Nomadic Communities That Still Exist Today

04 Nov,2023

Credit: Google Images

The Kochi people of southern and eastern Afghanistan survive in decreasing numbers because of the pressures of war and internal strife, but a few thousand continue to live as their ancestors did, herding sheep, goats, and camels. 

Credit: Google Images

The Kochi people

Credit: Google Images

The Bedouin

The semi-nomadic Bedouin people of the Negev desert roamed the region centuries before the 1948 formation of Israel. In 1947, there were upward of 92,000 Bedouin individuals, who identify as Palestinian Arabs. 

There are up to 100,000 semi-nomadic Sámi people, mostly in Scandinavia and about 2,000 in Russia, unified linguistically but with some behavioral divisions. All have herded reindeer throughout Samiland for as long as history recounts, and the animals are core to their cultural identity. 

The Sámi people

Credit: Google Images

The 14 tribes comprising the pastoralist Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania raise livestock from the Rift Valley to the Serengeti. Or they did, until mining, big game hunting, and even foreign beer grain-growing corporations interrupted the culture’s nomadic way of life.

Credit: Google Images

The Maasai

There are anywhere from three to six million Mongols living in China today, depending on who you ask. Most of them reside along the northern border with Russia and Mongolia in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR).

Credit: Google Images

The Mongols

Seasonally migratory, during winter the Urdu-speaking, semi-nomadic Gaddi shepherds reside in villages throughout Himachal Pradesh, India.

Credit: Google Images

The Gaddi people

Credit: Google Images

The Irish traveling community

Often referred to with ethnic slurs such as “Pikey,” Pikers,” or “Tinkers,” Irish travelers are ostracized and scorned as criminals and worse.