On the afternoon of April 9, 2025, the Institute for International and Area Studies of Tsinghua University invited Professor Philip Taylor, a member of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, Emeritus Professor of the Australian National University, and former Head of the Department of Anthropology of the Asia-Pacific Institute, to give the fourth talk on “Structural-Functionalism” of the lecture series on “Southeast Asian Studies: The Intellectual Foundations of an Area Studies Discipline”. The lecture was hosted by Guan Hao, a post-doctoral researcher in IIAS. Dozens of students and faculty members from domestic and foreign universities as well as professionals who are interested in the topic attended, both offline and online.

At the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Taylor used the example of a goddess temple he personally saw in the border region of Vietnam thirty years ago to paint a vivid picture of how a group of market women who trade for a living can build a stable community bond around a deity. He pointed out that such religious phenomena are often interpreted as nature worship, evolutionary legacies or products of alien cultures. He then introduced Structural-Functionalism and systematised its theoretical origins and key concepts, this approach sees society as an organism, supported by parts such as religion, rituals, and the family, each of which fulfils its own distinctive function.

He demonstrates the unique value of the theory in understanding small-scale social organisation, cultural differences and mechanisms of social stability through case studies such as Vietnamese đình, the relationship between Thai kingship and the Buddhist Sangha, and social transformation of the Kachin people in highland Myanmar. Prof. Taylor also introduced the limitations of Structural-Functionalism and used the analogy of “the tree and its branches” to emphasise that this theoretical tradition, although controversial, continues to influence contemporary academic practice, inspiring anthropological, sociological and regional researchers to explore the logic of interaction between culture and society.

Finally, in the interactive discussion session, Professor Taylor and the students in the audience engaged in a lively discussion on whether religion always serves the social order and whether Structural-Functionalism masks the structure of oppression.

Philip Taylor, PhD in Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Emeritus at the Australian National University, and former Head of the Department of Anthropology at the Asia Pacific Institute. He has lived and worked in Vietnam and Cambodia for over a decade, and has a command of Vietnamese, Cambodian and French. His research interests include contemporary anthropology of Vietnam, Mekong sub-regional studies, Southeast and East Asian studies, development and urbanization, and modernity. Representative works include monographs The Khmer Lands of Vietnam: Environment, Cosmology and Sovereignty (2014, Winner of the EuroSEAS-Nikkei Asian Review Social Science Book Award), Goddess on the Rise: Pilgrimage and Popular Religion in Vietnam（2004）, Fragments of the Present: Searching for Modernity in Vietnam's South（2001）et al. Professor Taylor has supervised more than 30 PhD theses during his tenure at the Australian National University and has been awarded the ANU ‘top supervisor’ award. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Anthropology, Editor-in-Chief of the Vietnam Series of the Australian National University Press, and as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Vietnamese Studies, the Review of Asian Studies, and the Cambridge History of the Vietnam War (Volume 3).