View source for Nomad

{{Short description|Person without fixed habitat}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Encampment of Gypsies with Caravans.jpg|alt=|thumb|A painting by [[Vincent van Gogh]] depicting a caravan of nomadic [[Romani people|Roma]]]]
{{Economic anthropology}}
{{wiktionary | nomad}}
'''Nomads''' are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include [[hunter-gatherer]]s, [[Nomadic pastoralism|pastoral nomads]] (owning [[livestock]]), [[tinker]]s and [[Merchant|trader]] nomads.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/NOMAD|title=NOMAD|via=The Free Dictionary|access-date=2022-12-10|archive-date=2022-12-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221210200206/https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/NOMAD|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/nomadism|title=nomadism &#124; society &#124; Britannica|website=www.britannica.com|access-date=2018-07-09|archive-date=2021-05-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505193646/https://www.britannica.com/topic/nomadism|url-status=live}}</ref> In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pastoral tribes slowly decreased, reaching an estimated 30–40 million nomads in the world {{As of|1995|lc=y}}.<ref>{{cite journal|date= April 5, 1995|title= Nomads: At the Crossroads – The Facts|journal= [[New Internationalist]]|issue= 266|url= http://www.newint.org/features/1995/04/05/facts/|access-date= January 10, 2013|archive-date= April 28, 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210428075941/https://newint.org/features/1995/04/05/facts|url-status= live}}</ref>

Nomadic hunting and gathering—following seasonally available wild plants and game—is by far the oldest human subsistence method known.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://explorable.com/subsistence|title= Subsistence|website= explorable.com|access-date= 2019-02-24|archive-date= 2021-04-26|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210426194958/https://explorable.com/subsistence|url-status= live}}</ref> Pastoralists raise herds of domesticated livestock, driving or accompanying them in patterns that normally avoid depleting pastures beyond their ability to recover.<ref>{{Citation|last1=Homewood|first1=Katherine|title=Pastoralism, conservation and the overgrazing controversy|date=1988|work=Conservation in Africa|pages=111–128|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521341998|last2=Rodgers|first2=W.A.|doi=10.1017/cbo9780511565335.009}}</ref> Nomadism is also a [[Lifestyle (sociology)|lifestyle]] adapted to infertile regions such as [[steppe]], [[tundra]], or [[desert|ice and sand]], where mobility is the most efficient strategy for exploiting scarce resources. For example, many groups living in the tundra are [[reindeer herders]] and are semi-nomadic, following forage for their animals.

Sometimes also described as "nomadic" are various [[vagrancy (people)|itinerant]] populations who move among densely populated areas to offer specialized services ([[craft]]s or [[trade]]s) to their residents—external [[consultant]]s, for example. These groups are known as "[[List of nomadic peoples#Peripatetic|peripatetic nomads]]".<ref>{{cite web|last= Teichmann|first= Michael|title= ROMBASE: Didactically edited information on Roma|url= http://romani.uni-graz.ac.at/rombase/cd/data/ethn/topics/data/nomadic.en.pdf|access-date=2014-04-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140421082300/http://romani.uni-graz.ac.at/rombase/cd/data/ethn/topics/data/nomadic.en.pdf|archive-date= 2014-04-21|url-status= dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last= Rao|first= Aparna|title= The concept of peripatetics: An introduction|date= 1987|publisher= Bohlau Verlag|location= Cologne|pages= 1–32|url= https://www.scribd.com/doc/209394957/Rao-1987-the-Concept-of-Peripatetics-an-Introduction|quote= [...] peripatetics, [...] endogamous nomads who are largely non-primary producers or extractors, and whose principal resources are constituted by other human populations [...].|access-date= 2017-09-10|archive-date= 2016-06-29|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160629141918/https://www.scribd.com/doc/209394957/Rao-1987-the-Concept-of-Peripatetics-an-Introduction|url-status= live}}</ref>

== Etymology ==
The English word ''nomad'' comes from the [[Middle French]] {{Lang|frm|nomade}}, from [[Latin]] {{Lang|la|nomas}} ("wandering shepherd"), from [[Ancient Greek]] {{Lang|grc|νομᾰ́ς}} ({{Lang|grc-Latn|nomás}}, "roaming, wandering, esp. to find pasture"), which is derived from the [[Ancient Greek]] {{Lang|grc|νομός}} ({{Lang|grc-Latn|nomós}}, "pasture").<ref>English dictionaries agree that the word came from French in the 16th century but incorrectly claim that the French word referred to pasturing. (See the [https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=nomad American Heritage Dictionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170714204318/https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=nomad |date=2017-07-14 }} and the [http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/nomade Digitized Treasury of the French Language] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723221641/http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/nomade |date=2018-07-23 }} (in French). The meanings of the Latin and Greek predecessors are irrelevant and in fact misleading for the meaning of the English word.)</ref>{{dubious|date= September 2019}}

==Common characteristics==
[[File:Hungarian Gypsy Mother and Child NGM-v31-p563.jpg|thumb|[[Romani people|Roma]] mother and child]]
[[File:Nomads on the Changtang, Ladakh.jpg|thumb| Nomads on the [[Changtang]], [[Ladakh]]]]
[[File:Rider in Mongolia, 2012.jpg|thumb|left| Rider in [[Mongolia]], 2012. While nomadic life is less common in modern times, the horse remains a national symbol in Mongolia.]]
[[File:Bedscha.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|left| [[Beja people|Beja]] nomads from [[Northeast Africa]]]]

Nomads are communities who move from place to place as a way of obtaining food, finding pasture for livestock, or otherwise making a living. Most nomadic groups follow a fixed annual or seasonal pattern of movements and settlements. Nomadic people traditionally travel by animal, canoe, sleigh, or on foot. Animals include camels, horses, dogs, and alpaca. Today, some nomads travel by motor vehicle. Some nomads may live in homes or homeless shelters, though this would necessarily be on a temporary or itinerant basis.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

