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This
session will discuss how nomadism can be defined, characterized and
recognized in the archaeological record of both the Old World and the
Americas. The participants will explore the relation of (pre)historic
nomadic populations with their environment and the settled population,
based on archaeological, historical and/or ethnoarchaeological sources
(some practical information for the participants can be found here).
Steve Rosen (Department of
Archaeology,
Ben-Gurion University, Israel)
will
be discussant during this panel which will be chaired by Hans Barnard
and
Willeke Wendrich (University
of California, Los Angeles).
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| Willeke Wendrich
(Department of Near
Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles): Before
we can even begin to broach questions on how to recognize nomads
archaeologically, on whether nomads have territories and ownership of
land or resources,
on the relation between the nomadic and the settled population, on the
social organization of nomadic populations, etcetera, we will first
have
to define what nomadism is. This paper explores different approaches
and
discusses the various archaeological and anthropological definitions of
nomadism in order to clarify the discourse and have a common ground on
which
to position and discuss the contributions of the symposium at the SAA
Meeting
and the follow-up seminar in Los Angeles. |
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| David
Browman (Department of
Anthropology, Washington University Saint Louis): The vertical ecology, coupled with
variations in precipitation, and camelids with seasonal migration
behavioral patterns, made the prehistoric Central Andes an ideal locale
for pastoral nomadism. Evidence from Central Peru to Northwest
Argentina is reviewed, summarizing the evidence from as early as seven
millennia ago, as well as relict nomadic groups that persisted into the
20th century. |
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| Hans Barnard (Cotsen
Institute of Archaeology, University
of California, Los Angeles): Much like their settled
counterparts,
nomadic people frequently use very distinctive ethnic markers, cultural
as
well as material. Pottery is not usually associated with nomads as
elaborate
installations are thought to be necessary for its production. Proof to
the
contrary has recently come to light, in California and in Egypt.
Research
on ancient material, as well as experiments on modern, show that
pottery
must certainly be considered in the study of nomadism. |
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Reinhard
Bernbeck (Department of Anthropology, Binghamton
University): Ideas about
the development of nomadism in the Near East depend heavily on
ethnographies and ethnoarchaeology because of the assumption that
mobile groups do not
leave enough traces for reliable reconstruction of their lifeways. I
argue
for a less presentist approach and focus on one aspect of nomadism,
mobility. Mobility of archaeologically attested groups must be
accounted for on several scales. In addition to seasonality,
potentially identifiable through faunal and palaeobotanical remains,
mid-term mobility must be taken into account. One way to do so is an
analysis of small-scale stratigraphic events and
their absolute chronological relationships. Such research may lead to
revisions of 'analogical nomadism' in archaeology.
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| Jeffrey Brantingham (Department
of Anthropology, University of
California, Los Angeles) : While the field of ecology has
witnessed significant advances in both the analysis of animal movement
and in building models
to predict the effects of movement on population and community
dynamics,
Paleolithic archaeologists, with a few notable exceptions, have
contented
themselves with classifying human movement into residential (forager)
or
logistical (collector) modes. Can this be all there is to know about
the
organization of human movement in the distant past? Drawing on null
models
in ecology, a neutral model of forager movement is developed. The model
is
used to evaluate whether the residential-logistical mobility continuum
provides
an effective standard for archaeological inquiry. |
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| Esther
Jacobson-Tepfer (Department of Art
History, University of Oregon): Academic
understandings of economic patterns and belief systems among the Early
Nomads of late Bronze Age North Asia have hitherto been based on
mortuary
contexts, Indo-Iranian mythic traditions, and ethnographic sources. Most recently, revitalized theories of
prehistoric
shamanism have been applied to petroglyphic imagery from this period
and
region with far reaching results. This discussion uses petroglyphic
imagery
from the Altay Mountains of Russia and Mongolia to challenge these
interpretative
strategies and proposes alternate approaches more appropriate to the
self-representation of the late Bronze Age Early Nomads of North Asia.
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| Steven Brandt (Department of
Anthropology, University of Florida)
and Juris
Zarins (Department of
Anthropology, Southwest Missouri State University): Traditional
models argue that the origin of Semitic-speaking peoples that are tied
closely to Mesopotamian cultures that arose following the original
settlements
of the lower Mesopotamian alluvium, around 5500 BC. Drawing upon recent
archaeological, linguistic and genetic data, this paper suggests an
alternative
model in which early Neolithic Afro-Asiatic speaking nomadic
pastoralists
from Northeastern Africa were the first to introduce pre-Semitic
languages
and an African form of nomadic pastoralism to Arabia and the Near East.
Implications of this model for the importance of pastoral nomadism in
clarifying
issues related to the socio-economic prehistory and history of these
regions
are discussed. |
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Benjamin Saidel (W.F. Albright Institute of
Archaeological Research):
Research conducted in the Negev desert has broadly identified those
areas inhabited by pastoral nomads and agricultural populations during
the 6th-8th centuries AD. Analysis of archaeological and textual data
from this area has led to the conclusion that these pastoral nomads
were integrated into the local economy of the Byzantine Empire. In this
paper the cooking pots found at pastoral campsites in this portion of
the Negev are used as a marker to determine how these economic
relationships impacted the socio-economic organization of these
pastoral
nomads.
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The fourth Cotsen Advanced Seminar on
Nomadism is made possible by:
- the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA;
- UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures;
- UCLA International Institute, Special Academic
Cooperative Projects;
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and all individual participants.
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Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA
P.O.-box 951510; Los Angeles, CA 90095 |
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