Nomadic Thinking: A Metanarrative of Humanity

An invitation to rethink our place in the world from the perspective of nomads.

Sedentary-state civilizations have historically degraded nomadic people as primitive or barbaric and sought to "civilize" them; however, the nomads have resisted this and tried to maintain their way of life. What is the underlying thought behind this resistance? What does it mean to be human according to the nomads? What might be the metanarrative of humanity from a nomadic perspective? Nomadic Thinking, seeking answers to these interrelated questions, consists of an effort to explain the nomadic conception of humanity within the language of Western philosophy. It uncovers the nomadic way of thinking by examining both the social lives and cultural narratives of nomads themselves. As author Buket Korkut-Raptis makes clear, nomadic thought offers a much-needed ethical perspective necessary to overcome exploitative human relations and to modify our relationship with nature. It revives our trust in humanity and gives us hope that we can be creative in finding new forms of social life, better than what we are confined to in our civilized world.