# Are There Any Nomads Left?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-nomads-left/489269>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 12, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-nomads-left/489269 "2009-03-12T23:30:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2009, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-nomads-left/489269/21 "2009-03-15T00:49:18Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Are you asking about just hunter/gatherer and animal-herding nomads, or are groups like the Roma and Travelers included? Because you can find them even in cities in industrialized countries.

The Roma of Eastern Europe were forcibly settled by the communists. There may be traveling Roma elsewhere, but the large majority are not nomadic.

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**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-nomads-left/489269/22 "2009-03-15T01:16:29Z")

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> [@Henrichek](#):
>
> Kind of. However, they have adopted snow mobiles, trucks, and helicopters for transportation instead of using good old skis. Here in Sweden they move with their reindeer herds towards the sea (where the climate is milder) when winter comes, and then back to the mountains for the summer. Right now they aren’t far from where I live. We encountered a reindeer herd on the road recently.

But most of them (if not all) have a house somewhere where they stay when they’re not herding. What I’ve understood from the Swedish Lapps is that they herd their reindeers when they have to and it’s pretty much only the “man of the house” who covers it. The wife and kid stay at another place and do a more “centralized” lifestyle.

So I wouldn’t count the Sami/Lapps as nomads anymore.

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**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2009, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-nomads-left/489269/23 "2009-03-15T02:11:31Z")

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> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> I thought that a true nomad, is a person who travels incessantly -not someone (like a herder of animals), whoc covers the same route every year.

Do you have an example of a group that ever fit that description?

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**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-nomads-left/489269/24 "2009-03-15T02:46:09Z")

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> [@Sailboat](#):
>
> As another way of responding to this question, “modern life” is “convenient” only to a subset of the planet’s human inhabitants; in large areas of the world it’s labor-intensive, crowded, cruel, and/or otherwise fraught with peril and limited resources.

This is true. A settling nomad is most likely going to be stepping into the tough, insecure, and unhealthy life of a sustenance farmer. It’s not really a step up in lifestyle, and people only really do it when their nomadic life becomes unsustainable due to overpopulation or when they are forced to by governments. Unfortunately, most governments resent and fear their nomadic populations. Moving around makes people difficult to survey, control, tax, and wedge into development plans. Furthermore, outdated ideas of "progress’ call for people to settle down. So there are many places where nomads are actively and often forcibly encouraged to settle down.

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