Abstract

This study is grounded in the functional-structural theory of the anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski, which assumes that every element within a culture performs a vital function that ensures the cohesion and continuity of society, and that social institutions emerge and are reproduced to meet the fundamental needs of individuals within an integrated cultural context. Within this theoretical framework, the study analyzes the novel Farho’s Notebooks by the Omani writer Laila Abdullah as a narrative text that interacts with cultural structures and reshapes them through a confessional, multi-voiced narrative reflecting the realities of African refugees and their complex experiences of migration and belonging.
The research problem centers on the ways in which cultural contexts are employed in the novel as structural tools that perform social and cognitive functions and contribute to shaping both the individual and collective identities of the characters, particularly the character of Farho. The study aims to highlight the role of cultural contexts in constructing meaning within the narrative text and to demonstrate how these contexts frame human experience within an integrated social system that extends beyond narrative representation to the production of cultural knowledge about the Other, the marginalized, and the displaced.
The study adopts a descriptive-analytical method based on the core concepts of functional-structural theory, including cultural function, identity, and social integration, in order to understand how narrative elements interact with cultural structures and to analyze the dynamics between the individual and society within the text. The findings reveal that the novel does not merely recount the suffering of refugees, but rather employs cultural contexts as interpretive mechanisms for understanding reality. The analysis uncovers significant transformations; for example, motherhood is transformed into a functional force essential for survival, thereby highlighting the role of culture in shaping character and reinforcing the explanatory function of the text. The results ultimately emphasize literature’s capacity to interrogate social structures from a critical anthropological perspective.
Keywords: Functionalist Theory; Malinowski; Cultural Contexts; Farho’s Notebooks; Laila Abdullah.

Introduction
The novel Farho’s Notebooks by Laila Abdullah presents a deeply layered anthropological space in which biological needs, cultural responses, and social institutions intersect within the precarious world of displacement. In contexts marked by migration, poverty, and institutional fragility, the functions of cultural systems become particularly visible, making the text a fertile ground for the application of Bronisław Malinowski’s functionalist theory. Malinowski argues that every cultural practice, institution, or symbolic act emerges as a response to fundamental biological needs such as metabolism, reproduction, rest, safety, movement, growth, and health. These needs, however, are never fulfilled in isolation; rather, they are culturally mediated through organized social structures such as family, work, education, and community.
This study argues that the narrative of the novel does not portray these needs as being adequately fulfilled. Instead, it reveals a persistent gap between biological necessity and institutional functionality—a gap intensified by the lived reality of refugees whose daily survival is shaped by scarcity, marginalization, and structural neglect.
Through its depiction of makeshift shelters, exhausting labor, fragile educational systems, and bodies constantly threatened by illness and fatigue, the novel illustrates how cultural institutions—although intended to regulate and satisfy human needs—often fail under the pressures of displacement. These failures generate conditions in which characters resort to compensatory strategies such as writing, emotional solidarity, and personal vigilance in order to restore a sense of balance. Accordingly, this study approaches Farho’s Notebooks not merely as a narrative of suffering, but as an ethnographic text that captures the tension between bodily vulnerability and cultural resilience. By applying Malinowski’s functionalist perspective, the research seeks to uncover the implicit cultural logics structuring the characters’ lived experiences and to demonstrate how the novel reconstructs human agency within a landscape marked by functional disruption.

Materials and Methods
This study employs a qualitative analytical methodology grounded in Bronisław Malinowski’s functionalist theory in order to examine the cultural contexts represented in Laila Abdullah’s Farho’s Notebooks. The research primarily relies on close textual analysis and thematic coding, focusing on how biological needs—metabolism, reproduction, rest, safety, movement, growth, and health—are articulated within the narrative and how cultural institutions attempt, fail, or partially succeed in responding to them. The novel is treated simultaneously as a literary and anthropological text, thereby enabling a dual-layered analysis of narrative form and cultural function.
The methodological framework consists of three interconnected procedures. First, key narrative scenes were identified and classified according to the biological needs outlined by Malinowski. This classification enabled a systematic examination of how each need is represented and contextualized within the refugee experience. Second, cultural responses—including work routines, educational practices, family roles, community norms, and symbolic acts—were analyzed to determine the extent to which they fulfill, modify, or obstruct the satisfaction of these needs. Third, instances of functional disruption were examined in order to reveal how structural deficiencies within institutions, such as unstable housing, exploitative labor conditions, inadequate schooling, and neglect of health care, shape the lived realities of the characters.
The study adopts an interpretive orientation that emphasizes the dialectical relationship between body and culture. The data were drawn exclusively from the narrative text itself and supported by relevant theoretical sources on functionalism. No external interviews or fieldwork were conducted; rather, the novel is treated as a self-contained cultural document. This approach allows for a detailed understanding of how Abdullah reconstructs the sociocultural mechanisms of refugee life and exposes the tension between biological necessity and institutional efficacy. The reliability of the analysis is ensured through repeated cross-referencing of textual evidence with functionalist principles, thereby providing a coherent and theoretically grounded interpretation.

