What anthropological best books should I start with?

We recommend "Anthropology" by Conrad Phillip Kottak. It is #1 on our list, so it had to pass a lot of tests to get there. That says a lot! So give it a try :)

How did you create this list of best anthropology books?

We view the most popular anthropological lists on the internet to find the good ones, and then average their results.

16 Best Anthropology Books of All Time

Our goal: Build the most true list of best Anthropology books.

Our process:
1. Search for "best Anthropology books" and study the top 5 articles.
2. Add only the top books (mentioned 2+ times).
3. Rank the results neatly for you here! 😊
(This process takes a long time, but we do the research so you don't have to!)

(Updated 2022)

1
i
Anthropology
Appreciating Human Diversity
Conrad Phillip Kottak
Appears in 3 articles
2
i
Purity and Danger
An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo
Mary Douglas
Appears in 3 articles
3
i
Cultural Anthropology
Asking Questions About Humanity
Robert L. Welsch
Appears in 3 articles
4
i
Guns, Germs, and Steel
The Fates of Human Societies
Jared Diamond
Appears in 2 articles
11 recommenders
MOST RECOMMENDED!
5
i
Sapiens
A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari
Appears in 2 articles
31 recommenders
6
i
Imagined Communities
Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
Benedict Anderson
Appears in 2 articles
7
i
Debt
The First 5,000 Years
David Graeber
Appears in 2 articles
2 recommenders
8
i
Anthropology & the Colonial Encounter
Talal Asad
Appears in 2 articles
9
i
Almost Human
The Astonishing Tale of Homo Naledi and the Discovery That Changed Our Human Story
Lee Berger
Appears in 2 articles
10
i
Crazy Like Us
The Globalization of the American Psyche
Ethan Watters
Appears in 2 articles
11
i
How to Read Ethnography
Paloma Gay y Blasco
Appears in 2 articles
12
i
Language, Culture, and Society
An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology
James Stanlaw
Appears in 2 articles
13
i
The Unfolding of Language
An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention
Guy Deutscher
Appears in 2 articles
14
i
Discipline and Punish
The Birth of the Prison
Michel Foucault
Appears in 2 articles
15
i
Gods of the Upper Air
How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century
Charles King
Appears in 2 articles
16
i
Beyond Culture
Edward T. Hall
Appears in 2 articles

FAQ

What anthropological best books should I start with?
We recommend "Anthropology" by Conrad Phillip Kottak. It is #1 on our list, so it had to pass a lot of tests to get there. That says a lot! So give it a try :)
How did you create this list of best anthropology books?
We view the most popular anthropological lists on the internet to find the good ones, and then average their results.