Nomads keep moving for different reasons. Nomadic foragers move in search of game, edible plants, and water. Aboriginal Australians, [[Negrito]]s of Southeast Asia, and [[San people|San]] of Africa, for example, traditionally move from camp to camp to hunt and gather wild plants. Some tribes of the Americas followed this way of life. Pastoral nomads, on the other hand, make their living raising livestock such as camels, cattle, goats, horses, sheep, or yaks; these nomads usually travel in search of pastures for their flocks. The [[Fula people|Fulani]] and their cattle travel through the grasslands of [[Niger]] in western Africa. Some nomadic peoples, especially herders, may also move to raid settled communities or to avoid enemies. Nomadic craftworkers and merchants travel to find and serve customers. They include the [[Gadia Lohar]] blacksmiths of India, the Roma traders, Scottish travellers and Irish travellers.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

Many nomadic and pastorally nomadic peoples are associated with [[Semi-arid climate|semi-arid]] and [[desert climate]]s; examples include the [[Mongolic peoples|Mongolic]] and [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] peoples of [[Central Asia]], the [[Plains Indians]] of the [[Great Plains]], and the [[Berbers|Amazigh]] and other peoples of the [[Sahara|Sahara Desert]]. Pastoral nomads who are residents of arid climates include the [[Fula people|Fulani]] of the [[Sahel]], the [[Khoekhoe|Khoikhoi]] of [[South Africa]] and [[Namibia]], groups of [[Northeast Africa]] such as [[Somali people|Somalis]] and [[Oromo people|Oromo]], and the [[Bedouin]] of the Middle East.

Most nomads travel in groups of families, bands, or [[tribes]]. These groups are based on kinship and marriage ties or on formal agreements of cooperation. A council of adult males makes most of the decisions, though some tribes have chiefs.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

In the case of Mongolian nomads, a family moves twice a year. These two movements generally occur during the summer and winter. The winter destination is usually located near the mountains in a valley and most families already have fixed winter locations. Their winter locations have shelter for animals and are not used by other families while they are out. In the summer they move to a more open area in which the animals can graze. Most nomads usually move within the same region and do not travel very far. Since they usually circle around a large area, communities form and families generally know where the other ones are. Often, families do not have the resources to move from one province to another unless they are moving out of the area permanently. A family can move on its own or with others; if it moves alone, they are usually no more than a couple of kilometres from each other. The geographical closeness of families is usually for mutual support. Pastoral nomad societies usually do not have large populations.

One nomadic society, the [[Mongols]], gave rise to the largest land empire in history. The Mongols originally consisted of loosely organized nomadic tribes in Mongolia, Manchuria, and Siberia. In the late 12th century, [[Genghis Khan]] united them and other nomadic tribes to found the [[Mongol Empire]], which eventually stretched the length of Asia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weatherford |first=Jack |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A8Y9B5uHQcAC |title=Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World |date=2005-03-22 |publisher=Crown |isbn=978-0-307-23781-1 |language=en}}</ref>

The nomadic way of life has become increasingly rare. Many countries have converted pastures into cropland and forced nomadic peoples into permanent settlements.<ref>{{Cite journal|url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/41145912|title= Nomadism and Desertification in Africa and the Middle East|journal= GeoJournal|jstor= 41145912|access-date= 2021-02-17|last1= Johnson|first1= Douglas L.|year= 1993|volume= 31|issue= 1|pages= 51–66|doi= 10.1007/BF00815903|bibcode= 1993GeoJo..31...51J|s2cid= 153445920|archive-date= 2022-03-13|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220313160236/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41145912|url-status= live|url-access= subscription}}</ref>

Modern forms of nomadic peoples are variously referred to as "shiftless", "[[Romani people|gypsies]]", "[[rootless cosmopolitan]]s", hunter-gatherers, refugees and urban [[Homelessness|homeless]] or [[Street people|street-people]], depending on their individual circumstances. These terms may be used in a derogatory sense.

According to [[Gérard Chaliand]], [[terrorism]] originated in nomad-warrior cultures. He points to [[Machiavelli]]'s classification of war into two types, which Chaliand interprets as describing a difference between warfare in sedentary and nomadic societies:<ref>{{cite book |last=Chaliand |first=Gerard |title=The History of Terrorism: From Antiquity to Al Qaeda |publisher=University of California Press |date=2007 |pages=85–86}}</ref>

<blockquote>There are two different kinds of war. The one springs from the ambition of princes or republics that seek to extend their empire; such were the wars of Alexander the Great, and those of the Romans, and those which two hostile powers carry on against each other. These wars are dangerous but never go so far as to drive all its inhabitants out of a province, because the conqueror is satisfied with the submission of the people... The other kind of war is when an entire people, constrained by famine or war, leave their country with their families for the purpose of seeking a new home in a new country, not for the purpose of subjecting it to their dominion as in the first case, but with the intention of taking absolute possession of it themselves and driving out or killing its original inhabitants.</blockquote>

Primary historical sources for [[nomadic steppe-style warfare]] are found in many languages: Chinese, Persian, Polish, Russian, Classical Greek, Armenian, Latin and Arabic. These sources concern both the true [[steppe nomads]] ([[Mongols]], [[Huns]], [[Magyars]] and [[Scythians]]) and also the semi-settled people like [[Turkish people|Turks]], [[Crimean Tatars]] and [[Russians]], who retained or, in some cases, adopted the nomadic form of warfare.<ref>{{cite web |title=Steppe Nomadic Warfare |website=Oxford Bibliographies |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199791279/obo-9780199791279-0119.xml |access-date=2021-09-13 |archive-date=2021-09-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210913175313/https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199791279/obo-9780199791279-0119.xml |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Hunter-gatherers==
{{Main|Hunter-gatherer}}
[[File:BushmenSan.jpg|thumb|Starting fire by hand. [[San people]] in Botswana.]]
Hunter-gatherers (also known as foragers) move from campsite to campsite, following [[Game (food)|game]] and wild [[fruit]]s and [[vegetable]]s. Hunting and gathering describes early peoples' subsistence living style. Following the development of agriculture, most hunter-gatherers were eventually either displaced or converted to farming or pastoralist groups. Only a few contemporary societies, such as the [[Pygmies]], the [[Hadza people]], and some [[Uncontacted peoples|uncontacted tribes]] in the [[Amazon rainforest]], are classified as hunter-gatherers; some of these societies supplement, sometimes extensively, their foraging activity with farming or animal husbandry.

