Nomads and Networks


Book Description

Catalogue from the exhibition held at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, March 7-June 3, 2012.




Art of Being Tuareg


Book Description

The art of being Tuareg has fascinated travellers and scholars alike throughout recorded history. The elegance and beauty of the Tuareg peoples, their dress and exquisite ornament, their large white riding camels, their refined song, speech and dance -- all have been subjects of rhapsodic descriptions. Together they suggest a Tuareg "mystique," an existence made into art and lived out in one of the world's harshest environments. Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World examines this "mystique," or identity, as it has been constructed by the Tuareg themselves and by their observers. Historically, the Tuareg have been stereotyped in the West, seen as romantic desert-dwelling warriors and nomads, or even as "bandits" resisting central governmental authority. What these generalizations fail to acknowledge are the complexities of Tuareg history and the remarkable resilience and responsiveness of this people to dramatically changing circumstances, especially their late-twentieth century adaptations to modernity. Art of Being Tuareg, the rich, vibrant result of three decades of research and collaboration on the part of American, European, and Tuareg scholars and institutions, is one of only a handful of English-language volumes on Tuareg life and culture. Bringing together essays by many of today's most accomplished scholars of Tuareg art and society, it presents a comprehensive view of what it is to be Tuareg, exploring the remarkable arts that remain dynamic markers of the strength and perseverance of this highly inventive people.




Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes


Book Description

This fascinating book examines the artistic exchange between the nomadic peoples of what is now Inner Mongolia and their settled Chinese neighbors during the first millennium B.C.




Space Nomads: Set a Course for Mars


Book Description

Transform Your Mind. Expand Your Universe. Reach for Mars. Imagine a better tomorrow with interstellar essays and art—drawing on the aspirational futurism that fuels Star Trek, The Martian, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, renowned contemporary artist Camomile Hixon reminds us that by reaching for the stars, we can chase our full potential beyond Earth, while also transforming ourselves and our understanding of the Pale Blue Dot we call home. We stand at the threshold of interplanetary travel: SpaceX rockets are now routinely leaving Earth and NASA’s new Perseverance rover is searching for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet. Not since the moon landing in 1969 has space—or the promise of a transformational future for humankind—felt so close. Do we dare to reach for it? Yearning to know the stars has long united humanity and ignited our imaginations. And while here on Earth we grapple with deep unrest—economic struggle, political upheaval, gender discrimination, pandemics, racial tensions, climate change—the potential of a colony on Mars has sparked a new, universal hope and a heightened sense of collective purpose as we discover our ultimate destiny beyond Earth’s orbit. Celebrating the limitless potential of space and the human spirit, Hixon’s indelible essays and fantastical works of art invite us to imagine a transcendent future where we reach together for absolute freedom, unconditional love, and wellness on our grand quest for world peace. Weaving science, history, art, and philosophy with meditations on higher consciousness inspired by seeing the Earth from Space, Space Nomads is a book of unbridled optimism for the future.




Kyrgyzstan. The Art of Nomads


Book Description

This book explores the magical world of Kyrgyz nomads, describes the main types of applied art, shows the origins of the ancient Kyrgyz ornament. Samples of products of the main types of applied art are given. It is very important that modern masters know and understand the hidden world of the Kyrgyz pattern. This will help them to preserve the depth and beauty that is in the works of ancient craftsmen.




Nomads of Mauritania [Premium Color]


Book Description

Nomads of Mauritania aims at understanding the cultural identity (religious beliefs, language, values, relationships with others) of the Mauritanian nomads through their geographical environment, an original history, their lifestyle, caste system, diet, housing and crafts and how it is revealed by their art, materially expressed on the everyday objects and the body and defined for the first time as geometrical-abstract and respectively as ephemeral usual art and ephemeral living art. Furthermore, what has become of the nomads of Mauritania with the climate warming and the economic and cultural globalization and to what extent are they still the pillars and heart of the Mauritanian society of today?




Urban Nomads


Book Description

The artist has created an emphatic and complex oeuvre at the interface of art, architecture and design. Since 2001 he has been building living systems for homeless people and other urban nomads




Last of the Nomads


Book Description

‘Peasley's description of the events … is informative, compassionate, exciting and at times deeply moving.' —Don Grant, Australian Book Review ‘The intriguing story of [the rescue of an elderly couple believed to be the last Australian nomads] and how they survived alone for the previous 30 years or so in the unrelenting western Gibson Desert region of WA, is fascinating reading.' — Chris Walters, The West Australian ‘This is a most remarkable book about the recovery during the 1977 drought of an ailing Aboriginal nomadic couple, living in desert regions of Western Australia.' — The National Times Warri and Yatungka were believed to be the last of the Mandildjara tribe of desert nomads to live permanently in the traditional way. Their deaths in the late 1970s marked the end of a tribal lifestyle that stretched back more than 30,000 years. The Last of the Nomads tells of an extraordinary journey in search of Warri and Yatungka.




Nomads as Agents of Cultural Change


Book Description

Since the first millennium BCE, nomads of the Eurasian steppe have played a key role in world history and the development of adjacent sedentary regions, especially China, India, the Middle East, and Eastern and Central Europe. Although their more settled neighbors often saw them as an ongoing threat and imminent danger—“barbarians,” in fact—their impact on sedentary cultures was far more complex than the raiding, pillaging, and devastation with which they have long been associated in the popular imagination. The nomads were also facilitators and catalysts of social, demographic, economic, and cultural change, and nomadic culture had a significant influence on that of sedentary Eurasian civilizations, especially in cases when the nomads conquered and ruled over them. Not simply passive conveyors of ideas, beliefs, technologies, and physical artifacts, nomads were frequently active contributors to the process of cultural exchange and change. Their active choices and initiatives helped set the cultural and intellectual agenda of the lands they ruled and beyond. This volume brings together a distinguished group of scholars from different disciplines and cultural specializations to explore how nomads played the role of “agents of cultural change.” The beginning chapters examine this phenomenon in both east and west Asia in ancient and early medieval times, while the bulk of the book is devoted to the far flung Mongol empire of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This comparative approach, encompassing both a lengthy time span and a vast region, enables a clearer understanding of the key role that Eurasian pastoral nomads played in the history of the Old World. It conveys a sense of the complex and engaging cultural dynamic that existed between nomads and their agricultural and urban neighbors, and highlights the non-military impact of nomadic culture on Eurasian history. Nomads as Agents of Cultural Change illuminates and complicates nomadic roles as active promoters of cultural exchange within a vast and varied region. It makes available important original scholarship on the new turn in the study of the Mongol empire and on relations between the nomadic and sedentary worlds.




Nomads who Cultivate Beauty


Book Description

"The author describes Wodaabe cultural choices as "active archaisation". Different art forms are analysed in the light of identity construction by the Wodaabe. Their elaborate cultivation of beauty in make-up, tattoos, body paintings, calabash carvings, embroideries, and architecture all follow the principle of symmetry and order in the cosmos. The author emphasizes the gendered aspects of social life and identity construction and explores masculinity among nomadic Wodaabe men, who are living sculptures displaying their beauty as a spiritual act, full of honour and dignity."--BOOK JACKET.