ABSTRACT
All societies of living beings are systems, organic wholes composed of interrelated parts. They thus present themselves to our observation under two aspects, structural and functional. On the one hand, we may study social systems from the standpoint of the kind or kinds of parts of which the whole is composed, and on the other, we may focus our attention upon the interrelationship of these parts, upon the relationship of one part to another and to the whole. Structure and function are therefore merely two ways of looking at a single phenomenon, namely, a system, or organism.
