page_title: Nomad
section_title: Pastoralism
hierarchical_section_title: Nomad / Pastoralism
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Yurt with the en:Gurvansaikhan Mountains behind, part of en:Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park
context_page_description: A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation which regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads, and tinkers or trader nomads. In the twentieth century, population of nomadic pastoral tribes slowly decreased, reaching to an estimated 30–40 million nomads in the world as of 1995.
  Nomadic hunting and gathering—following seasonally available wild plants and game—is by far the oldest human subsistence method. Pastoralists raise herds, driving or accompanying in patterns that normally avoid depleting pastures beyond their ability to recover.
  Nomadism is also a lifestyle adapted to infertile regions such as steppe, tundra, or ice and sand, where mobility is the most efficient strategy for exploiting scarce resources. For example, many groups living in the tundra are reindeer herders and are semi-nomadic, following forage for their animals.
  Sometimes also described as "nomadic" are the various itinerant populations who move among densely populated areas to offer specialized services to their residents—external consultants, for example. These groups are known as "peripatetic nomads".
context_section_description: Pastoral nomads are nomads moving between pastures. Nomadic pastoralism is thought to have developed in three stages that accompanied population growth and an increase in the complexity of social organization.  Karim Sadr has proposed the following stages:
  Pastoralism:  This is a mixed economy with a symbiosis within the family.
  Agropastoralism:  This is when symbiosis is between segments or clans within an ethnic group.
  True Nomadism:  This is when symbiosis is at the regional level, generally between specialised nomadic and agricultural populations.
  The pastoralists are sedentary to a certain area, as they move between the permanent spring, summer, autumn and winter (or dry and wet season) pastures for their livestock. The nomads moved depending on the availability of resources.
caption: A yurt in front of the Gurvan Saikhan Mountains. Approximately 30% of the Mongolia's 3 million people are nomadic or semi-nomadic.
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