Reading shelf
Last update: Oct. 18, 2026
Every book recommended on Kin & Number, in one place: the titles behind the Reading shelves at the end of our explainers, grouped by topic. The label says where a book sits. Start here books are written for general readers, Going further books make the full argument, and the Classic and Textbook titles are the ones courses and specialists use. Under each book are the explainers and models that draw on it.
Longer notes on 25 books, with who each one suits, are in the Book Notes. Nothing here is a paid placement: books are chosen for the topic first. Where a book has a shop link, it goes to Books-A-Million.
Anthropology, first books
Where to begin if the field itself is new to you.
Start hereTim Ingold (2018). Anthropology: Why It Matters. Polity. Also at Books-A-Million
A short, opinionated case for anthropology as a way of thinking with other people, by one of the field's best-known theorists.
Used in: The best anthropology books, from a first read to the field's classics
Start hereKate Fox (2014). Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behavior. John Murray Business (second edition; first published 2004). Also at Books-A-Million
An anthropologist turns fieldwork on her own country, from queuing and weather talk to class codes, and explains the method as she goes.
Used in: The best anthropology books, from a first read to the field's classics
TextbookThomas Hylland Eriksen (2023). Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology (fifth edition). Pluto Press. Also at Books-A-Million
A widely used one-volume introduction to social and cultural anthropology, organized by topic: kinship, exchange, politics, religion and ethnicity.
Used in: The best anthropology books, from a first read to the field's classics
Kinship and marriage
Descent, alliance and the terminology systems behind the kinship diagrams on this site.
Start hereJoseph Henrich (2021). The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. Picador (paperback; first published 2020). Also at Books-A-Million
How the medieval Church's marriage rules broke up intensive kin groups in Europe, and what that did to psychology. Full of data on cousin marriage and kin intensity.
Used in: The best anthropology books, from a first read to the field's classics · The Iroquois kinship system, with a chart of who is called what · Descent rules on one family tree, from patrilineal to bilateral · Phylogenetic methods for cultural traits: reading history off a language tree · The Eskimo kinship system explained with a diagram and examples · Kinship terms in sociology: primary, secondary and tertiary relatives with examples
Going furtherSarah Blaffer Hrdy (2011). Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (paperback; first published 2009). Also at Books-A-Million
Why humans raise children with help from grandmothers, older siblings and others, and how that cooperative breeding may have shaped our knack for reading other minds.
Used in: The best anthropology books, from a first read to the field's classics
ClassicClaude Lévi-Strauss (1969). The Elementary Structures of Kinship. Beacon Press (English edition; first published in French 1949). Also at Books-A-Million
The 1949 study of marriage exchange that set the terms for restricted and generalized exchange. The English edition prints André Weil's algebraic appendix on the Murngin rules.
Used in: The best anthropology books, from a first read to the field's classics · The Iroquois kinship system, with a chart of who is called what · Descent rules on one family tree, from patrilineal to bilateral · The Eskimo kinship system explained with a diagram and examples · Kinship terms in sociology: primary, secondary and tertiary relatives with examples · Section systems, and how the Kariera and Aranda rules work
TextbookRobin Fox (1984). Kinship and Marriage: An Anthropological Perspective. Cambridge University Press (revised edition; first published 1967). Also at Books-A-Million
The standard short introduction to descent groups, alliance and marriage rules, written for students and still the clearest way into the classic debates.
Used in: The best anthropology books, from a first read to the field's classics · The Iroquois kinship system, with a chart of who is called what · Descent rules on one family tree, from patrilineal to bilateral · The Eskimo kinship system explained with a diagram and examples · Kinship terms in sociology: primary, secondary and tertiary relatives with examples · Section systems, and how the Kariera and Aranda rules work
Family history and DNA
For working out how two people are related on paper and in their DNA.
Start hereBlaine T. Bettinger (2019). The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy (second edition). Family Tree Books. Also at Books-A-Million
A widely used guide to DNA testing for family history: test types, shared centimorgans, and how to place a DNA match on the tree.
Used in: Kinship chart vs family tree: the difference, the symbols and how to make one · Second cousin once removed and twice removed, explained with a chart · AncestryDNA vs 23andMe for finding relatives: which match list does more · Genetic genealogy books by level, from a first DNA test to written proof · How many ancestors do I have? Counts for 10, 12 and 20 generations · First cousin once removed vs second cousin: the difference, with a chart
Start hereNancy Hendrickson (2018). Unofficial Guide to Ancestry.com: How to Find Your Family History on the No. 1 Genealogy Website. Family Tree Books. Also at Books-A-Million
A practical walk through records search on Ancestry.com, from census pages to building and checking a tree.
