombat threw a nightjar was that they both fly about at night. But
spear at Kangaroo which fixed itself at the base of the tree-creeper does not fly at night and is the totem
the backbone. The wombat has a flattened skull to of the women in the northern 'part of New South
this day and the kangaroo has a tail; the former Wales. As I was sitting in the region of the Macleay
lives in a burrow while the kangaroo lives in the open; River with a native a tree-creeper made its appearance,
they are no longer friends. and I asked him to tell me about it. " That is the
This is, of course, a 'just-so ' story which you may bird that taught women how to climb trees " he told
think is childish. It amuses the listeners when it is me. After some conversation I asked "What-
told with the suitable dramatic expressions. But if resemblance is there between the bat and the tree-
we examine some dozens of these tales we find that creeper ? " and with an expression on his face that
they have a single theme. The resemblances and showed surprise that I should ask such a question
differences of animal species are translated into terms he replied, " But of course they both live in holes in
of friendship and conflict, solidarity and opposition. trees." I realised that the night owl and the nightjar
In other words the world of animal life is represented also live in trees. The fact that certain animals eat
in terms of social relations similar to those of human meat constitutes a sort of social similarity, as of
society. eaglehawk and crow or dingo and wild cat. Similarly
One may find legends which relate not to particular the habit of living in holes in trees.
species or pairs of species but to animals in general. We can now answer the question " Why eaglehawk
There is a legend in New South Wales according to and crow?" by saying that these are selected as
which in the beginning all the animals formed a representing a certain kind of relationship which we
single society. Then the bat was responsible for may call one of' opposition'.
introducing death into the world by killing his two The Australian idea of what is here called ' opposi-
wives.- His brothers-in-law called all the animals to tion' is a particular application of that association
a corroborree, and catching the bat unawares threw by contrariety that is a universal feature of human
him into the fire. This started a general fight in thinking, so that we think by pairs of contraries,
which the animals attacked each other with fire, and upwards and downwards, strong and weak, black and
of this fight all the animals now show the marks. white. But the Australian conception of ' opposition'

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 The Comparative Method in Social Anthropology 19

combines the idea of a pair of contraries with that of respectively." Strong (Aboriginal Society in Southern
a pair of opponents. In the tales about eaglehawk California) reports the same thing. " A good-natured
and crow the two birds are opponents in the sense of antagonism between the moieties exhibits itself in
being antagonists. They are also contraries by reason joking between persons of the one and the other.,
of their difference of character, Eaglehawk the The coyote people taunt the wild cat, people with
hunter, Crow the thief. Black cockatoo and white being slow-witted and lazy like their animal represen-
cockatoo which represent the moieties in Western tative and the wild cat people retaliate by accusing
Victoria are another example of contrariety, the birds their opponents with, being unsteady. There are
being essentially similar except for the contrast of indications that this teasing of one moiety by another
colour. In America the moieties are referred to by entered into their serious ceremonies. There were
other pairs of contraries, Heaven and Earth, war and songs of a satirical kind that could be sung by one
peace, up-stream and down-stream, red and white. moiety against the other. However, the opposition
After a lengthy comparative study I think I am fully between the moieties seems to have been much less
justified in stating a general law, that wherever, in strong than between certain pairs of clans, sometimes
Australia, Melanesia or America, there exists a social belonging to the same moiety, which were traditionally
structure of exogamous moieties, the moieties are 'enemies.' These clans, on certain occasions would
thought of as being in a relation of what is here sing ' enemy songs' against each other."
called 'opposition'. This institution, for which it is to be hoped that
Obviously the next step in a comparative study is some one will find a better name than ' joking
to attempt to discover what are the various forms that relationship,' is found in a variety. of forms in, a
the opposition between the moieties of a dual division number of different societies, and calls for systematic
takes in actual social life. In the literature there are comparative study. It has for its function to maintain
occasional references to a certain hostility between a continuous relationship between two persons, or two
the two divisions described as existing or reported to groups, of apparent but factitious hostility or
have existed in the past. All the available evidence antagonism. I have offered a suggestion towards a
is that there is no real hostility in the proper sense of comparative study of this institution in a paper
the term but only a conventional attitude which finds published in the journal Africa.
expression in some customary mode of behaviour. Another significant custom in which is expressed
Certainly in Australia, although in some instances the relation of opposition between the two moieties
where there is a dispute it is possible to' observe the is that by which, in some tribes of Australia and in
members of the two patrilineal moieties forming some of North America the moieties provide the
separate ' sides ', real hostility, of the kind that may 'sides ' in games such as football. Competitive games
lead to violent action is not between the moieties but provide a social occasion on which two persons or
between local groups, and two local groups of the two groups of persons are opponents. Two con-
same patrilineal moiety seem to be just as frequently tinuing groups in a social structure can be maintained
in conflict as two groups belonging to different in a relation in which they are regularly opponents.
moieties. Indeed, since a common source of actual An example is provided by the two universities of
conflict is the taking by one man of a woman married Oxford and Cambridge.
to or betrothed to another the two antagonists or There are other customs in which the opposition of
groups of antagonists in such instances will both moieties is expressed. For example, in the Omaha
belong to the same patrilineal moiety. tribe of North America the camp circle was divided
The expression of opposition between the moieties into two semi-circles, and when a boy of the one half
may take various forms. One is the institution to crossed into the other he took companions with him
which anthropologists have given the not very and there was a fight with the boys of the other
satisfactory name of ' the joking relationship.' moiety. We need not and can not here examine these
Members of opposite divisions are permitted or various customs.
expected to indulge in teasing each other, in verbal Let us consider briefly the institution of moiety
abuse or in exchange of insults. Kroeber (Handbook of exogamy, by which every marriage, where the rule is
Indians of California) writes that amongst the Cupeino observed, is between persons belonging to opposite
" a sort of good natured opposition is recognized moieties. There are innumerable customs which show
between the moieties, whose members frequently taunt that in many primitive societies the taking of a woman
each other with being unsteady and slow-witted, in marriage is represented symbolically as an act of
(845) B 2

