Semi-nomadic Groups Research Articles

Assembling Differences

In the Peruvian Amazon’s lower Marañón basin, the prospect of an indigenous assembly appears unlikely: how can previously semi-nomadic groups, historically immersed in recurrent warfare, come together in a cohesive political entity? This transformation is undoubtedly a product of historical processes, greatly influenced by Western political structures and legal frameworks. However, does this shift erase the traditional conflicts among Amazonian groups? The criteria defining indigenous identity and collective action still bear traces of past hostilities, albeit reshaped by indigenous political dynamics. This article draws from the ethnography of a federation assembly to delve into the nuances between fragmentation and unity. Through the lens of assembly issues, it seeks to uncover both the ruptures and continuities defining contemporary indigenous communities.

Cost of implementing a doxycycline test-and-treat strategy for onchocerciasis elimination among settled and semi-nomadic groups in Cameroon.

Onchocerciasis is a neglected tropical disease with 217.5 million people globally at risk of having the infection. In both settled and semi-nomadic communities of Massangam Health District in Cameroon, Sightsavers has been carrying out test-and-treat with doxycycline and twice-yearly ivermectin distribution. This paper focuses on the cost of test-and-treat with doxycycline in the two community contexts of settled and semi-nomadic. For the valuation, a combination of gross or micro-costing was used to identify cost components, as well as bottom-up and top-down approaches. The opportunity costs of vehicle and equipment use were estimated and included. Not included, however, were the opportunity costs of building use and Ministry of Public Health staff salaries. We only captured the incremental costs of implementing test-and-treat activities as part of a functional annual community-directed treatment with the ivermectin programme. We estimate the economic cost per person tested and cost per person treated in Massangam to be US$135 and US$667 respectively. Total implementation cost in the settled community was US$79,409, and in the semi-nomadic community US$69,957. Overall, the total economic cost of implementing the doxycycline test-and-treat strategy for onchocerciasis elimination in Massangam came to US$168,345. Financial costs represented 91% of total costs. Unit costs of test-and-treat in both settled and semi-nomadic communities are higher than unit costs of community-directed treatment with ivermectin. However, it is critical to note that a two-year implementation shows a significantly larger reduction in infection prevalence than the preceding 20 years of annual community-directed treatment with ivermectin. Test-and-treat with doxycycline may be a cost-effective intervention in places where the prevalence of microfilaria is still high, or in hard-to-reach areas where community-directed treatment with ivermectin and MDA coverage are not high enough to stop transmission or where marginalised populations consistently miss treatment.

The limits of the ethnographic state in British India: The case of ‘foreign Asiatic vagrants’, c. 1860–1900

This article looks afresh at the notion of the British–Indian colonial state as an ‘ethnographic state’, as formulated by Nicholas Dirks. It does so through a case study of gangs of ‘foreign Asiatic vagrants’ whose forays into British India during the last decades of the nineteenth century created panic among colonial officials and further argues that such panic was due to the difficulty of identifying the members of these gangs. Ethnography proved of little help in the process, as the people involved did not easily fit into the disciplinary grid of colonial ethnography, with its preference for settled communities neatly divided into discrete castes over semi-nomadic groups with shifting habits and habitats. The resulting uncertainties translated themselves into a kind of bureaucratic anarchy, as various officials took different views of the nature and composition of these groups. Eventually, their mobilities were controlled through police measures, with no significant contribution from ethnographic knowledge.

Межгрупповая изменчивость краниометрических характеристик населения Средней Азии в 1500-летней ретроспективе (VII в. до н.э. – VIII в. н.э.)

Introduction. The paper revisits the intergroup craniometric variability in the Early Iron Age, Antiquity and Early medieval Central Asian population. Some new cranial materials are considered within the hierarchical system of the regional populations. Materials and methods. The comparison included 61 cranial samples from all historical and cultural regions of Central Asia with a total of 1100 crania. 12 standard measurements of the facial skeleton were used. First, we conducted Canonical discriminant analysis. Second, the matrix of Mahalanobis D2 distances was obtained using the resulting group coordinates in the space of the canonical vectors. Finally, the distance matrix was subjected to Multidimensional scaling and the Ward’s hierarchical cluster analysis. Results. The first three canonical variates reflect 53.4% of the total intergroup variation and differentiate samples based on bizygomatic breadth, orbit dimensions, nasal bridge height (and width to a lesser extent), horizontal profiling angles and nose protrusion angle. Upper facial height also contributes to intergroup craniometric variability but does not play a decisive role in differentiating among samples of European ancestry in the considered chronological period. Correlation coefficients between canonical variables and multidimensional scaling coordinates suggest similar relative positions of the groups in the scatterplots. Discussion. Considering the mixed nature of the Central Asian population and the difficulty of objective differentiation of morphological types, we caution against unreflective use of terms “East Mediterranean type” and “Pamir-Fergana race”. The results suggest that the Antiquity and Early medieval sedentary populations are difficult to distinguish from nomadic and semi-nomadic groups of the Wusun period. The new materials confirm the morphological similarity between Early medieval population of Sogdiana (ancient Panjakent) and Ushrusana (Kurkat dakhmaks). @ 2023. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license

