Longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2024

A beguiling look at seven contemporary nomadic cultures around the world, offering a timely insight into alternative ways of life that connect us to our ancestral roots.

A fascinating and beautiful survey of seven nomadic societies spread across the continents. With delicately beautiful illustrations bringing the material to life, we learn about the Sama Bajau, fishing nomads from the Philippines who spend months at sea without ever touching land. We discover the Yanomami peoples of the Amazon rainforest whose connection to their environment informs every aspect of their lives. The Nenet nomads of Siberia follow their reindeer through blasting winds to the very edge of the Arctic Circle.

All these cultures face common pressures and problems. Governments want them to settle down and assimilate; local populations view them with suspicion; subsistence farming or herding is not viable in a cut-throat globalised world.

This book offers a timely window on a simpler way of life, and on human traditions and cultures that connect us to our distant ancestors. Elegantly and respectfully written and illustrated, this book is a captivating contribution to the growing literature on nomadic societies, and will appeal to both the education and the gift markets.

A timely book that invites the reader to consider alternative ways of being that are deeply connected to our ancestral roots.