==Pastoralism==
{{Main|Pastoralism|Transhumance|nomadic pastoralism}}
{{see also|List of nomadic peoples|Eurasian nomads|Eurasian Steppe|Nomadic empire}}
[[File:World in 200 BCE.png|thumb|330px|Overview map of the world in 200 BC:
{{legend|#800080|[[Sarmatians]], [[Saka]], [[Yuezhi]], [[Xiongnu]] and other nomadic pastoralists}}]]
[[File:Radzivill Chronicle Cumans.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|[[Cuman people|Cuman]] nomads, [[Radziwiłł Chronicle]], 13th century.]]
[[File:Gurvger.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|A [[yurt]] in front of the [[Gurvan Saikhan Uul|Gurvan Saikhan Mountains]]. Approximately 30% of [[Mongolia]]'s 3 million people are nomadic or semi-nomadic.]]
[[File:Saami Family 1900.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|A Sámi family in Norway around 1900. [[Reindeer]] have been [[Herding|herded]] for centuries by several Arctic and Subarctic people including the [[Sami people|Sámi]] and the [[Nenets people|Nenets]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7631678.stm|title=Your pictures: Ed Vallance|publisher=BBC News – In Pictures|access-date=29 April 2015|date=2008-09-23|archive-date=2021-03-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312202449/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7631678.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>]]

[[Pastoral nomads]] are nomads moving from pastures to pastures. Nomadic [[pastoralism]] is thought to have developed in three stages that accompanied [[population growth]] and an increase in the complexity of [[social organization]]. [[Karim Sadr]] has proposed the following stages:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://dannyreviews.com/h/Nomadism.html|title=The Development of Nomadism in Ancient Northeast Africa Karim Sadr [Book Review]|last=Yee|first=Danny|date=1991|access-date=2018-02-01|archive-date=2021-03-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312202455/https://dannyreviews.com/h/Nomadism.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
* '''Pastoralism:'''  This is a [[mixed economy]] with a [[symbiosis]] within the family.
* '''Agropastoralism:'''  This is when symbiosis is between segments or clans within an [[ethnic group]].
* '''True Nomadism:'''  This is when symbiosis is at the regional level, generally between specialised nomadic and agricultural populations.

The pastoralists are sedentary to a certain area, as they move between the permanent spring, summer, autumn and winter (or dry and wet season) pastures for their [[livestock]]. The nomads moved depending on the availability of resources.<ref>[http://www.angelfire.com/az/rescon/MEHBKNMD.html Nomads of the Middle East] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090428125713/http://www.angelfire.com/az/rescon/MEHBKNMD.html |date=2009-04-28 }}, David Zeidan, OM-IRC, 1995</ref>

===History===

====Origins====
Nomadic pastoralism seems to have developed first as a part of the [[secondary products revolution|secondary-products revolution]] proposed by [[Andrew Sherratt]], in which early [[Neolithic|pre-pottery Neolithic]] cultures that had used animals as live meat ("on the hoof") also began using animals for their secondary products, for example: [[milk]] and its associated [[dairy products]], [[wool]] and other animal hair, hides (and consequently [[leather]]), [[manure]] (for [[fuel]] and [[fertilizer]]), and traction.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}

The first nomadic pastoral society developed in the period from 8,500 to 6,500 BCE in the area of the southern [[Levant]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1= Ning|first1= Shi|last2= Dupont|first2= Lydie M.|date= June 1997|title= Vegetation and climatic history of southwest Africa: A marine palynological record of the last 300,000 years|journal=Vegetation History and Archaeobotany|volume= 6|issue= 2|pages= 117–131|doi= 10.1007/bf01261959|bibcode= 1997VegHA...6..117N|s2cid= 129710387|issn= 0939-6314}}</ref> There, during a period of increasing aridity, [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] (PPNB) cultures in the [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]] were replaced by a nomadic, pastoral pottery-using culture, which seems to have been a cultural fusion between them and a newly-arrived [[Mesolithic]] people from Egypt (the [[Harifian]] culture), adopting their nomadic hunting lifestyle to the raising of stock.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{Cite web |url=http://anthro.palomar.edu/subsistence/sub_3.htm |title=Patterns of Subsistence: Pastoralism |access-date=2008-09-10 |archive-date=2016-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203223113/http://anthro.palomar.edu/subsistence/sub_3.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

This lifestyle quickly developed into what Jaris Yurins has called the circum-[[Arabs|Arabian]] nomadic pastoral techno-complex and is possibly associated with the appearance of [[Semitic languages]] in the region of the [[Ancient Near East]]. The rapid spread of such nomadic pastoralism was typical of such later developments as of the [[Yamnaya]] culture of the [[Eurasian nomads|horse and cattle nomads of the Eurasian steppe]] ({{circa}} 3300–2600 BCE), and of the [[Mongol]] spread in the later [[Middle Ages]].<ref name=autogenerated1 />

