Agency and Freedom in Neo-Functionalist Action

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798 SOCIAL RESEARCH
materialism. Contrary to both th
that all social facts are necessaril
between sign and symbol, Sahlins
their own internal logic and struct
are to some extent arbitrary and c
of social conditions. For instance,
the binary structures of mind a
interpreted to be a strategy to
meanings of symbols in their inter
the reduction of symbols to the lev
and material content. However, for
characterized by the existence o
symbolic schema and the objective
dimension of social action. One ca
of multidimensionality applies to
choice and social institutions.53
In spite of the difference of structuralist and neofunctional-
ist formulations of multidimensionality, both theories are
excessively deterministic. What is shared by both the structur-
alist and neofunctionalist theories is the passive reduction of
the individual to the cultural rules of the society. It should be
noted that Sahlins's emphasis on the autonomy of culture from
the realm of material structures is a statement at the level of
social structures and does not pertain to the relation between
the individual and social structures. For both functionalism
and structuralism, the individual is ultimately an embodiment
of social relations and social rules. Althusser's theory of
ideology and subjectivity clearly formulates this theoretical
premise. According to Althusser, human individuals are
subject in the double sense of the term. They are in reality
subject to the social conditions and culture of the society. In
other words, humans are passive embodiments of social
structures. However, in order to perform their roles effectively
59 Marshal Sahlins, Culture and Practical Reason (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976).
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