Used in: Kinship chart vs family tree: the difference, the symbols and how to make one · Second cousin once removed and twice removed, explained with a chart · Genetic genealogy books by level, from a first DNA test to written proof · How many ancestors do I have? Counts for 10, 12 and 20 generations · First cousin once removed vs second cousin: the difference, with a chart · Teaching kinship with a spreadsheet, one row per person
Start hereDana McCullough (2020). Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch.org: How to Find Your Family History on the World's Largest Free Genealogy Website. Family Tree Books (revised edition; first published 2015). Also at Books-A-Million
A walk through FamilySearch, the big free genealogy site: record collections, the shared family tree and the catalog.
Start hereA. J. Jacobs (2018). It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree. Simon & Schuster (paperback; first published 2017). Also at Books-A-Million
A journalist's tour of the world family tree, from pedigree collapse to the hunt for distant cousins. Light reading with the basics right.
Used in: Kinship chart vs family tree: the difference, the symbols and how to make one · Second cousin once removed and twice removed, explained with a chart · Genetic genealogy books by level, from a first DNA test to written proof · How many ancestors do I have? Counts for 10, 12 and 20 generations · First cousin once removed vs second cousin: the difference, with a chart · Pedigree collapse: why no one has a billion ancestors
Test kitAncestryDNA (2026). AncestryDNA Genetic Ethnicity Test. Ancestry.
Autosomal DNA test with the largest match database of the big testing companies, which matters most when the goal is finding cousins.
Used in: AncestryDNA vs 23andMe for finding relatives: which match list does more · Cousin and relationship calculator
Test kit23andMe (2026). 23andMe Ancestry Service DNA Test Kit. 23andMe.
Autosomal DNA test from 23andMe: a second, separate database for cousin matches.
Used in: AncestryDNA vs 23andMe for finding relatives: which match list does more · Cousin and relationship calculator
Social networks
From friendship layers to the mathematics of graphs.
Start hereRobin Dunbar (2022). Friends: Understanding the Power of Our Most Important Relationships. Little, Brown (paperback; first published 2021). Also at Books-A-Million
Robin Dunbar on the layers of friendship (about 5, 15, 50 and 150 people) and the time each layer takes to keep up.
Start hereNicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler (2011). Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. Little, Brown (paperback; first published 2009). Also at Books-A-Million
How behaviors and moods appear to spread through social networks, based on the Framingham Heart Study data. Worth reading alongside the later debate over those findings.
Used in: What the evidence says about Dunbar's number · Network density and centrality, worked by hand · Kinship networks as channels, and why family loops matter
Start hereAlbert-László Barabási (2014). Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life. Basic Books (first published 2002). Also at Books-A-Million
Scale-free networks and hubs for general readers, by the physicist behind the Barabási and Albert model of preferential attachment.
Used in: Small worlds and six degrees: what the folders, the model and the emails showed · Kinship networks as channels, and why family loops matter
Going furtherDuncan J. Watts (2003). Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. W. W. Norton. Also at Books-A-Million
The small-world model told by one of its two authors, with the history of network science up to the early 2000s.
Used in: Small worlds and six degrees: what the folders, the model and the emails showed · Kinship networks as channels, and why family loops matter
Going furtherDavid Easley and Jon Kleinberg (2010). Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World. Cambridge University Press. Also at Books-A-Million
A course textbook that joins graph theory, game theory and markets; much of it reads without heavy mathematics.
ClassicStanley Wasserman and Katherine Faust (1994). Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge University Press. Also at Books-A-Million
The reference work on network methods: centrality, cohesion, roles and positions, and the statistics behind them. Still widely cited.
TextbookMark Newman (2018). Networks (second edition). Oxford University Press. Also at Books-A-Million
The graduate textbook: network measures, models and algorithms with the mathematics in full.
Used in: Small worlds and six degrees: what the folders, the model and the emails showed · Network density and centrality, worked by hand · Network density calculator
Cultural evolution
Culture as something learned, copied and changed over generations.
Start hereJoseph Henrich (2016). The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter. Princeton University Press. Also at Books-A-Million
Cultural learning as an engine of human evolution, argued through cases such as manioc processing and lost explorers who could not live off the land.
Used in: The best anthropology books, from a first read to the field's classics · Phylogenetic methods for cultural traits: reading history off a language tree · Galton's problem, or why cultures are not independent data points · Transmission biases: the copying rules behind cultural change
Going furtherPeter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd (2006). Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution. University of Chicago Press (paperback; first published 2005). Also at Books-A-Million
The readable version of the dual inheritance theory its two authors built in the 1980s: culture as a second system of inheritance with its own biases.
Used in: Phylogenetic methods for cultural traits: reading history off a language tree · Galton's problem, or why cultures are not independent data points
Models and complexity
Why simple rules give complicated results: systems thinking, complexity and how to reason with models.