Yamnaya [[Western Steppe Herders|steppe pastoralists]] from the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]], who were among the first to master [[Equestrianism|horseback riding]], played a key role in [[Indo-European migrations]] and in the spread of [[Indo-European languages]] across Eurasia.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Gibbons |first1= Ann |title= Thousands of horsemen may have swept into Bronze Age Europe, transforming the local population |journal= Science |date= 21 February 2017 |url= https://www.science.org/content/article/thousands-horsemen-may-have-swept-bronze-age-europe-transforming-local-population |access-date= 29 October 2022 |archive-date= 25 September 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220925154535/https://www.science.org/content/article/thousands-horsemen-may-have-swept-bronze-age-europe-transforming-local-population |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Andrew |last=Curry |title=The first Europeans weren't who you might think |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/first-europeans-immigrants-genetic-testing-feature |work=National Geographic |date=August 2019 |access-date=2022-10-29 |archive-date=2023-03-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306235330/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/first-europeans-immigrants-genetic-testing-feature |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Trekboer]]s in southern Africa adopted nomadism from the 17th century.<ref>
{{cite book
| last1 = Fouché
| first1 = Leo
| year = 1936
| chapter = V: Foundation of the Cape Colony, 1652–1708
| editor1-last = Walker
| editor1-first = Eric Anderson
| editor1-link = Eric A. Walker (historian)
| title = The Cambridge History of the British Empire
| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ISg9AAAAIAAJ
| volume = VIII: South Africa, Rhodesia and the Protectorates
| location = Cambridge
| publisher = CUP Archive
| publication-date = 1963
| page = 136
| access-date = 2016-11-16
| quote = [...] [[Simon van der Stel|van der Stel]] recognised the roving tendency among the colonists and tried to arrest it. A proclamation of 1692 illustrated his fears: it stated that colonists were making a living by grazing cattle and bartering in the interior [...]. This seems clear proof that the ''trekboer'', as a distinct type, was coming into existence during the time of van der Stel. [...] Generation after generation of these hardy and self-reliant nomads pushed the frontiers of civilisation further into the wilderness.
}}
</ref>
Some elements of [[gaucho]] culture in colonial South America also re-invented nomadic lifestyles.<ref>{{cite book
 |last1             = Slatta
 |first1            = Richard W.
 |date              = 1 January 1992
 |title             = Gauchos and the Vanishing Frontier
 |url               = https://books.google.com/books?id=tWN1W5DHIvcC
 |edition           = reprint
 |publication-place = Lincoln
 |publisher         = University of Nebraska Press
 |page              = 189
 |isbn              = 9780803292154
 |access-date       = 23 April 2023
 |quote             = [...] the early nineteenth century witnessed 'the nomad ''gaucho'' of the colonial period converted into the loyal ''gaucho'' of the ''estancia''.'
 |archive-date      = 23 April 2023
 |archive-url       = https://web.archive.org/web/20230423055443/https://books.google.com/books?id=tWN1W5DHIvcC
 |url-status        = live
}}</ref>

====Increase in post-Soviet Central Asia====
One of the results of the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|break-up of the Soviet Union]] and the subsequent political independence and economic collapse of its [[Central Asian]] republics has been the resurgence of pastoral nomadism.<ref>[http://www.fao.org/sd/rodirect/ROan0009.htm Pastoral Livestock Development in Central Asia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100128220108/http://www.fao.org/sd/rodirect/ROan0009.htm |date=2010-01-28 }}, FAO Rural Development Division</ref> Taking the [[Kyrgyz people]] as a representative example, nomadism was the centre of their economy before Russian colonization at the turn of the 20th century, when they were settled into agricultural villages. The population became increasingly [[Urbanization|urbanized]] after World War II, but some people still take their herds of horses and cows to high pastures (''jailoo'') every summer, continuing a pattern of [[transhumance]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}

Since the 1990s, as the cash economy shrank, unemployed relatives were reabsorbed into family farms, and the importance of this form of nomadism has increased.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}} The symbols of nomadism, specifically the crown of the grey felt tent known as the [[yurt]], appears on the national flag, emphasizing the central importance of nomadism in the genesis of the modern nation of [[Kyrgyzstan]].<ref>{{Citation|title=CONCLUSION|work=Speaking Soviet with an Accent|year=2012|pages=140–146|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctt5vkh78.13|isbn=978-0822978091}}</ref>

====Sedentarization====
{{See also|Sedentism}}
From 1920 to 2008, the population of nomadic pastoral tribes slowly decreased from over a quarter of [[Iran]]'s population.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bestirantravel.com/culture/history/nomads.html|title=Persian & Iranian Nomads at Best Iran Travel.com|access-date=29 April 2015|archive-date=20 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920130312/http://www.bestirantravel.com/culture/history/nomads.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Tribal pastures were nationalized during the 1960s. The National Commission of [[UNESCO]] registered the population of Iran at 21 million in 1963, of whom two million (9.5%) were nomads.<ref>{{cite journal|url=|title=Censuses of Pastoral Nomads and Some General Remarks about the Census of Nomadic Tribes of Iran in 1998 |journal=Nomadic Peoples|volume=7|issue=2|pages=24–35|access-date=|date=December 2003|last1=Moussavi-Nejad|first1=Ebrahim|doi=10.3167/082279403781826328}}</ref> Although the nomadic population of Iran has dramatically decreased in the 20th century, Iran still has one of the largest nomadic populations in the world, an estimated 1.5 million in a country of about 70 million.<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-feb-18-ft-irannomads18-story.html Iran's nomads going extinct], Los Angeles Times, February 18, 2008</ref>

