El funcionalismo como ideología colonialista

Members of the early anthropological societies in Britain were concerned, above all, with problems of race and slavery, which were affecting British society during the first two-thirds of the nineteenth century. Anthropological publications of this era were filled with articles concerning these problems. Most anthropologists conceived of anthropology as a science of race and not of culture; in fact, the two were confused, and almost all opinions, whether presented as scientific or not, held positions and conclusions of a more or less racist character. Mission and slave company interests, both well represented in early anthropological circles, elaborated their dogma on the inferiority of the colored races of the world. This can probably be applied to most of the early British anthropologists, as observed by one of the presidents of the Royal Anthropological Institute, James Hunt, who declared that: "the Negro had his place in nature and that it was the business of anthropologists to define that place."