Hacı Bektaş Veli ve Yaşadığı Dönemde Türkiye’de Dini-Tasavvufî Zümreler

The İslamisation of the Turks developed in varying degrees between settled and semi-nomadic groups. There was an Islamisation in accordance with the religious understanding of the Book, under the auspices of the state and depending on the educational tradition in settlements such as cities and towns. A different Islam from the Kitabi religion, which can be expressed as “popular Islam/folk Islam” became dominant among the semi-nomadic groups. The active role in the development of popular Islam was largely the wandering dervishes who devoted themselves to serving the religion. Some of these wandering dervishes, who were later called Abdalân-ı Rûm/Abdals of Rum, by establishing lodges (islamic monastery) and zawiyas prepared the ground for the semi-nomadic people to get used to the agricultural culture by sedentary life, deserving of Barkan’s characterization as colonizers/settlers. On the other hand, there was a religious life integrating with the member/senior officers of the cult/sect and mystical thought around the lodge and zawiya. After all, the Turks, with their urban and nomads, basically had the same belief forms and motifs that they brought from Central Asia. As a matter of fact, with the spirit of gaza created by this belief structure, all the people with their urbans, peasants and nomads, did not hesitate to fight for the survival of religion and the state. In this article, the dimension of this process that developed in the 13th century, which evolved into Bektashiyya in the person of Haji Bektash Wali, will be tried to be examined. While doing this, first of all, the sects of the period such as Malamatiyya, Yasawiyya, Qubrawiyya, Suhrawardiyya, which extended from Central Asia to Anatolia, will be examined.

Reclamation of Agrarian Space in Parts of Ottoman Rumeli, 15th – 16th centuries (Case study of the kaza of Eskihisar Zağra)

The study focuses on the process of reclamation of agrarian space on the territory of the Thracian valley, the kaza of Eskihisar Zağra. Based on different archival material – ottoman registrations of 15th and 16th centuries, chronicles and travelllers’ accounts it reveals features of the local environment and the adaptation of the colonized Muslim population to the conquered territories. In the analyses of the economic activities and the agrarian profile of the villages we use a different approach which is more secure in times of inflation as it was the last decades of the 16th century. We define the number and quantity of different agrarian productions but not as a quantity in money but to show each agrarian production as a tax portion to the total tax portion of the villages instead of comparing enlisted numbers of the registered taxes. It traces back the process of reclamation of the agrarian space by revealing the agrarian profile of the registered newly established settlements. The main observations refer to the role of the semi-nomadic groups of the yürüks who were engaged more in agriculture, than in pastoral nomadism.

The pre-Hispanic history of Mexican California. The road to Mesoamerica that was never completed

The article is devoted to the study of the oldest cultures of the California Peninsula. The analysis is based on the study of archaeological monuments of material and spiritual culture, reflected in rock paintings, petroglyphs and geoglyphs. The first traces of settlers in the territory of Mexican California are about 14,000 years old (Clovis culture) and are associated with Aridoamerica. Cultures have been coming in from the north continuously, although their sequence has yet to be determined. A culture of nomadic and semi-nomadic groups (the conchero camp culture) was formed here, collecting shellfish, plants and fruits, coastal fishing, and hunting marine and terrestrial mammals. The geographical isolation of the peninsula did not allow the establishment of links between Californians and Mesoamerican cultural areas.

