The book is the first edition in Russian of the collection of articles by the outstanding British scientist A.R. Radcliffe-Brown. Most of the articles are devoted to the classical problems of social anthropology (ethnology): kinship systems and related associations of non-written societies, religion and its relationship with social organization, scientific methodology. The views and methods of A. Radcliffe-Brown laid the foundations of one of the leading areas of social anthropology, but in our country they have long been practically ignored. The proposed publication fills a significant gap in domestic historiography.