In [[Kazakhstan]] where the major agricultural activity was nomadic herding,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/page.basic/country/content.country/kazakhstan_672|title=National Geographic: Images of Animals, Nature, and Cultures|access-date=29 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090518101036/http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/page.basic/country/content.country/kazakhstan_672|archive-date=18 May 2009|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> [[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|forced collectivization]] under [[Joseph Stalin]]'s rule met with massive resistance and major losses and confiscation of livestock.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kazsociety.org.uk/events/2006/06/51.htm|title=Kazahstan Student Society in the United Kingdom|access-date=29 April 2015|archive-date=8 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808000026/http://www.kazsociety.org.uk/events/2006/06/51.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Livestock in Kazakhstan fell from 7 million cattle to 1.6 million and from 22 million sheep to 1.7 million. The resulting [[Soviet famine of 1932–1933|famine of 1931–1934]] caused some 1.5 million deaths: this represents more than 40% of the total [[Kazakhs|Kazakh]] population at that time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unesco.kz/heritagenet/kz/hn-english/history_en.htm|title=General information|access-date=29 April 2015|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304212415/http://www.unesco.kz/heritagenet/kz/hn-english/history_en.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Fulani herdsman.jpg|thumb|[[Fulani herdsmen|Fulani herdsman]] in [[Togo]]. Spread throughout West Africa, the [[Fula people|Fulani]] are the largest nomadic group in the world.]]
In the 1950s as well as the 1960s, large numbers of [[Bedouin]] throughout the Middle East started to leave the traditional, nomadic life to settle in the cities of the Middle East, especially as home ranges have shrunk and population levels have grown. Government policies in [[Egypt]] and [[Israel]], oil production in [[Libya]] and the [[Persian Gulf]], as well as a desire for improved standards of living, effectively led most Bedouin to become settled citizens of various nations, rather than stateless nomadic herders. A century ago, nomadic Bedouin still made up some 10% of the total [[Arab]] population. Today, they account for some 1% of the total.<ref>[http://www.angelfire.com/az/rescon/MEHBKPPL.html The Middle East People Groups and Their Distribution] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090126112213/http://www.angelfire.com/az/rescon/MEHBKPPL.html |date=2009-01-26 }}, Zeidan, David, OM-IRC, 1995</ref>

At independence in 1960, [[Mauritania]] was essentially a nomadic society. The great [[Sahel drought]]s of the early 1970s caused massive problems in a country where 85% of its inhabitants were nomadic herders. Today only 15% remain nomads.<ref>[http://countrystudies.us/mauritania/60.htm Mauritania – Political Power in the Mid-1980s] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921122851/http://countrystudies.us/mauritania/60.htm |date=2011-09-21 }}, U.S. Library of Congress Country Studies</ref>

As many as 2 million nomadic [[Kuchis]] wandered over [[Afghanistan]] in the years before the [[Soviet–Afghan War|Soviet invasion]], and most experts agreed that by 2000 the number had fallen dramatically, perhaps by half. A severe [[drought]] had destroyed 80% of the livestock in some areas.<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-jun-30-mn-46357-story.html "Severe Drought Driving Nomads From Desert"], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', June 30, 2000</ref>

[[Niger]] experienced a serious [[2005–06 Niger food crisis|food crisis in 2005]] following erratic rainfall and [[desert locust]] invasions. Nomads such as the [[Tuareg people|Tuareg]] and [[Fulani]], who make up about 20% of Niger's 12.9 million population, had been so badly hit by the Niger food crisis that their already fragile way of life is at risk.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4153804.stm Niger way of life 'under threat'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180202013520/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4153804.stm |date=2018-02-02 }}, BBC News, August 16, 2005</ref> Nomads in [[Mali]] were also affected.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4132326.stm Mali's nomads face famine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224054313/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4132326.stm |date=2021-02-24 }} [[BBC News]], August 9, 2005</ref> The Fulani of West Africa are the world's largest nomadic group.<ref>{{cite news |title=West Africa's Fulani nomads fight climate change to survive |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20191205-west-africa-s-fulani-nomads-fight-climate-change-to-survive |work=France 24 |date=5 December 2019}}</ref>

=== Lifestyle ===
[[File:Nomads in Badghis Province.jpg|thumb|Tents of [[Pashtuns|Pashtun]] nomads in [[Badghis Province]], [[Afghanistan]]. They migrate from region to region depending on the season.]]
Pala nomads living in [[Western Tibet]] have a diet that is unusual in that they consume very few vegetables and no fruit. The main staple of their diet is ''[[tsampa]]'' and they drink [[Tibetan cuisine|Tibetan]] style [[butter tea]]. Pala will eat heartier foods in the winter months to help keep warm. Some of the customary restrictions they explain as cultural saying only that ''drokha'' do not eat certain foods, even some that may be naturally abundant. Though they live near sources of [[fish as food|fish]] and [[fowl]] these do not play a significant role in their diet, and they do not eat [[carnivorous]] animals, [[rabbit]]s or the wild asses that are abundant in the environs, classifying the latter as [[horse]] due to their cloven hooves. Some families do not eat until after the morning milking, while others may have a light meal with butter tea and ''tsampa''. In the afternoon, after the morning milking, the families gather and share a communal meal of tea, ''tsampa'' and sometimes [[yogurt]]. During winter months the meal is more substantial and includes meat. [[Herder]]s will eat before leaving the camp and most do not eat again until they return to camp for the evening meal. The typical evening meal may include thin stew with ''tsampa'', animal fat and dried [[radish]]. Winter stew would include a lot of meat with either ''tsampa'' or boiled flour [[dumpling]]s.<ref name="goldstein">{{cite book |last1=Goldstein |first1=Mervyll |title=Nomads of Western Tibet: The Survival of a Way of Life |date=1990 |publisher=University of California Press |page=114 |isbn=978-0520072107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=igQiDpD66pwC&pg=PA114}}</ref>

