The Supremacy of Functionalism (or, Parts is Parts)
The photographs of severed bird heads and feet epitomize the reductionist tradition in biological science—the idea that you can understand a whole by breaking it down into its constituent parts. These specimens (from a university hallway display) form a scheme of classification by adaptation. Broad categories gloss over distinctions among species. Bills and feet seem to be virtually interchangeable if they perform the function being classified.
Functionalism operates in the broader society, as well, whenever individuals are categorized according to their role in maintaining that society. Here, too, interchangeable elements simply fill roles in society (such as parent, worker, voter, consumer) in much the same way that types of bird bills and feet fill roles of ingestion and locomotion for the individual.
But feet do more than walk or swim, and bills also open to sing. Toucan bills radiate heat. Towhees use their feet to turn up insects in leaf litter. And the lives of people are much more varied than any role can describe. Classification schemes are useful for organizing knowledge, perceiving patterns, and modeling systems, but they inherently reduce the rich variety of that which is classified.
Carol Selter
2000/2009