INTRODUCTION: POST-GADDAFI REPERCUSSIONS IN THE SAHEL AND WEST AFRICA

The areas south of Libya have experienced more than their fair share of conflict and rapid social change. In earlier times, the main routes of trade, commerce and pilgrimage between West African and the Arab Peninsula passed through this region, also once inhabited by mighty warrior empires (see for example Bawuro 1972). However, as the empires along these routes faded away, and international ocean shipping opened up this part of Africa to the forces of global trade and capitalism, the centres of authority that once controlled this region also vanished. What remained was an almost open territory: unwelcoming and hard, but also a place of possibilities and the freedom to roam for those who had mastered the art of survival under such difficult conditions. This was the land of the Tuareg and other semi-nomadic groups who controlled cities and important trading posts such as Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal in contemporary Mali. This is the world of the Sahel and the parts of Western Africa that straddles Libya, and a region that currently includes Southern Algeria, Northern Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauritania and parts of Northern Nigeria. These are therefore also the countries and areas that have come to experience the full effect of what we define as post-Gaddafi repercussions.

Urban experience alters lightness perception.

We present the first empirical evidence that experience alters lightness perception. The role of experience in lightness perception was investigated through a cross-cultural comparison of 2 visual contrast phenomena: simultaneous lightness contrast and White's illusion. The Himba, a traditional seminomadic group known to have a local bias in perception, showed enhanced simultaneous lightness contrast but reduced White's illusion compared with groups that have a more global perceptual style: Urban-dwelling Himba and Westerners. Thus, experience of the urban environment alters lightness perception and we argue it does this by fostering the tendency to integrate information from across the visual scene. (PsycINFO Database Record

Prehistoric landmarks in contrasted territories: Rock art of the Libyan Desert massifs, Egypt

In the Libyan Desert, the Gilf el-Kebir and Jebel el-'Uweināt are two large rock formations located in the extreme South-West of Egypt, at the edge of the Libyan and Sudanese borders. A hundred and twenty kilometers from each other, they are surrounded by plains and sandy formations, punctuated by a few smaller massifs. Although they are of different ages and geological formations, the two great massifs both offered interesting and complementary refuges for prehistoric groups who used rock shelters, cliffs and boulders for engraving and painting. The existence of a multitude of styles and techniques allow to detect striking parallels between the rock art record of the two regions, providing a dynamic view of the regionalization of rock art and of how these territories were conceived and occupied by semi-nomadic groups during the Holocene optimum period (8000–3500 BCE). Paintings from the Gilf el-Kebir show very close stylistic affinities with representations identified in the Jebel el-'Uweināt. But the fact that they remain a minority in the overall rock art record from both areas tends to evidence that, contrary to what has been hypothesized before, migrations between the Gilf el-Kebir and the Jebel el-'Uweināt were not systematic. This paper also highlights a possible increase in the contacts and migrations between the two massifs after the adoption of pastoralist lifestyles. The repartition of rock art and the evolution through times of the parallels offers interesting insights into land use strategies of both hunter-gatherers and herd keepers in such contrasted environments, and into what can be called symbolic territories.

Contribution of Forest Restoration to Rural Livelihoods and Household Income in Indonesia

Forest resources remain vital to the survival of many rural communities, though the level of forest reliance varies across a range of sites and socio-economic settings. This article investigates variation in forest utilization across households in three ethnic groups living near a forest restoration area in Sumatra, Indonesia. Survey data were collected on 268 households, with a four-month recall period and three repeat visits to each selected household within a year. Random sampling was applied to select households in five villages and five Batin Sembilan (indigenous) semi-nomadic groups. Sampled households belonged to three ethnic groups: 15% were Batin Sembilan, 40% Local Malayan, and 45% Immigrant households. Indigenous households displayed the highest reliance on forests: 36% of their annual total income came from this source, as compared with 10% and 8% for Local and Immigrant households, respectively. Our findings showed that the livelihoods of indigenous groups were still intricately linked with forest resources, despite a rapid landscape-wide transition from natural forest to oil palm and timber plantations.

Educating the Roma: The Struggle for Cultural Autonomy in a Seminomadic Group in Norway

This paper will discuss the rationale of a group of Norwegian Roma who have resisted the government’s attempts to educate them since the early 1960s. Behind the scenes these Roma claim that a school education is irrelevant for their children yet, when faced with school authorities, they comply. The authorities have used different approaches to promote education for Rom children however, their success is questionable. So what is at stake here? What is wrong with education from the Roma’s point of view and how do the authorities respond? This article opens with a presentation of the history and background of the Norwegian Roma. It then presents the Norwegian system of public primary and lower secondary education and their attempts to accommodate Rom children. It critically examines the concept of education and the unquestioned and self-evident understanding of schooling as a liberating force per se. It further makes use of Bourdieu’s analysis of symbolic capital and habitus and discusses the Roma’s resistance to education and why symbolic capital developed through public school education is not converted to the Rom field.