Nomadic diets in [[Kazakhstan]] have not changed much over centuries. The Kazakh nomad cuisine is simple and includes meat, salads, marinated vegetables and fried and baked [[bread]]s. [[Tea]] is served in bowls, possibly with sugar or [[milk]]. Milk and other [[dairy]] products, like [[cheese]] and [[yogurt]], are especially important. ''[[Kumys]]'' is a drink of [[fermentation|fermented]] milk. [[Wrestling]] is a popular sport, but the nomadic people do not have much time for leisure. Horse riding is a valued skill in their culture.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pavlovic |first1=Zoran |title=Kazakhstan |date=2003 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |page=57 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uR_x9HdQra0C&pg=PA57|isbn=978-1438105192 }}</ref>
[[File:Nomadic Clan on the Move (23380103871).jpg|thumb|Movement of nomads in [[Chad]]]]

=== Perception ===
Ann Marie Kroll Lerner states that the pastoral nomads were viewed as "invading, destructive, and altogether antithetical to civilizing, sedentary societies" during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. According to Lerner, they are rarely accredited as "a civilizing force".<ref>{{Cite thesis |type =Ph.D. |title =Iron Age Nomads of the Urals: Interpreting Sauro–Sarmatian and Sargat Identities |year =2006 |page =34 |publisher =Department of Anthropology, [[Michigan State University]] |section =History of Nomad Studies in Anthropology: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries |first =Ann Marie Kroll |last=Lerner |oclc=1084037447 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=256YglLwBkUC&q=%22History+of+Nomad+Studies+in+Anthropology%22}}</ref>

[[Allan Hill]] and Sara Randall observe that western authors have looked for "romance and mystery, as well as the repository of laudable characteristics believed lost in the West, such as independence, stoicism in the face of physical adversity, and a strong sense of loyalty to family and to tribe" in nomadic pastoralist societies. Hill and Randall observe that nomadic pastoralists are stereotypically seen by the settled populace in Africa and [[Middle East]] as "aimless wanderers, immoral, promiscuous and disease-ridden" peoples. According to Hill and Randall, both of these perceptions "misrepresent the reality".<ref>{{cite book |title=Population, Health and Nutrition in the Sahel: Issues in the Welfare of Selected West African Communities |year =2012 |pages =21–40 |publisher =[[Routledge]] |editor-first =Allan G. |editor-last =Hill |chapter =Issues in the Study of the Demography of Sahelian Pastoralists and Agro–Pastoralists |first1 =Allan G. |last1 =Hill |first2= Sara |last2=Randall |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N_T_O_8XmdQC&pg=PA21 |isbn=978-1136882845}}</ref>

The development of "{{linktext | nomadology}}" by [[Deleuze and Guattari]] emphasises a positive view of features of nomadism.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Bogue
 |first1               = Ronald
 |date                 = 13 May 2016
 |orig-date            = 2007
 |chapter              = Nomadism, Globalism and Cultural Studies
 |title                = Deleuze's Way: Essays in Transverse Ethics and Aesthetics
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=nAUpDAAAQBAJ
 |publication-place    = Abingdon
 |publisher            = Routledge
 |page                 = 124
 |isbn                 = 9781317153405
 |access-date          = 18 June 2025
 |quote                = Deleuze and Guattari apply the concept of 'nomadism' to a wide range of topics, including mathematics, physics, games, cloth manufacture, metallurgy, music and art [...] citing as instances of nomadism traditional hunter-gatherer tribes of Africa and South America, various pastoral nomads, such as the Mongols and the Bedouins, the sea nomads of Patagonia, as well as peripatetics of diverse sorts {{--}} itinerant craftsmen, gypsies, street gangs, and so on. [...] Their object is to identify two broad tendencies {{--}} the nomadic and the sedentary [...].
}}
</ref>

== Contemporary peripatetic minorities in Eurasia{{anchor|Peripatetic minorities}} ==
{{off topic|date=July 2013}}
[[File:Greguss János Sátoros cigányok.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|A tent of Romani nomads in [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]], 19th century.]]

Peripatetic minorities are mobile populations moving among settled populations offering a [[craft]] or [[trade]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gmelch|first=S B|date=October 1986|title=Groups That Don't Want In: Gypsies and Other Artisan, Trader, and Entertainer Minorities|journal=Annual Review of Anthropology|volume=15|issue=1|pages=307–330|doi=10.1146/annurev.an.15.100186.001515|issn=0084-6570}}</ref>

Each existing community is primarily endogamous, and subsists traditionally on a variety of commercial or service activities. Formerly, all or a majority of their members were itinerant, and this largely holds true today. Migration generally takes place within the political boundaries of a single state these days.

Each of the peripatetic communities is multilingual, it speaks one or more of the languages spoken by the local sedentary populations, and, additionally, within each group, a separate dialect or language is spoken. They are speaking languages of [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indic]] origin and many are structured somewhat like an [[argot]] or secret language, with vocabularies drawn from various languages. There are indications that in northern Iran at least one community speaks [[Romani language]], and some groups in Turkey also speak Romani.

=== Asia ===
==== Afghanistan====
{{main|Peripatetic groups of Afghanistan}}

==== India ====
{{main|Nomads of India}}
{{see also|Denotified Tribes}}
[[File:Camels are bred by Cholistani people which they sell for business, transportation, sacrifice and meat.jpg|thumb|Camel grazers in the [[Thar Desert]]]]

==== Dom people ====
{{main|Dom people}}
In Afghanistan, the Nausar worked as tinkers and animal dealers. Ghorbat men mainly made [[sieve]]s, drums, and bird cages, and the women peddled these as well as other items of household and personal use; they also worked as moneylenders to rural women. Peddling and the sale of various goods was also practiced by men and women of various groups, such as the Jalali, the Pikraj, the Shadibaz, the Noristani, and the Vangawala. The latter and the Pikraj also worked as animal dealers. Some men among the Shadibaz and the Vangawala entertained as monkey or bear handlers and snake charmers; men and women among the Baluch were musicians and dancers. The Baluch men were warriors that were feared by neighboring tribes and often were used as mercenaries. Jogi men and women had diverse subsistence activities, such as dealing in horses, harvesting, [[fortune-telling]], [[bloodletting]], and [[begging]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}}

In Iran, the Asheq of Azerbaijan, the Challi of Baluchistan, the Luti of Kurdistan, Kermānshāh, Īlām, and Lorestān, the Mehtar in the Mamasani district, the Sazandeh of Band-i Amir and Marv-dasht, and the Toshmal among the Bakhtyari pastoral groups worked as professional musicians. The men among the Kowli worked as tinkers, smiths, musicians, and monkey and bear handlers; they also made baskets, sieves, and brooms and dealt in donkeys. Their women made a living from peddling, begging, and fortune-telling.

