"To turn from organic life to social life, if we examine such a community as an African or Australian tribe we can recognise the existence of a social structure. Individual human beings, the essential units in this instance, are connected by a definite set of social relations into an integrated whole. The continuity of the social structure, like that of an organic structure, is not destroyed by changes in the units. Individuals may leave the society, by death or otherwise, others may enter it. The continuity of structure is maintained by the process of social life, which consists of the activities and interactions of the individual human beings and of the organised groups into which they are united. The social life of the community is here defined as the functioning of the social structure. The function of any recurrent activity, such as the punishment of a crime, or a funeral ceremony, is the part it plays in the social life as a whole an therefore the contribution it makes to the maintenance of the structural continuity."
Radcliffe-Brown, A.R.(1952[1935]): On the Concept of Function in Social Science, in: Ders.: Structure and Function in Primitive Society, Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, S. 180.