The Ottoman State and Semi-Nomadic Groups Along The Ottoman Danubian Serhad (Frontier Zone) In The Late 15thand The First Half of The 16thCenturies: Challenges and Policies

The main subject of this article is the relationship between the Ottoman state and semi-nomadic groups in the Ottoman Danubian frontier zone (serhad) in the late 15th and the first half of the 16th century. Taking the two extremities of the Danubian frontier zone — the provinces of Smederevo in Serbia and Silistre in the northeastern Balkans — as case studies, the article compares the ways in which the Ottoman state dealt with semi-nomadic Vlachs at one end of the frontier zone and Turcoman yürüks (and related groups) at the other. Placing the subject in the broader context of the historical development of the Danubian frontier zone, the author analyzes the Ottoman state’s changing policies toward these two groups. Taking into account the largely different historical legacies and demographic make-ups, the article analyzes the many commonalities (as well as some important differences) in the way the Ottoman government integrated such groups in its administrative structure. It highlights the process in which such semi-nomadic groups, traditionally utilized by the Ottoman state as auxiliary soldiers, were gradually “tamed“ by the state in the course of the 16th century, becoming gradually sedentarized and losing their privileged status.

Life on an Edge among the Changpas of Changthang, Ladakh

The Buddhist Changpas-pastoral nomads of Changthang, Ladakh form an ethnic entity. Like other nomads in the world, the pastoral nomads of Changthang are a minority, suffering problems of under representation, social, economic and geographic marginalisation. The region is extremely poor in conventional energy sources (fossils, fuel and wood) and has almost no industrially exploitable resources. Natural environmental limitations dictate many aspects of traditional life, especially settlement pattern and economic system. Among the Changpas, the pastoral mode of livelihood is an evident attempt to adapt to a natural environment, which provides no plants as food that can support humans and has no potential for growing food crops. Under such conditions, the only solution is to domesticate large herds of various animals, which can feed off the plants and in return, the animals can sustain humans. Since, the ecological conditions of Changthang are not favourable for crop growing, the Changpas raise large herds of sheep and goats as well as transport animals like yaks and horses. These animals provide the Changpas with meat, milk, varieties of wool, which they use themselves and barter for grains and other utilities. This economic interdependence of nomadic pastoral and settled population has been an important characteristic of the society in this area. The Changpas social behaviour is, in part, a response to constraints and opportunities of the natural environment. Both stability and change are outcomes of response to the immediateneeds of daily life. The basic form of social organisation in the area was rural, and social relations among the agriculturalists, nomadic and semi-nomadic groups were based on trade and exchange of essential commodities. The Changpas’ subsistence level pastoral economy, traditional social and religio-cultural systems are composite part of cold desert’s ecological system. Their way of life shows a capacity to adapt themselves to the rugged cold desert environment. The Changpas possess a high degree of specialised knowledge and a flexible social organisation to make viable the mobile mode of production. Despite the ecological constraints, the Changpas were managing their environment for making a living without outside intervention. Their own societal controls like polyandry and cutting of excess animals, helped in turn by their customary rights and equity in resource allocation has helped them. The Changpas are organised using a patrilineal idiom, all members being patrilineal descendants of the founding ancestor. Rangeland, livestock, manpower and the considerable knowledge of the skills necessary to exploit them effectively are the principle economic resources of the Changpas of Changthang. Resource management in a risky environment illustrates the skills of the Changpas for survival. Traditional practices of Changpas, such as the rotation of grazing areas and use of reserve pastures in case of natural calamities help manage the variability of ecosystem and bail out pastures from a state of permanent degradation. Each animal has its own specific characteristics and adaptation to the environment. Rearing together different animals maximised the use of vegetation in the pasture. Different animals graze on different plants. In recent decades, the Changpas of Changthang have been experiencing changes due to external pressures that have altered political, economic and social landscapes. Traditionally, the Changpas were self-sufficient and livestock were providing them with their food and lodging. In recent decades, continuous massive defense investments and improvement in communications; proliferation of government departments; introduction of development plans; provision for basic amenities, alterations in traditional subsistence economy, its commercialisation and extension of know-how through government departments and non-government organisations and tourism has led to a higher motivation among local people for better standards of living. Increasing administrative and market integration and population growth over the years have weakened socio-homeostasis with no functional substitutes for restoring positive social system. For centuries, pastoralists in Changthang have lived in the context of environmental uncertainty and have developed a diverse range of strategies, institutions and network to minimise this unpredict-ability and risk. Pastoral management strategies, which may have worked previously, may or may not be sufficient now. The three communities of Samad, Korzok and Kharnak responded differently to these changes. Various pressures with an ever-increasing rate of change necessitated the adoption of new strategies for survival.