The Ghorbat among the Basseri were smiths and tinkers, traded in pack animals, and made sieves, reed mats, and small wooden implements. In the Fārs region, the Qarbalband, the Kuli, and Luli were reported to work as smiths and to make baskets and sieves; they also dealt in pack animals, and their women peddled various goods among pastoral nomads. In the same region, the Changi and Luti were musicians and balladeers, and their children learned these professions from the age of 7 or 8 years.{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}}

The nomadic groups in Turkey make and sell cradles, deal in animals, and play music. The men of the sedentary groups work in towns as scavengers and hangmen; elsewhere they are fishermen, smiths, basket makers, and singers; their women dance at feasts and tell fortunes. Abdal men played music and made sieves, brooms, and wooden spoons for a living. The Tahtacı traditionally worked as lumberers; with increased sedentarization, however, they have taken to agriculture and horticulture.{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}}

Little is known for certain about the past of these communities; the history of each is almost entirely contained in their oral traditions. Although some groups—such as the Vangawala—are of Indian origin, some—like the Noristani—are most probably of local origin; still others probably migrated from adjoining areas. The Ghorbat and the Shadibaz claim to have originally come from Iran and Multan, respectively, and Tahtacı traditional accounts mention either [[Baghdad]] or [[Greater Khorasan|Khorāsān]] as their original home. The Baluch say they{{Clarify|reason=Who are the Baluch talking about? Themselves, or the Ghorbat and the Shadibaz?|date=February 2012}} were attached as a service community to the [[Jamshedi]], after they fled Baluchistan because of feuds.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/peripatetics-afghanistan-iran-and-turkey|title=Peripatetics of Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey &#124; Encyclopedia.com|website=www.encyclopedia.com|access-date=2022-12-10|archive-date=2022-12-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221210200206/https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/peripatetics-afghanistan-iran-and-turkey|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8CAv53wlHfoC&q=nomads+customary+%22peripatetic+minorities%22&pg=PA28|title=Customary Strangers|access-date=29 April 2015|isbn=978-0897897716|last1=Berland|first1=Joseph C.|last2=Rao|first2=Aparna|year=2004|publisher=Greenwood Publishing }}</ref>

==== Kochi people ====
{{main|Kochi people}}

==== Yörüks ====
{{main|Yörük}}
Still some groups such as [[Sarıkeçililer]] continues nomadic lifestyle between coastal towns [[Mediterranean]] and [[Taurus Mountains]] even though most of them were settled by both late [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] and [[Republic of Turkey|Turkish]] republic.

==== Bukat People of Borneo ====
The Bukat people of Borneo in Malaysia live within the region of the river [[Mendalam]], which the natives call '''Buköt'''. Bukat is an [[ethnonym]] that encapsulates all the tribes in the region. These natives are historically self-sufficient but were also known to trade various goods. This is especially true for the clans who lived on the periphery of the territory. The products of their trade were varied and fascinating, including: "...resins (damar, ''Agathis dammara; jelutong bukit, Dyera costulata,'' gutta-percha, ''Palaquium'' spp.); wild honey and beeswax (important in trade but often unreported); aromatic resin from insence wood (''gaharu, Aquilaria microcarpa);'' camphor (found in the fissures of ''Dryobalanops aromaticus);'' several types of rotan of cane (''Calamus rotan'' and other species); poison for blowpipe darts (one source is ''ipoh'' or ''ipu'': see Nieuwenhuis 1900a:137); the antlers of deer (the sambar, ''Cervus unicolor);'' rhinoceros horn (see Tillema 1939:142); pharmacologically valuable bezoar stones (concretions formed in the intestines and gallbladder of the gibbon, ''Seminopithecus,'' and in the wounds of porcupines, ''Hestrix crassispinus);'' birds' nests, the edible nests of swifts (''Collocalia'' spp.); the heads and feathers of two species of hornbills (''Buceros rhinoceros, Rhinoplax vigil)''; and various hides (clouded leopards, bears, and other animals)."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sellato|first=Barnard|title=Nomads of the Borneo Rainforest: The Economics, Politics, and Ideology of Settling Down.|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|year=1995|pages=56}}</ref> These nomadic tribes also commonly hunted boar with poison blow darts for their own needs.

