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Nomadic Pastoralism among the Mongol Herders: Multispecies and Spatial Ethnography in Mongolia and Transbaikalia is based on anthropological research carried out by the author between 2008 and 2016 and addresses the spatial features of nomadic pastoralism among the Mongol herders of Mongolia and Southern Siberia from a cross-comparative perspective. In addition to classical methods of survey, Charlotte Marchina innovatively used GPS recordings to analyze the ways in which pastoralists envision and concretely occupy the landscape, which they share with their animals and invisible entities. The data, represented in abundant and original cartography, provides a better understanding of the mutual adaptations of both herders and animals in the common use of unfenced pastures, not only between different herders but between different species. The author also highlights the herders' adaptive strategies at a time of rapid sociopolitical and environmental changes in this area of the world.

A growing scholarship is focusing on the cost of social resilience to climate change in the past. Among different resilience strategies, migration could be effective for nomadic societies despite the potential consequences of conflicts and epidemics. Thus, this study utilizes historical records to statistically investigate the linkages among nomadic migrations, nomad–farmer conflicts, and epidemics under climate change and population pressure in imperial China (200 BCE–1840 CE) on the national and provincial scales. The current study will first attempt to empirically identify and analyze the cost of resilience to climate change mainly in the direction from nomadic societies to agrarian societies in historical China. In particular, we show the cost of nomadic migration passed in a chain mechanism as ‘climate change → nomadic migration → nomad–farmer conflicts → epidemics.’ Nomad–farmer conflicts were one direct effect of nomadic migration, while epidemics were an indirect one. Spatially, more provinces were affected under the direct effect than under the indirect effect. Furthermore, the first level of chain ‘nomadic migration → nomad–farmer conflicts’ covers more provinces than the second level ‘nomad–farmer conflicts → epidemics’. These empirical results remind us to identify and avoid the cost of resilience as early as possible before the cost may transmit further in a chain manner. However, the provinces outside the concentrated nomad–farmer conflicts did not demonstrate significant linkages between conflicts and epidemics, which highlights the importance of peaceful cross-civilizational and inter-societal interactions against common challenges of climate change. This study with a cross-scale perspective in geography provides a theoretical implication to improve the current understanding on climate justice and have a practical value to avoid or minimize the cost of resilience.

This paper defines the rapidly emerging mobile lifestyle of digital nomads, who work while traveling and travel while working. Digital nomadism is driven by important societal changes, such as the ubiquity of mobility and technology in everyday lives and increasingly flexible and precarious employment. Despite the growing prevalence of this lifestyle, there is a lack of common understanding of and holistic perspective on the phenomenon. The emerging literature on digital nomadism is fragmented and scattered  through different disciplines and perspectives. This paper looks into digital nomadism against the array of contemporary lifestyle-led mobilities and location independent work to develop a comprehensive perspective of the phenomenon. The paper also suggests a conceptual framing of digital nomadism within lifestyle mobilities. A limited number of empirical studies on digital nomads narrows the scope of analytical discussion in this paper. Thus, the paper defines aspects and directions for further conceptualization of the phenomenon.

In this paper, we present a history of pastoralism in the ancient Near East from the Neolithic through the Bronze Age. We describe the accretional development of pastoral technologies over eight millennia, including the productive breeding of domestic sheep, goats, and cattle in the early Neolithic and the subsequent domestication of animals used primarily for labor—donkeys, horses, and finally camels—as well as the first appearance of husbandry strategies such as penning, foddering, pasturing, young male culling, and dairy production. Despite frequent references in the literature to prehistoric pastoral nomads, pastoralism in Southwest Asia was strongly associated with sedentary communities that practiced intensive plant cultivation and was largely local in nature. There is very little evidence in prehistoric and early historic Southwest Asia to support the notion of a \"dimorphic society\" characterized by separate and specialized agriculturists and mobile pastoralists. Although mobile herders were present in the steppe regions of Syria by the early second millennium BC, mobile pastoralism was the exception rather than the rule at that time; its \"identification\" in the archaeological record frequently derives from the application of anachronistic ethnographic analogy. We conclude that pastoralism was a diverse, flexible, and dynamic adaptation in the ancient Near East and call for a reinvigorated and empirically based archaeology of pastoralism in Southwest Asia.

PurposeThe primary objective of the current study is to unveil this relatively new phenomenon in the context of travel and tourism. In line with this purpose, the study provides a comprehensive overview of the concept of digital nomadism through a tourism perspective, discusses the relationship between digital nomadism, travel and tourism, examines the opportunities and threats of digital nomadism, and finally uncovers its transformative impact.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual study examined secondary data, i.e. existing literature. In this data, the focus has been on the tourism aspect of the digital nomad phenomenon.FindingsThe results suggest that digital nomadism introduces a novel perspective on the nature of travel and tourism mobility, along with a distinct tourist typology characterized by unique traits. Moreover, the results indicate that, while digital nomadism contributes to the local economy and cultural change on the one hand, it poses challenges in terms of regulations and taxation on the other. In this context, one can conclude that legislators should establish regulations for the employment of digital nomads, while managers should engage in activities that attract potential digital nomads on an international scale.Originality/valueThe study comprehensively reviews relevant literature in various ways, conducts a conceptualization of digital nomad tourists and makes a noteworthy theoretical contribution within the context of tourism. It addresses the gaps in the existing literature, particularly in specific contexts such as the legal status of digital nomads, taxation, prevention of gentrification, cultural exchanges, identity transformation and the impact on travel and tourism.