Warriors from the East. Skeletal evidence of warfare from a Lombard-Avar cemetery in Central Italy (Campochiaro, Molise, 6th–8th Century AD)

The early mediaeval cemetery of Campochiaro is located in Molise (Central Italy) and dates to the 6th–8th centuries AD. It consists of two inhumation areas: one at Morrione and the other at Vicenne. This site is important because of the contemporary presence of locals, Lombards and Avars of the steppes. Campochiaro was probably an outpost against the Byzantine army settled in southern Italy. Since no signs of a stable settlement or built-up area have been found, it seems the cemetery can be attributed to a semi-nomadic group. Many graves contained a man and his horse with the harness complex and typical Avar stirrups. The military nature of this settlement is shown by ostearchaeological evidence of warfare and violence on three skeletal individuals: n. 20, n. 102 and n. 108. Two of them exhibit lesions of the cranial vault probably produced by shock weapons in the fashion of the Byzantine armies: a spiked mace and a battle-axe. The cicatrisation of the wounds and the bony neo-formation suggest that the individuals survived these injuries for a long time. The third individual suffered from leprosy. He shows a long perpendicular cut in the left section of the frontal bone. The wound is clean and, because it is without traces of bony neo-formation, was probably a peri-mortem blow landed with a sharp weapon. The wound was not mortal, because it was very slight and probably produced only a slash. As ritual or magical practises and/or damage produced during the excavation or by the action of roots in the earth can be excluded, this individual was perhaps really a leper warrior who died in combat.

Multiple caregivers’ touch interactions with young children among the Bofi foragers in Central Africa

The current study examined the use of three types of touch (caregiving, active social-affectionate, and passive social-affectionate) by caregivers with young children among the Bofi foragers, a seminomadic group of hunter-gatherers in Central Africa. With the purpose of providing a more holistic view of touch interactions in early childhood, compared to extant Western mother-centric views, this study documents stylistic touch patterns used by multiple caregivers (mother, father, adult relatives, and juvenile relatives) with Bofi forager children. Thirty-five Bofi forager children, between 18 and 59 months of age, and their various caregivers were naturalistically observed over 12 daylight hours using a focal child observational technique. Frequencies of each type of touch and the rank order of types of touch that children received were compared between caregivers and examined by child age and gender. Even though nonmaternal caregivers showed high physical involvement with children, mothers exemplified the highest level of involvement. Overall, passive social-affectionate touch was utilized the most by all types of caregivers. Mothers used more caregiving touch, and fathers and adult relatives had similar frequencies of caregiving touch and active social-affectionate touch. In contrast, juvenile relatives showed more active social-affectionate touch with focal children. This study highlights the importance of examining multiple caregivers and physical interactions when studying early childhood experiences. Furthermore, by focusing on multiple caregivers and multiple types of touch, this study provides a more thorough characterization of the touch experiences of young children than previous studies of touch. Finally, the current study exemplifies the value of considering non-Western populations when investigating touch interactions.

Pascha w kalendarzach Starego Testamentu

The Jewish feast of Pesah was born in the circle of the shepherds’ culture, more precisely in the Semitic seminomadic groups. It was being celebrated during the spring, at the beginning of a new year. During the time of Josiah’s reforms, it became a pilgrimage feast. Historical experience of the exodus from Egypt and its theological interpretation and several reinterpretations coming afterwards, changed that nomadic and shepherds’ feast, connected with agricultural feast of Unleavened Bread, into the most important national feast of Israel. Calendars coming from biblical texts are showing a multistage development of actual feast of Passover.

Before the Dots, before Papunya: Australian Aboriginal Crayon Drawings from Birrundudu, NT 1945

In 1944-45, Ronald M. Berndt collected a large number of crayon drawings on brown paper from Aboriginal men living at Birrundudu, North-Central Northern Territory. The artists were of semi-nomadic groups whose original homelands extended from north-west to south-east of Birrundudu. These people maintained cultural ties to localities later known as the government centres of Papunya and Yuendumu on the one hand, and Balgo Hills on the other, although at that time the more recent art developments of Central Australia, especially Papunya, had not even been foreshadowed. This paper analyses the nature of Aboriginal depictions of people, country and place prior to the commercialisation of their art in the early 1970s, thirty years later. It examines the context in which this art was produced, and the narration of symbol and meaning. It draws heavily on the Museum’s unique collection of these works, hitherto largely unpublished, and contrasts the highly figurative imagery of the drawings with later stylised manifestations from culturally related Aboriginal art-producing communities. The paper focuses on the origins of the images and the intentions of the artists even at that time to engage with a wider and public audience.