=== Europe ===
{{main|Itinerant groups in Europe|Gens du voyage (France)}}

====Roma====
{{main|Romani people}}

== Image gallery ==
<gallery mode="packed">
File:Nomad camp near Tingri Tibet. 1993i.jpg|Nomad camp near [[Tingri (town)|Tingri]], Tibet. 1993
File:Snake charmer(js).jpg|Snake charmer from Telugu community of Sri Lanka.
File:PazyrikHorseman.JPG|A [[Scythian]] horseman from the general area of the [[Ili river]], [[Ukok Plateau|Pazyryk]], c. 300 BCE.
File:Schongauer.jpg|[[Yeniche people]], 15th century
File:Bedouinnasserwadirum.jpg|A young [[Bedouin]] lighting a camp fire in [[Wadi Rum]], [[Jordan]].
File:Kazakhs_people.jpg|[[Kazakhs]] in Xinjiang, China, 1987
File:Mali1974-151 hg.jpg|[[Tuareg]] in Mali, 1974.
File:Перекочевка киргизов.jpg|[[Kyrgyz people|Kyrgyz]] nomads, 1869–1870.
File:Giulio Rosati 5.jpg|''Nomads in the Desert'' ([[Giulio Rosati]]).
File:SB_-_Kazakh_woman_on_horse.jpg|[[Kazakhs]], c. 1910
File:AtsinaMovingCamp.jpg|[[Gros Ventre people|Gros Ventre]] (Atsina) American Indians moving camps with [[travois]] for transporting [[Tipi|skin lodges]] and belongings.
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Woonschuit van een Oerang-Laoet familie Ka. Toengkal TMnr 10010488.jpg|House barge of the [[Sama-Bajau peoples]], Indonesia. 1914–1921
File:Bedouins - Tunisia - 1899.jpg|Photograph of [[Bedouin]]s of Tunisia, 1899
File:Raja Ravi Varma, Gypsies (1893).jpg|Indian nomads (1893), by [[Raja Ravi Varma]]
File:Gipsy.jpg|alt=Banjara|Indian nomad [[Banjara]]
</gallery>

== See also ==
* [[Nomadic peoples of Europe]]
* [[Shahsevan]]
* [[Seasonal human migration]]
* [[Nomadic conflict]]
* [[Schizoanalysis | Nomadology]]
* [[Sea Gypsies (disambiguation)|Sea Gypsies]]
* [[Pastoral society]]
* [[Pastoralism]]
* [[Transhumance]]
Figurative use of the term:
* [[Global nomad]]
* [[Digital nomad]]
* [[Snowbird (people)]]
* [[Military brat]]
* [[The Nomadic Project]]
* [[Perpetual traveler]]
* [[RV lifestyle]]
* [[Third culture kid]]
* [[Overlanding]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{Commons category|Nomads}}
{{NIE Poster}}
* {{cite web |title=A different way of living: the last surviving nomads |date=10 Jul 2021 |author=Jen Grimble |website=MSN |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/tripideas/a-different-way-of-living-the-last-surviving-nomads/ss-BB1fyKnQ?li=BBnb7Kz#image=1}}
* Oberfalzerova, Alena (2006): ''Metaphors and Nomads'', Triton, Prague. {{ISBN|8072548492}}
* Sadr, Karim (1991). ''The Development of Nomadism in Ancient Northeast Africa'', University of Pennsylvania Press. {{ISBN|0812230663}}
* Cowan, Gregory (2002). "Nomadology in Architecture: Ephemerality, Movement and Collaboration" University of Adelaide (available: [http://hdl.handle.net/2440/37830 Nomadology in architecture: ephemerality, movement and collaboration.] [https://web.archive.org/web/20070926214754/http://thesis.library.adelaide.edu.au/public/adt-SUA20060904.161630/ Adelaide University Public View])
* Chatty, Dawn (1983–2009). [http://www.nomadsinoman.com/nomadic-life/articles Articles on Nomadic life]
* [[Bruce Chatwin|Chatwin, Bruce]] (1987). ''[[The Songlines]]''
* [[Gilles Deleuze|Deleuze]] and [[Félix Guattari|Guattari]] (1980). ''[[A Thousand Plateaus]]''
* [[Melvyn Goldstein]]: [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20040906105907/http://www.cwru.edu/affil/tibet/booksAndPapers/Impact_China_Reform_Policy.htm The Impact of China's Reform Policy on the Nomads of Western Tibet]
* [http://www.cwru.edu/affil/tibet/booksAndPapers/Remote%20World%20of%20Tibet%27s%20Nomads.html The Remote World of Tibet's Nomads]
* [[René Grousset|Grousset, René]] (1939). ''L'Empire des Steppes'' {{in lang|fr}}
* Michael Haerdter. [http://www.neme.org/texts/nomadism Remarks on modernity, mobility, nomadism and the arts]
* [[Nikolay Kradin|Kradin, Nikolay]] (2004). "Nomadic Empires in Evolutionary Perspective". In ''Alternatives of Social Evolution''. Ed. by N.N. Kradin, [[Andrey Korotayev|A.V. Korotayev]], [[Dmitri Bondarenko]], V. de Munck, and P.K. Wason (pp.&nbsp;274–288). [[Vladivostok]]: Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; reprinted in: The Early State, its Alternatives and Analogues. Ed. by [[Leonid Grinin]] et al. (pр. 501–524). Volgograd: Uchitel'.
* Kradin, Nikolay N. (2002). [https://web.archive.org/web/20080227100055/http://jwsr.ucr.edu/archive/vol8/number3/pdf/jwsr-v8n3-kradin.pdf "Nomadism, Evolution, and World-Systems: Pastoral Societies in Theories of Historical Development+. ''Journal of World-System Research'' 8: 368–388].
* Kradin, Nikolay N. (2003). "Nomadic Empires: Origins, Rise, Declin"e. In ''Nomadic Pathways in Social Evolution''. Ed. by N.N. Kradin, [[Dmitri Bondarenko]], and T. Barfield (pp.&nbsp;73–87). Moscow: Center for Civilizational Studies, [[Russian Academy of Sciences]].
* Kradin, Nikolay N. (2006). [https://web.archive.org/web/20121117000557/http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/SF/Complex_lat-1.doc "Cultural Complexity of Pastoral Nomads". ''World Cultures'' 15: 171–189].
* Beall, Cynthia and Goldstein, Melvyn (May 1993). "Past becoming future for Mongolian nomads" ''[[National Geographic Magazine]]''
* Vigo, Julian (2005). "Nomadic Sexualities and Nationalities: Postcolonial Performative Words and Visual Texts".  ''Inscriptions in the Sand'' Famagusta: Eastern Mediterranean University Press.

{{Types of societies}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Nomads|*]]
[[Category:Cultural anthropology]]