Models in Anthropology
Algebraic, statistical and simulation models of social life: what they assume, what they predict and how to read them critically.
Systems thinking books for people who study societies
Systems thinking and complexity books by level for readers of anthropology: Meadows on feedback, Mitchell on complexity, Schelling on social models.
How many ancestors do I have? Counts for 10, 12 and 20 generations
You have 2^n ancestors n generations back and 2^(n+1) - 2 in all: 1,024 at 10 generations, 4,096 at 12, over a million at 20. Why fewer real people fill them.
Section systems, and how the Kariera and Aranda rules work
How four-section (Kariera) and eight-subsection (Aranda) systems work: marriage and descent rules worked by hand, abstract labels, and what the model leaves out.
Agent-based models in anthropology: growing societies from simple rules
What an agent-based model is, a six-household sharing model to run by hand, the generative idea, Long House Valley and Bali, and how to read a model critically.
André Weil and the first algebra of kinship
How André Weil turned Australian marriage rules into permutations in 1949, with a four-class system worked by hand and the algebra of cousin marriage.
Pedigree collapse: why no one has a billion ancestors
Why the doubling of ancestors cannot go on: pedigree collapse worked through with small numbers, the Spanish Habsburgs, and what Chang and Rohde found.
The coefficient of relationship, worked out by hand
Sewall Wright's path method for the coefficient of relationship, worked step by step for siblings, uncles, cousins and double cousins, with what DNA adds.