Start hereDonella H. Meadows (2008). Thinking in Systems: A Primer. Chelsea Green. Also at Books-A-Million
A short primer on stocks, flows and feedback loops, with the system traps that make well-meant policies fail.
Used in: Systems thinking books for people who study societies
Start hereM. Mitchell Waldrop (1992). Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos. Simon & Schuster. Also at Books-A-Million
The story of the Santa Fe Institute and the people who started complexity science, told as narrative journalism.
Used in: Systems thinking books for people who study societies
Start hereScott E. Page (2021). The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You. Basic Books (paperback; first published 2018). Also at Books-A-Million
A tour of the core models of social science, from networks and diffusion to Markov processes and games, and the case for using several on one problem.
Used in: Systems thinking books for people who study societies · Cultural consensus analysis, explained with five informants · Agent-based models in anthropology: growing societies from simple rules · Measuring shared ideas of identity with consensus analysis · Herders, farmers and land, and how a conflict model is built · What mathematics can and cannot settle about kinship
Going furtherMelanie Mitchell (2011). Complexity: A Guided Tour. Oxford University Press (paperback; first published 2009). Also at Books-A-Million
Complex systems for general readers: cellular automata, genetic algorithms, networks, and why complexity is so hard to define.
Used in: Systems thinking books for people who study societies · Agent-based models in anthropology: growing societies from simple rules · Herders, farmers and land, and how a conflict model is built · Learning to Labour as a simulation, and what a model of the lads leaves out
Going furtherGeoffrey West (2018). Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies. Penguin Books (paperback; first published 2017). Also at Books-A-Million
A physicist on scaling laws: why metabolism, cities and companies follow power laws, and what that implies for growth and its limits.
Used in: Systems thinking books for people who study societies
ClassicThomas C. Schelling (2006). Micromotives and Macrobehavior. W. W. Norton (revised edition; first published 1978). Also at Books-A-Million
Short essays on how individual choices add up to patterns nobody intended, including the segregation model that agent-based modelers still start from.
Used in: Systems thinking books for people who study societies · Agent-based models in anthropology: growing societies from simple rules · Herders, farmers and land, and how a conflict model is built · Learning to Labour as a simulation, and what a model of the lads leaves out
ClassicJoshua M. Epstein and Robert L. Axtell (1996). Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up. Brookings Institution Press and MIT Press. Also at Books-A-Million
The Sugarscape model: simple agents on a grid produce trade, migration, inequality and conflict. A founding book of agent-based social science.
Used in: Systems thinking books for people who study societies
Number, pattern and symmetry
Counting across cultures and the group theory behind patterns and kinship algebras.
Start hereClaudia Zaslavsky (1999). Africa Counts: Number and Pattern in African Cultures (third edition). Lawrence Hill Books. Also at Books-A-Million
Number words, finger counting, games and patterns across African societies; the classic survey that helped start ethnomathematics.
Going furtherCaleb Everett (2019). Numbers and the Making of Us: Counting and the Course of Human Cultures. Harvard University Press (paperback; first published 2017). Also at Books-A-Million
A linguist's account of how number words shape what people count, drawing on fieldwork in Amazonia and on studies of languages with few number words.
Going furtherIan Stewart (2008). Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry. Basic Books (paperback; first published 2007). Also at Books-A-Million
The history of group theory, the mathematics behind the kinship algebras of Weil and White, told through the people who built it.
Used in: Section systems, and how the Kariera and Aranda rules work · André Weil and the first algebra of kinship · Abelian kinship systems, where the order of descent does not matter · How age gaps between spouses shape Aboriginal Australian marriage systems · Closed models and open societies in Aboriginal Australian kinship · Nonabelian kinship systems, from the Aranda square to the quaternions
Going furtherIan Stewart and Martin Golubitsky (2010). Fearful Symmetry: Is God a Geometer?. Dover (first published 1992). Also at Books-A-Million
Symmetry and symmetry breaking in patterns from crystals to animal markings, with more mathematics than most popular books.
Methods and statistics
Collecting data in the field and reading the numbers afterwards.
Start hereCharles Wheelan (2014). Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data. W. W. Norton (paperback; first published 2013). Also at Books-A-Million
Statistics without the dread: sampling, regression and inference explained with everyday examples.
Used in: Cultural consensus analysis, explained with five informants · Measuring shared ideas of identity with consensus analysis
TextbookH. Russell Bernard (2017). Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (sixth edition). Rowman & Littlefield. Also at Books-A-Million
The field manual many anthropology methods courses use: sampling, interviewing, free lists, pile sorts and consensus analysis. A seventh edition appeared in 2026.
Used in: The best anthropology books, from a first read to the field's classics · Cultural consensus analysis, explained with five informants · Measuring shared ideas of identity with consensus analysis
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