Research Findings
The analysis reveals that Farho’s Notebooks presents a multifaceted portrayal of biological needs and their cultural regulation, highlighting the profound functional disruptions that characterize refugee life. The findings indicate that metabolism is primarily fulfilled through labor, particularly the strenuous and poorly compensated domestic work performed by mothers. Although physically exhausting, this labor represents a culturally structured strategy for securing food and shelter. Nevertheless, the instability of employment transforms this biological necessity into a source of existential anxiety.
Reproduction emerges in the text not merely as a biological process, but as an institutionally mediated challenge in which fragmented family structures and economic constraints hinder the establishment of stable parental and social roles.
Rest is portrayed as an elusive function, frequently undermined by overcrowded shelters, environmental hazards, and psychological stress. Safety, a foundational need in Malinowski’s framework, appears consistently compromised; broken glass, unlit pathways, and fragile community boundaries heighten the vulnerability of the characters and transform the environment into a threatening space.
Movement is represented as both a biological and institutional function enacted through labor, schooling, and daily routines. The father’s long hours operating sewing machines and the children’s disciplined journeys to school demonstrate how bodily movement becomes embedded within economic and educational systems. Growth is reflected in the narrator’s premature psychological maturation, as the narrator “feels older than his age,” illustrating how trauma accelerates developmental processes when institutional support collapses.
Finally, health is represented through recurring conditions such as lice infestations and fevers, which expose failures in social hygiene and medical systems. Cultural responses to illness frequently take the form of moral judgment rather than proper care, thereby revealing the symbolic dimensions that shape perceptions of the body. Overall, the novel demonstrates that institutional structures—including family, school, work, and community—often fail to satisfy fundamental human needs, producing an ongoing tension between bodily requirements and cultural adaptation.

Discussion of Results and Conclusion
The study concludes that Farho’s Notebooks offers a powerful functionalist interpretation of refugee life, in which unmet biological needs reveal systemic dysfunctions within cultural institutions. In accordance with Bronisław Malinowski’s theory, human needs are expected to be fulfilled through organized social structures; however, the novel demonstrates that under conditions of displacement these structures become unstable, fragmented, or entirely dysfunctional.
The family, traditionally responsible for care, support, and the transmission of values, becomes burdened by economic precarity, forcing mothers into exhausting labor while children assume premature responsibilities. The workplace, which is intended to provide economic security, instead becomes a site of exhaustion and vulnerability, incapable of ensuring a stable livelihood. Similarly, the educational system—expected to facilitate socialization and personal development—suffers from poor quality, high failure rates, and administrative neglect, thereby revealing a profound institutional breakdown.
Despite these structural deficiencies, the narrative emphasizes the resilience of cultural practices. Writing becomes a symbolic institution that compensates for institutional failure, enabling the narrator to reconstruct identity and preserve psychological equilibrium. Acts of solidarity, such as visiting the sick or sharing responsibilities, demonstrate the emergence of micro-level cultural responses that attempt to fill the void left by dysfunctional institutions.
The discussion demonstrates that culture, within the context of displacement, functions simultaneously as a source of suffering and as a mechanism of survival. While institutional failures intensify vulnerability, cultural creativity and interpersonal bonds serve as alternative pathways for addressing unmet needs. Ultimately, the novel illustrates that survival in precarious environments is not solely a biological struggle but also a cultural one: individuals continuously reinterpret, negotiate, and reconstruct their needs within unstable structures. The narrative therefore reconfigures functionalism by demonstrating that when major institutions fail, cultural life does not collapse; rather, it transforms itself, generating new forms of agency, adaptation, and symbolic resistance.