Nomads and the Outside World

Abstract

The main argument of the book is that specializations means more dependency: the more specialized mobile pastoralists become, the more dependent they become, in turn, on the outside, non-pastoralist, mainly sedentary world. The book concentrates mainly on their economic and socio-political dependence, leaving aside their cultural and ideological dependence. However, it is important to keep in mind that pastoralists, including pastoral nomads, were culturally and ideologically dependent upon sedentary societies, just as they depended upon them in economic respects. The economic dependence of nomads on sedentary societies and their different modes of political adaptation to them, carried corresponding ideological implications. The introduction discusses the phenomenon of nomadism, myths and problems, followed by five chapters which examine: nomadism as a distinct form of food-producing economy; the origins of pastoral nomadism; the social preconditions of the relations between nomads and the outside world; modes of nomadic adaptation to the outside world; and nomads and the state. (CAB Abstracts)