Nomad Properties : Political Anthropologies of Nomadism from the 18th Century until Today

Perspectives on nomadism in political and theoretical contexts. What is the discourse about nomadism telling us about anthropological concepts of Western societies? This edited volume relates historical instances of nomadism to the role of “the nomad” in political discourses and recent theoretical debates. The figure of the nomad was and still is constructed as an antagonist within a (neo-)liberal frame of narratives about sedentarism, productivity, and improvement. Whereas the discourse about nomadism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was entangled with colonial contexts and ideas about so-called primitive societies, it became even more multifaceted in the twentieth century, considering ideas about “nomadic thinking” of Deleuze and Guattari, and different forms of “modern nomadism” on the rise: from traveling day laborers to refugees of war, from scientists to a global managerial class.  

Perspectives on nomadism in political and theoretical contexts.

What is the discourse about nomadism telling us about anthropological concepts of Western societies? This edited volume relates historical instances of nomadism to the role of “the nomad” in political discourses and recent theoretical debates. The figure of the nomad was and still is constructed as an antagonist within a (neo-)liberal frame of narratives about sedentarism, productivity, and improvement. Whereas the discourse about nomadism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was entangled with colonial contexts and ideas about so-called primitive societies, it became even more multifaceted in the twentieth century, considering ideas about “nomadic thinking” of Deleuze and Guattari, and different forms of “modern nomadism” on the rise: from traveling day laborers to refugees of war, from scientists to a global managerial class.