He Passage from nomadism to sedentary life Was one of the great changes in the social and cultural spheres of humanity.
This occurred during the earliest times of the world when the man decided to gradually abandon his nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle and began to settle in large groups in fixed places. This was intended to improve their well-being and access to elements of survival.
With the sedentarismo originated a considerable increase of the population in different geographical zones, which resulted in the birth of small cities that were expanding over time.
From nomadism to sedentarism, to where does the evidence point?
There are two theoretical currents that try to explain the reasons why the man went from one condition to the other.
The first argues that during the Neolithic period (about 6,000 years BC), agriculture and livestock began to be common practices and the man was forced to remain in the same place to care for his crops and cattle, giving way to sedentariness.
However, modern researchers believe that sedentarism was rather prior to the discovery of agriculture and livestock, and even a necessary condition for man to establish himself in a certain place to be able to develop the practices of planting and animal husbandry .
On the other hand, to establish a possible date in which man began to practice sedentarism, it is not valid to be based on the evidence that there have been buildings and constructions of permanent character made with blocks and stone.
The reason to emphasize this idea is that the nomadic civilizations used to construct buildings dedicated to the realization of rituals in which they congregated from time to time, places of public access or great monuments.
Traditionally, to indicate the sedentary condition of a civilization, everything that proves the existence of large stone mills, cemeteries, fixed tools and systems for storing food, as well as other social and cultural characteristics, is considered.
But some researchers maintain that none of these factors is decisive in determining the exact origin of the sedentary lifestyle, and there are conflicting opinions.
The long road of the nomads
The change from nomadism to sedentarism did not happen overnight. It was a slow process and for a long time the nomadic and sedentary groups entered into trade relations, and to a large extent, the former became dependent on the latter.
The living system of nomadic populations used to be very unstable in economic terms, because the availability of resources (water, vegetation, livestock, etc.) compared to the size of the groups. It was so variable that it was not feasible to predict or project food productivity or to maintain it at an acceptable level.
The climatic changes and the different conditions of each zone in which they were established temporarily were factors against, aspects that could be solved by staying in a single place where they could get to know the environmental variations and particularities.
Eventually, the sedentarism with its organizational form and its foundations on agriculture, would become the economically more prosperous model. A model in which hierarchies were necessary for an optimal distribution of labor and gave rise to more complex political and social structures.
Little by little new concepts were generated: property, territory, geographical boundaries, even walls that enclosed villas, and as the sedentary population grew, it also became more rooted to the place where it carried out its daily activities, thus giving rise to the first cities of the world.
In this way, the nomad economy had to resort to sedentary societies, which, being well established and economically stronger, had sufficient resources to exchange them for various types of payment, ranging from a simple commercial transaction to the Mercenarism.
There was also a cultural and ideological impact of the sedentary peoples towards the nomads and vice versa. As the source of all that the nomadic man sought, sedentarism was a kind of model; On the other hand, influences in the opposite direction are related to military arts, weapons and cavalry.
But it was not always good relations and peaceful exchanges. There were cases in which the nomadic groups used force to obtain those products that they themselves could not manufacture or for territorial conflicts. Not a few confrontations took place for thousands of years in various parts of the world, as is the case of the Eurasian steppe.
Having a military advantage, since their caballerias benefited from the nomadic condition and could be fed with fresh pastures almost anywhere, these migrant groups had a great military force to attack the settlements easily and to dominate them, even politically.
Even so, the advantages offered by the sedentarismo took to the nomadic towns to a division. Many groups separated and adopted sedentary life, leaving behind their ancient customs while others continued and even today there are nomadic societies on all continents, such as the Bedouins in the African desert and the Middle East, the Bushmen in South Africa, the Nukak-Maku in Colombia, the Gabra in Kenya / Ethiopia, the Tibetan nomads in China, the Sami in Scandinavia, the Tuhareg in the Sahara Desert, the Quashi in Iran or the merchants in Europe, among other groups .
Eleuterio Sánchez"the Lute", famous merchero stopped by the Spanish Civil Guard
Some nomadic peoples have been forced to pass through a process called"Sedentarization", in which local governments impose, for legal and political reasons, a series of demands that require them to have a fixed residence zone, a theme Which, incidentally, arouses controversies in terms of human rights.
In short, sedentarism became the dominant lifestyle for its aforementioned benefits, and from its beginnings, it has been the great precursor of the social, hierarchical and political structures as they are known today.
Other advances not only important but essential to modern life, which came to light thanks to the sedentarism, were the record of time, trade and the development of agriculture, key elements for the progress and progress of the peoples.
References
- Boissoneault, L. (2013). The Weather Channel: The World's Last Wanderers: 10 Nomadic Peoples. Recovered from: weather.com.
- Hirst, K. (2015). Thought Co: Sedentism - The Ancient Process of Building a Community, Who Decided It Was a Good Idea to Stop Wandering and Move into Town?. Retrieved from: thoughtco.com.
- Khazanov, A. and Wink, A. (2001). Nomads in the Sedentary World, New York, Matter.
- Schultz, E. and Lavenda, R. (2013). Anthropology: A Perspective on the Human Condition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Recovered from: primitivism.com.
- The Cambridge World History VOLUME V. (2015). In B. Kedar & M. Wiesner-Hanks (Eds.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- World Civilizations: The Origins Of Civilizations. The Agrarian Revolution And The Birth Of Civilization. Retrieved from: history-world.org.