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 20 A. R. RADCLIFFE-BROWN

hostility against her family or group. Every anthro- marriage is one' incident in the continual process by
pologist is familiar with the custom by which it is which the men of one moiety get their wives from the
represented that the bride is captured or taken by other.
force from her kinsfolk. A first collection of instances A comparative study shows that in many primitive
of this custom was made by McLennan, who inter- societies the relation established between two groups
preted them historically as being survivals from the of kin by a marriage between a man of one group
earliest condition of human society in which the only and a woman of the other is one which is expressed
way to obtain a wife was to steal or capture a woman by customs of avoidance and by thejoking relationship.
from another tribe. In many societies a man is required to avoid any close
An illuminating example of this kind of custom is social contact with the mother of his wife, frequently
provided by the people of the Marquesas. When a also with her father, and with other persons of that
marriage has been arranged the kinsmen of the generation amongst his wife's kin. With this custom
bridegroom take the gifts which are to be offered to there is frequently associated the custom called the
the kinsfolk of the bride and proceed towards the ' joking relationship' by which a man is permitted or
bride's- home. On the way they are ambushed and even required to use insulting behaviour to some- of
attacked by the bride's kin who seize by force the his wife's kin of his own generation. I have elsewhere
goods that they are conveying. The first act of suggested that these customs can be understood as
violence comes from the kin of the bride. By the being the conventional means by which a relationship
Polynesian principle of utu those who suffer an injury of a peculiar kinds which can be described as a
are entitled to retaliate by inflicting an injury. So compound of friendship or solidarity with hostility
the bridegroom's kinsmen exercise this right by or opposition is established and maintained.
carrying off the bride. No example could better In a complete study there are other features of the
illustrate the fact that these customary actions are dual organization that would need to be taken into
symbolic. consideration. There are instances in which there are
Viewed in relation to social structure the meaning regular exchanges of goods or services between the
or symbolic reference of these customs ought to be two moieties. In that competitive exchange of food
obvious'. The solidarity of a group requires that the and valuables known as 'potlatch' in North America,
loss of one of its members shall be recognized as an the moieties may be significant.- Amongst the Tlingit,
injury to the group. Some expression of this is for example, it is members of one moiety who potlatch
therefore called for. The taking of a woman in against members of the other moiety. The two
marriage is represented as in some sense an act of moieties provide the 'sides ' for what is a sort of
hostility against her kin. This is what is meant by competitive game in which men ' fight with property.'
the saying of the Gusii of East Africa " Those whom Our comparative study enables us to see the eagle-
we marry are those whom we fight." hawk-crow division of the Darling River tribes as
It is in the light of this that we must interpret the one particular example of a widespread type of the-
custom of marriage by exchange. The group or kin application of a certain structural principle. The
of a woman lose her when she marries; they are relation between the two divisions, which has herex
compensated for their loss if they receive another who been spoken of by the term ' opposition ' is one which
will become the wife of one of them. In Australian separates and also unites, and which therefore gives,
tribes, with a few exceptions, the custom is that when us a rather special kind of social integration which
a man takes a wife he should give a sister to replace deserves systematic study. But the term ' opposition"
her. In the Yaralde tribe of South Australia, which which I have been obliged to use because I cannot
did not have a system of moieties, when a man married find a better, is not wholly appropriate, for it stresses,
a woman of another local clan, his own clan was too much what is only one side of the relationship,
expected to provide a wife for some member of the that of separation and difference. The more correct
clan from which the bride came. Otherwise the description would be to say that the kind of structure
marriage was regarded as irregular, improper, or we with which we are concerned is one of the union of
might almost say illegal. It has been reported from opposites.
the tribes of the eastern part of Victoria (Gippsland) The idea of a unity of contraries was one of the
that the only proper form of marriage was by exchange. leading ideas of the philosophy of Heraclitus. It is
The system of exogamous moieties provides a system summed up in his statement, " Polemos is king, rules
of generalisation of marriage by exchange, since every all things." The Greek word polemos is sometimes