Beyond the Green Myth: Borneo´ s Hunter-Gatherers in the Twenty-First Century

Beyond the Green Myth: Borneo's Hunter-Gatherers in the Twenty-First Century. Edited by Peter Sercombe and Bernard Sellato. Denmark: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2007. Pp. 384. Recent research on the Penan, Punan, and other indigenous communities (Dayak) have been sporadic at best; much more was written and researched on such communities in the 1970s to late 1990s by noted anthropologists, with some very noteworthy publications to be found in The Sarawak Museum Journal. In that respect, the present publication fills a very important gap, serving both policy-makers and academics with a comprehensive collection of works related to the impact of economic development and modernization on the subsistence economic needs of indigenous communities. I will situate the analysis of this book within the context of analysing the sustainability of forest use by indigenous communities, and the of their forest property rights in the context of modernization. In this respect, a clear definition and enforcement of property rights is essential for apportioning forest benefits and for concurrently addressing the needs of indigenous community groups, timber and business communities, and nature conservationists in the quest for modernization and development. If rights to one group has been overlooked or ignored at the expense of another, it is likely that the distressed group will express dissent. For instance, the native blockades occurring in Sarawak because of illegal encroachments by timber companies into their subsistence areas and burial grounds in the mid-1980s serves as a very good example of the impact of modernization on the violation of property rights of indigenous communities. It was with the assistance of the Friends of the Earth (Malaysia) or Sahabat Alam Malaysia that brought this to the wider attention of the public, civil organizations, and concerned individuals, which subsequently gave rise to a better understanding of the subsistence needs of native communities and the need to correct such anomalies. In recent years, negative impacts have continued to affect the livelihood of indigenous communities because their concerns have still not been adequately addressed by the state: their communal rights to forest and the use of resources within such areas (hunting wild animals, gathering of wild plant foods like sago palms and non-food items, and fishing) have been continually undermined by the more powerful interests of timber groups, business groups constructing dams and also oil palm plantations, and the state in deriving revenues and profits from dam construction, agricultural, and logging endeavours. The present publication details some of these issues in a very comprehensive, critical, and systematic manner. On an important level, this book covers the nomadic and semi-nomadic groups of huntergatherers of Borneo's tropical forests that include communities in three countries, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Written by scholars currently involved in this field, most of whom have spent substantial time with indigenous communities, it comes as no surprise that the present volume would be an invaluable source for students, policy-makers and researchers who would like to update their knowledge about the plight of indigenous communities, and to also corroborate their research with more recent evidence. The writers have focused on ethnography of hunter-gatherers in various parts of Borneo, taking full account of the distinctive histories of individual groups. Various aspects are covered on the impact of modernization on the cultural-social, economic, and political facets of hunter-gatherers. B. Sellato and P. G. Sercombe, who are the editors, provide a detailed and apt introductory chapter defining the study of hunter-gatherer groups, by covering earlier written literature on such groups, and examining specific patterns pertaining to the culture and outlook of Borneo's hunter-gatherer groups across the island (environment and subsistence, society and way of life, forest and trade, material and spiritual culture, economy and politics, and identity and ideology) with a special discussion on nomads and change. …

Anti-Nomadism, Institutions, and the Geographies of Childhood

Despite an increasing interest in the geographies of childhood, geographical research has given little attention to issues concerning young people from traditionally semi-nomadic groups, such as Gypsies and other Travellers. In this paper I explore the discursive construction of Traveller childhood within contemporary Britain, with an emphasis on the ways in which state educational discourse constructs young Travellers as needing greater involvement with the ‘mainstream’ education system. I draw on a range of sources, including documents, participant observation, and interviews with practitioners in Traveller education conducted between 1998 and 2001. I argue that contemporary discourse often continues to reflect long-standing notions of cultural disadvantage and deficit which have often been applied to Travellers, although more subtly expressed than in the past. I also argue that children's rights discourses are often employed to construct Traveller parents as obstacles to their children's development and well-being, and that these discourses can be used to legitimise various exertions of power (such as legal measures to prosecute parents). The evidence of the research highlights the need for more nuanced, empirically informed theorisations of the interface between Traveller children and state institutions than has generally been the case to date.