STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM- THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS IN

RETENTION OF GENOCIDE

Structural Functionalism is the field of study that deals with the underlying, unconscious

regularities of human expression, which are the unobservable structures that have discernable

effects on behaviour, society, and culture. The Structural Functionalism comprises various

institutions that complement each other in addition to working independently in the

functioning of a society. It is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex

system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability (Form and Wilterdink,

2018). It consists of social structure framework that has various social institutions in two

categories-Traditional, and Emergent. The Traditional Institutions include Family, Religion,

Education, Government, and Economy. The Emergent Institutions include Sports, Mass

Media, Science/Medicine, Military.

In any post-genocidal state, all these institutions play a prominent role in helping retain the

memory of the genocide. A society that has sufferance from a genocide in its backdrop will

always strive to keep alive the memories, and more importantly, lessons from that genocide.

What factors led to the genocide? How could it have been avoided? How can a repeat of it be

avoided? What were the costs-human, social, economic, cultural- that the genocide entailed?

All these questions can be answered not by any one of the institutions mentioned above. With

the passage of time, newer institutions can play a more prominent role in remembrance of the

genocide. In genocides such as the Holocaust, one sees that the memory of it is kept alive by

the states and public through remembrances, educational inclusions in academic coursework,

memorials among others. With the advent of mass media, especially social media, it is
becoming increasingly common for people to seek out and connect with the horrors their

fathers and forefathers had to endure while living in the times of the genocide. The

remembrance is also kept alive by the families of the sufferers though verbal renditions to

apprise their younger generations about their history. In addition to these, the governments

also play a prominent role in remembering the genocide. Although one of the intended

purposes of remembering a genocide by a government is to educate the citizens about a dark

era of their collective history, one may argue that in cases of government, the reasons are

largely political. We see attempts by governments to appropriate the legacies of genocides to

garner sympathy and subsequently, votes. An example of such appropriation can be seen in

India where a major national political party, the Indian National Congress marks the

anniversary of a horrible genocide, the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre ,which took place during

the Indian Independence struggle in an attempt to connect with the voters and show itself a

guardian of the legacy of the Indian Freedom Movement.

Out of all the institutions that help preserve the memory of a genocide, Education is the most

effective and responsible at helping the remembrance of the genocide. There are multiple

reasons to it. Firstly, education is both formal and informal. There is institutional education

imparted in schools, colleges, and universities wherein lessons on the genocide are taught to

young people during their impressionable years to help them appreciate the contribution and

suffering their ancestors endured that shaped their society. Most societies that have witnessed

conflict strive to learn lessons so as to avoid a repeat. This is a primary reason that societies

include genocide history in the academic curriculum to make the students aware of it and let

them explore the contours of the conflict in their mind so as to avoid a repeat. Secondly, the

non-institutional channels of education encompass familial recollections, social and cultural

rendition of the event that effectively help in propagating the memory of the genocide.

Education is a potent vehicle for ensuring remembrance as it conveys the message both
consciously and sub-consciously. Every discussion, talk, debate, article is a tool of educating

the people about the genocide. For instance, families bitter at the loss of member(s) would

speak to the children in the family and that is how it propagates. A manifest function of

knowledge is to spread awareness, which in turns help preserve the memory of a genocide

among other topics and subjects. A latent function of education is to help young children and

adults socialize. This social interaction forms a bedrock of understanding, acknowledging,

and handling conflicts. This understanding leads to empathy, which in turn gives them a

perspective on how the genocide could have been avoided, or how a recurrence of it can be

avoided. (Trueman, 2018)

Of the given institutions, Economy is the institution that does not help the cause of

remembering a genocide much. An economy may not necessarily be affected by a genocide

as much as the human capital. That is to say that the human cost of a genocide is always

much higher than the economic cost of it in terms of loss of man hours and productivity.

Throughout history, we see instances of people and countries that faced genocide bounce

back in the economic sense. For instance, Jews were among the most persecuted people

during the reign of Adolf Hitler, however, the Jews overcame the effects of the Holocaust to

an extent after which some of them settled in what is now modern-day Israel and have

successfully rebuilt their economy. So if once goes only by the economic yardsticks and

parameters, there is always a risk of a tragedy being hidden behind numbers. The primary

manifest function of an economy is to provide methods for production and distribution of

goods and services, and enable members of a society to be able to consume these goods and

services. This activity shares little with remembrance of a tragedy. A latent function of an

economy is to use the labour of workers and use the value of input factors such as land,

capital and enterprise. The working of economy, therefore, shares little with the propagation

of a historical event.
According to the theory of Structural Functionalism, a number of institutions play a role in

the working of an economy. However, each institution plays a specialised role and while it

may be suited for a particular purpose, it may not so be another. Educating a generation on

the horror of a genocide and conditioning their mind ensures they seek, analyze and question

the actions of all parties involved in the genocide. However, an economy that is progressive

and doing well may as well function in deterioration of memory of the genocide as it would

make a past event that the young people have little or no recollection of irrelevant.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Trueman, C. (2018). Functionalism and Education - History Learning Site. [online] History Learning

Site. Available at: https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/sociology/education-and-

sociology/functionalism-and-education/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2018].

Form, W. and Wilterdink, N. (2018). social structure | Definition, Examples, Characteristics, & Facts.

[online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-structure

[Accessed 25 Oct. 2018].

Lamb, Z. (2018). Structural Functionalism: Manifest and Latent Functions. [online] Sophia. Available

at: https://www.sophia.org/tutorials/structural-functionalism-manifest-and-latent-funct--4 [Accessed 25

Oct. 2018].