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 The Comparative Method in Social Anthropology 21

translated as ' strife,' but the appropriate translation of a unity of opposirng groups, in the double sense
would be ' opposition ' in the sense in which that word that the two groups are friendly opponents, and that
has been used in this lecture. Heraclitus uses as one they are represented as being in some sense opposites,
example the mortise and the tenon; these are not al in the way in which eaglehawk and crow or black and
strife; they are contraries or opposites which combine white are opposites.
to make a unity when they are joined together. Light can be thrown on this by the consideration
There is some evidence that this idea of the union of another instance of opposition in Australian
of opposites was derived by Heraclitus and the societies. An Australian camp includes men of a
Pythagoreans from the East. At any rate the most certain local clan and their wives who, by the rule of
complete elaboration of the idea is to be found in the exogamy, have come from other clans. In New
Yin-Yang philosophy of ancient China. The phrase South Wales there is a system of sex totemism, by
in which this is summed up is " Yi yin yi yang wei which one animal species is the ' brother ' of the men,
tze tao." One yin and one yang make an order. and another species is the ' sister' of the women.
Yin is the feminine principle, Yang the masculine. Occasionally there arises within a native camp a
The word ' tao ' can here by best translated as 'an condition of tension between the sexes. What is then
ordered whole.' One man (yang) and his wife (yin) likely to happen, according to the accounts of the
constitute the unity of a married couple. One day aborigines, is that the women will go out and kill
(yang) and one night (yin) make a unified whole or a bat, the 'brother ' or sex totem of the men, and
unity of time. Similarly one summer (yang) and one leave it lying in the camp for the men to see. The
winter (yin) make up the unity we call a year. Activity men then retaliate by killing the bird which in that
is yang and passivity is yin and a relation of two tribe is the sex totem of the women. The women then
entities or persons of which one is active and the utter abuse against the men and this leads to a fight
other passive is also conceived as a unity of opposites. with sticks (digging sticks for the women, throwing
In this ancient Chinese philosophy this idea of the sticks for the men) between the two sex groups in
unity of opposites is given the widest possible exten- which a good many bruises are inflicted. After the
sion. The whole universe including human' society is fight peace is restored and the tension is eliminated.
interpreted as an ' order ' based on this. The Australian aborigines have the idea that where
There is historical evidence that this philosophy there is a quarrel between two persons or two groups
was developed many centuries ago in the region of which is likely to smoulder the thing to do is for them
the Yellow River, the 'Middle Kingdom.' There is to fight it out and then make friends. The symbolic
also evidence that the social organization of this use of the totem is very significant. This custom shows
region was one of paired intermarrying clans, the two us that the idea of the opposition of groups, and the
clans meeting together at the Spring and Autumn union of opposites is not confined to the exogamous
Festivals, and competing in the singing of odes, so moieties. 'The two sex groups provide a structure of
that the men of the one clan could find wives amongst a similar kinod; so sometimes do the two groups
the daughters of the other. The evidence is that the formed by the alternating generation divisions. The
system of marriage was one where a man married his group of the fathers, and the group of their sons
mother's brother's daughter, or a woman of the are in a relation of opposition, not dissimilar from
appropriate generation of his mother's clan. Accord- the relation between husbands and their wives.
ing to my information this kind of organization, which We can say that in the relatively simple social
apparently existed forty centuries ago in that region, structure of Australian tribes we can recognize three
still survived there in 1935, but the investigation of it principal types of relationship between persons or
that I had planned to be carried out by Li Yu I was groups. There is the relationship of enmity and
unfortunately prevented by the Japanese attack on strife; at the other extreme there is the relationship
China. It may still not be too late for this to be of simple solidarity, and in the Australian system this
done; it would enable us to evaluate more exactly the ought to exist between brothers, and between persons
historical reconstruction of Marcel Granet. of the same generation in the local group; such persons
This Yin-Yang philosophy of ancient China is the may not fight, though in certain circumstances it is
systematic elaboration of the principle that can be thought to be legitimate for one person to ' growl'
used to define the social structure of moieties in against the other, to express in the camp a complaint
Australian tribes, for the structure of moieties is, as against the action of the other. There is thirdly the
may be seen from the brief account here given, one relationship of opposition, which is not at all the
B 3

