Overview

Civilization is often defined by “settling down” (cities, agriculture). Nomads are the people who refused to settle. For thousands of years, they have lived on the margins of empires—Mongols, Bedouins, Roma. Anthropology studies their unique social structures, which are designed for mobility, flexibility, and independence from the state.

Core Idea

The core idea is mobility as a resource. If there is a drought here, you move there. If a tax collector comes, you leave. Mobility provides security. However, the modern state hates nomads because they are hard to tax, count, and control. The history of nomadism is a history of conflict with the State.

Formal Definition

A community without fixed habitation which regularly moves to and from the same areas.

  • Pastoral Nomads: Depend on domesticated livestock (camels, yaks, sheep) and move to find grass/water.
  • Hunter-Gatherers: Move to find wild food.
  • Peripatetic Nomads: Move to offer services (crafts, trade) to settled populations (e.g., the Roma/Gypsies).

Intuition

Imagine living in a house that you can pack up in an hour and put on a camel. You own very little stuff because stuff is heavy. Your wealth is in your animals (which walk themselves). Your “map” of the world is not property lines, but routes and water holes. You value freedom over comfort.

Examples

  • The Mongols: The most famous nomads. Their mobility allowed them to conquer the world (they could travel faster than any army).
  • The Bedouin: Arab pastoralists of the desert. Their code of hospitality and tribal honor is rooted in the harshness of the desert life.
  • Digital Nomads: A modern metaphor. People who work online and move from country to country. While different (they rely on hotels, not tents), they share the rejection of fixed roots and the valuation of flexibility.

Common Misconceptions

  • They wander aimlessly: Nomads usually follow strict, traditional migration routes (transhumance) based on the seasons. They know exactly where they are going.
  • They are poor: Many pastoral nomads are wealthy in animals. They just don’t have “consumer goods.”
  • Segmentary Lineage: A social structure common among nomads (e.g., the Nuer). “Me against my brother; me and my brother against my cousin; me and my cousin against the stranger.” It allows them to unite for war and disperse for peace without a king.
  • The State: Deleuze and Guattari (“Nomadology”) theorized the “War Machine” of the nomad as the opposite of the State apparatus.
  • Sedentarization: The forced settlement of nomads by governments (e.g., the Soviet Union forcing Kazakhs onto collective farms), often leading to cultural destruction.

Applications

  • Refugee Studies: Understanding the trauma of forced displacement vs. the culture of voluntary mobility.
  • Architecture: Designing “nomadic” structures (tents, modular housing) for disaster relief or festivals.

Criticism / Limitations

  • Romanticization: Westerners often romanticize the “free” nomad, ignoring the hardships of the life and the rigid social controls within the tribe.
  • Conflict: Nomads often clash with farmers over land use (e.g., cattle herders vs. crop growers in Nigeria), which is exacerbated by climate change.

Further Reading

  • Evans-Pritchard, E.E. The Nuer. 1940.
  • Chatwin, Bruce. The Songlines. 1987. (A literary exploration of Aboriginal nomadism).
  • Scott, James C. The Art of Not Being Governed. 2009. (On people fleeing the state into the hills).