Abstract
This article discusses the relationship between nomadic people and the figure of the nomad in a European context. Based on a discussion of the presence of the figure of the nomad in European folk imaginary and in the social sciences, from Pierre Clastres's (1977. Society against the state. New York: Urizen) work on stateless societies, to Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy of Nomadology (1986. Nomadology. New York: Semiotex(e)) and Braidotti's (1994. Nomadic subjects. Embodiment and sexual difference in contemporary feminist theory. New York: Columbia University Press) nomadic feminism, the article employs a ‘nomadic’ perspective on ethnographic work of mobile people. It argues that ideas contrasting the nomadic and the state can be put to use for epistemological purposes.
Highlights
Much of the founding ethnography in anthropology is about nomadic peoples: the Nuer (Evans-Pritchard 1940), the Basseri (Barth 1965), the pastoral Fulani (Stenning 1969) and the Iban of Borneo (Freeman 1955)
Despite the interest in nomadic peoples, the anthropology of nomads did not differ much from ethnographies of sedentary peoples; they concentrated on kinship and social organisation, hierarchy, power relations, religion, rituals, etc
The limited interest in nomadic life as a form of mobility was indicative of the research agenda at that time, influenced by the ties between colonial economies and anthropological research (Noyes 2000), associations between the nomadic and the ‘primitive’ and a general value placed on state formation and functional analysis in British anthropology
Summary
This article discusses the relationship between nomadic people and the figure of the nomad in a European context. New York: Urizen) work on stateless societies, to Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy of Nomadology New York: Columbia University Press) nomadic feminism, the article employs a ‘nomadic’ perspective on ethnographic work of mobile people. It argues that ideas contrasting the nomadic and the state can be put to use for epistemological purposes. Those scattered beyond the boundaries of the city have long been the subject of puzzlement and fantasy by those within its walls, as well as a metaphor for ways of being in the world. Those scattered beyond the boundaries of the city have long been the subject of puzzlement and fantasy by those within its walls, as well as a metaphor for ways of being in the world. (Peters 2006: 141)
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