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 22 A. R. RADCLIFFE-BROWN

same thing as strife or enmity, but is a combination includes both methods, and I have myself consistently
of agreement and disagreement, of solidarity and used both in the teaching of ethnology and social
difference. anthropology in a number of universities. But there
- We began with a particular feature of a particular must be discrimination. The historical method will
region in Australia, the existence of exogamous give us particular propositions, only the comparative
moieties named after the eaglehawk and the crow. method can give us general propositions. In primitive
By making comparisons amongst other societies, some societies historical evidence is always lacking or
of them not Australian, we are enabled to see that this inadequate. -There is no historical evidence as to how
is not something particular or peculiar to one region, the eaglehawk-crow division in Australia came into
but is one instance of certain widespread general existence, and guesses abgut it seem to me of no
tendencies in human societies. We thus substitute for significance whateve;. How the Australian aborigines
a particular problem of the kind that calls for a arrived at their present social systems is,, and forever
historical explanation, certain general problems. must be, entirely unknown. The supposition that by
There is, for example, the problem of totemism as a the comparative method we might arrive at valid
social phenomenon in which there is a special conclusions about the ' origins ' of those systems
association of a social group with a natural species. shows a complete disregard for the nature of historical
Another, and perhaps more important, problem that evidence. Anthropology, as the study of primitive
has been raised, is that of the nature and functioning societies, includes both historical (ethnographical and
of social relationships and social structures based on ethnological) studies and also the generalizing study
what has here been called ' opposition.' This is a known as social anthropology which is a special branch
much more general problem than that of totemism of comparative sociology. It is desirable that the
for it is the problem of how opposition can be used aims and methods should be distinguished. History,
as a mode of social integration. The comparative in the proper sense of the term, as an authentic
method is therefore one by which we pass from the account of the succession of events in a particular
particular to the general, from the general 'to the region over a particular period of time, cannot give
more general, with the end in view that we may in us generalizations. The comparative method as a
this way arrive at the universal, at characteristics which generalising study of the features of human societies
can be found in different forms in all human societies. cannot give us particular histories. The two studies
But the comparative method does not only formu- can only be combined and adjusted when their differ-
late problems, though the formulation of the right ence is properly recognized and it is for this reason
problems is extremely important in any science; it that thirty years ago I urged that there should be a
also provides material by which the first steps may be clear distinction between ethnology as the historical
made towards the solution. A study of the system of study of primitive societies and social anthropology
moieties in Australia can giveus results that should have as that branch of comparative sociology that concerns
considerable value for the theory of human society. itself specially with the societies we call primitive.
At the beginning of this lecture I quoted Franz We can leave all questions of historical reconstruction
Boas as having distinguished two tasks with which to ethnology. For social anthropology the task is to
an anthropologist can concern himself in the study formulate and validate statements about the conditions
of primitive society, and these two tasks call for two of existence of social systems (laws of social statics)
different methods. One is the 'historical' method, and the regularities that are observable in social
by which the existence of a particular feature in a change (laws of social dynamics). This can only be
particular society is ' explained' as the result of a done by the systematic use of the comparative method,
particular sequence of events. The other is the and the only justification of that method is the
comparative method by which we seek, not to expectation that it will provide us with results of this
' explain,' but to understand a particular feature of a kind, or, as Boas stated it, will provide us with
particular society by first seeing it as a particular knowledge of the laws of social development. It will
instance of a general kind or class of social phenomena, be only in an integrated and organized study in which
and then by relating it to a certain general, or historical studies and sociological studies are combined
preferably a universal, tendency in human societies. that we shall be able to reach a real understanding of
Such a tendency is what is called in certain instances the development of human society, and this we do not
a law. Anthropology as the study of primitive society yet have.

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