My anthropological journey has consisted in movement not only between different disciplines, but also between languages, countries and continents. This has involved stories of identity (imagined, constructed, or both), changes of place (teaching in six countries on three continents, and in four languages), searches for a safe haven, and belief in understanding the motives that govern human beings. In this wonderful journey, my coming to the Anthropological Journal of European Cultures seems almost an inevitable event. Or perhaps it is just a product of ‘chance and serendipity’.1 In retrospect, I look at my anthropological journey so far as a voyage of discovery – to different places, under different circumstances and in very different parts of the world.

The growing human tibia is uniquely responsive to repeated activities, resulting in identifiable morphological patterns that can be applied to ancient populations. Much of the bioarchaeological research in this area focuses on the transition to agriculture, noting a decline in bone strength and robusticity with increasing levels of sedentism. However, not all human groups adopted agriculture simultaneously or uniformly, and there continues to be variation in subsistence strategy based on climate, resource availability, and cultural practice. In Sudan, groups have continued to practice nomadic pastoralism alongside agriculture, although sedentary agricultural societies tend to be the focus of most archaeological research in the region. This work examines the difference in tibial morphology between groups utilising different subsistence practices within the same geographic region and archaeological period to explore activity-based changes to the tibia, using both cross-sectional geometry and geometric morphometrics to quantify the difference between tibial cross-sectional shapes at midshaft. The results suggest that while clear differences exist in midshaft tibial shape between the Sudanese groups practicing differing subsistence strategies, there is no one shape that is indicative of nomadism or sedentism; rather, there are general trends indicating higher mobility among more members of the nomadic group and more local movement among the members of the sedentary groups. Further, there is more similarity between females of all groups than males, problematising the idea that all individuals respond to bone remodeling activity in the same way. The conclusions presented here recommend that more research needs to be conducted on tibial shape variation in Sudan and worldwide using geometric morphometrics, as it presents a more nuanced approach than cross-sectional geometry, and that bone remodeling in response to activity must continue to be explored in light of differences in age, sex, and musculature.

The detection of methane on Mars has been interpreted as indicating that geochemical or biotic activities could persist on Mars today. A number of different measurements of methane show evidence of transient, locally elevated methane concentrations and seasonal variations in background methane concentrations. These measurements, however, are difficult to reconcile with our current understanding of the chemistry and physics of the Martian atmosphere, which—given methane’s lifetime of several centuries—predicts an even, well mixed distribution of methane. Here we report highly sensitive measurements of the atmosphere of Mars in an attempt to detect methane, using the ACS and NOMAD instruments onboard the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter from April to August 2018. We did not detect any methane over a range of latitudes in both hemispheres, obtaining an upper limit for methane of about 0.05 parts per billion by volume, which is 10 to 100 times lower than previously reported positive detections. We suggest that reconciliation between the present findings and the background methane concentrations found in the Gale crater would require an unknown process that can rapidly remove or sequester methane from the lower atmosphere before it spreads globally.

Nomadic communities in Inner Asia and Eurasia, such as the Scythian, Turkic and Mongolian communities, have lived in wood-framed tents (yurts) for a long time, which they dismantle and assemble or simply relocate (in the case of cart-mounted tents) when changing camp sites. The allocation of space within and outside dwellings is subject to strict rules that vary from community to community. These rules have remained relatively persistent over time, but changes have occurred at certain instances. The main rules concern the spatial division within the round tent, which consists of entrance areas, areas dedicated to activities conducted by males and females, areas dedicated to housing artefacts associated with men and women and areas of high spirituality such as the fire place, threshold or roof opening. Additionally, areas with a higher or lower rank are defined where highly or less highly honoured guests, respectively, are seated. In the perception of nomadic communities, the tent itself is connected to the larger cosmos by the roof opening (roof wheel, which represents the connection with the sky) and entrance door. The orientation of the dwelling is essential, as the door always faces east (Turkic peoples) or south/southeast (Mongols). This orientation is often also repeated in the case of graves and grave monuments. Not only is the tent a strictly ordered entity, but the camp, comprising several tents, exhibits a very clearly defined structure. Kinship and social status are indicated by the placement of an individual’s tent within the larger camp. Several historical sources indicate the importance of these rules during the gathering of larger groupings of nomads (especially within the context of medieval or 18th- and 19th-century wars or other events). Khans or leaders of nomadic confederations controlled specifically ordered camps, with certain communities or troops always occupying the same locations within camps. Palace tent compounds were erected for the ruler and separated from the rest of the camp via textile screens. Dedicated officials facilitated the re-establishment of this order upon settling at a new campsite. These large camps had designated summer and winter campsites, with several stations in between. Notably, the year was spent in a cycle of moving from one site to another. These annual and seasonal cycles followed the requirements of animal herding practices. A remnant of the unique mobile palace architecture can be found today in Mongolia’s Buddhist monasteries, several of which feature large round halls resembling tents. Formerly, many monasteries were also nomadic but had become settled at fixed sites over the last approximately 100–200 years. In this study, an overview of the concepts employed by Inner Asian nomads to structure space within their dwellings and the interrelations with the wider environment is provided.