Kin & Number Table of Contents
Every page on the site is an ordinary web page, so there is nothing to download and no reader to install. Explainers are grouped by their main area, newest first. After them come the notes on classic problems (marriage classes as permutations, Dravidian and Crow-Omaha terminologies, closure in Aboriginal Australian systems and more), then the models you can run in your browser and the reference pages. Kin-type letters such as MBD or FZS follow the notation guide, and every explainer ends with the sources it relied on.
Listing of explainers
Last update: Oct. 6, 2026
Kinship & Family Structures3 here
Models in Anthropology3 here
Network Analysis2 here
Cultural Evolution2 here
Methods & Tools2 here
Books & Teaching1 here
Science & Society2 here
Notes on classic problems
Abelian kinship systems, where the order of descent does not matter
When is a man's mother's brother's daughter always in his marriage category? A plain guide to commutative kinship systems, with a six-type worked example.
Closed models and open societies in Aboriginal Australian kinship
What closure means for a section system, why real Aboriginal Australian populations were never closed, and how Denham and his critics argued the point.
Crow and Omaha kin terms, or why a cousin can be called uncle
In Crow and Omaha terminologies one word can span two generations. A worked example of the skewing, the classic explanations, and newer formal work.
How Dravidian kin terms sort relatives into kin and in-laws
Dravidian kin terms sort every relative into kin or potential in-law. Here is the parity rule behind it, worked by hand, and how scholars put it into algebra.
How to take a kinship terminology apart
What it means to analyze kin terms formally: features, rewrite rules and kin-term algebra, worked on American English, and the long argument over what kinship is.
Herders, farmers and land, and how a conflict model is built
How an agent-based model of mobile herders and settled farmers is set up, what a toy run shows by hand, and what such a model can and cannot say about real conflict.
Kinship networks as channels, and why family loops matter
What it means to treat a kinship network as a set of channels, why P-graphs make marriage loops visible, and a hand count of the loops in a small family.
Nonabelian kinship systems, from the Aranda square to the quaternions
Why the Aranda subsection system does not commute, how the symmetries of a square describe it, and which marriages noncommutative kinship systems allow.
Marriage rules as permutations, and how to count every possible system
How a prescriptive marriage system becomes two permutations and a group, worked through a four-section example, and how to list every possible system.
Kinship, symmetry and what an analogy can prove
Can a kinship system share a structure with DNA or particle physics? Symmetry and groups in plain words, a Dravidian sign rule, and the limits of analogy.
Models and reference pages
Cousin and relationship calculator
Second cousin once removed? Count the generations to a shared ancestor and get the name, the relatedness and the expected shared DNA.
Kinship terminology chart
One family tree, six classic systems: see which relatives Eskimo, Hawaiian, Sudanese, Iroquois, Crow and Omaha terms merge or split.
Network density calculator
Paste who is tied to whom and get density, degree, components and clustering, with every formula shown.
Pedigree collapse calculator
How many ancestor slots you have at each generation, when they outnumber everyone alive, and how much of your tree is repeats.
Section and subsection system simulator
Moieties, four sections and eight subsections: pick a person and see where their spouse, children and parents fall.
Lecture notes
A self-study route through the subject in eight units, each with an exercise and its answer.
Notation guide
Kin-type letters, diagram symbols and the notation for composing relations.
Statistics for anthropology
The tests and measures that come up most, with two small worked examples.
Research areas
The main lines of mathematical and computational anthropology, with key references.
Book notes
Standard texts grouped by level, from first readings to kin-term algebra.