Meaning of Nomadism (What is it, Concept and Definition)

What is Nomadism:

Nomadism is a way of life practiced by some groups of individuals, which are characterized by constantly moving from one place to another .Likewise, nomadism is also a lifestyle of various animal species.

Nomadism was a widespread practice during Prehistory , especially during the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, when nomads moved from one territory to another, either because food was depleted or because of climatic and geological changes.

Therefore, nomads had to move again to another place in the which could be established for a while and so on.

However, it was thanks to the migratory movements of the nomads that the continents gradually populated and, the human being adapted to the particularities of each region.

There are currently few communities that pr Nomadism acts, as is the case of the Bedouin, nomadic groups that move between different areas of the Middle East and Africa, mainly dedicated to pastoralism.

See also Nomad.

Characteristics of nomadism

The main characteristics of nomadism are presented below.

• They constantly move from one place to another according to the seasons of the year.
• Nomads live on hunting, fishing and food collection.
• Their homes are tents made with animal skins, easy to assemble and carry.
• They have a social organization , simple and less complex political and economic than sedentary communities.
• They tend to be patriarchal communities in which the older man is in charge of deciding where they will go and when they should leave.
• Nominated groups can be allied in situations of danger, subsistence or marriage.
• The term is used to refer to the old ones activities of the subsistence of the human being.

Nomadism and sedentary lifestyle

Nomadism was the first way of life that human beings developed , that moved from one place to another in search of food and shelter such as caves or caverns to live in.Nomads lived on hunting and collecting some food.

However, nomadism was disappearing to As the human being created tools for hunting and collecting food, which led to the development of agriculture and livestock and allowed the cultivation of more food and animal husbandry.

These activities led to the settlement of communities in various regions, called sedentary lifestyle.

For its part, sedentary lifestyle refers to the establishment of social groups in a particular region or place that originated, according to specialists, during the Neolithic period in the region of the Middle East.

In this way, sedentary lifestyle was established, developed and displaced to nomadism as a way of life.It also allowed to delimit a social order and made possible the formation of towns and cities that differ by their customs, languages ​​and other cultural features.

See also Sedentarism.