nomadism

The state of being a nomad.

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A form of social organization where people and animals move from place to place in search of pasture. The itinerary of movement may take the form of a routine pattern but, as rainfall varies, there may be movement away from this routine. True nomads have no fixed abode and no sedentary agriculture. Semi-nomads like some Australian Aborigines wander for some of the year and grow crops for the rest of the year.

As international boundaries are increasingly well defined, with border guards, nomadism will decline. Governments try to immobilize nomads as an attempt to bring them in line with more advanced societies for the purposes of taxation as well as to improve their health and literacy. However, many researchers now consider that nomadism represents the best use of fragile ecosystems.

A way of life in which a community has no permanent settlement but moves from place to place, usually seasonally and within a defined territory. For hunting and gathering societies, nomadism does not imply aimless wandering, but suggests an organized rotation of settlements to ensure maximum use of available natural resources.