Relations entre nomades et sédentaires des confins sahariens méridionaux : essai d'interprétation dynamique

Abstract

In the plains stretching along the western border of the Air mountains, the present repartition of the population, of which 85% are nomadic shepherds, belies the numerous vestiges which give evidence of a stronger sedentary occupation in the past The commonly accepted pattern of the historical shift from pastoral nomadism to a sedentary cultivation of the soil is here at fault. Instead an adjustment of the human occupation to ecological conditions has been taking place since the middle of the second millenium B.C., thus allowing the preservation of the natural environment submitted to periodical climatic changes.