Who We Are

The Commission on Nomadic Peoples is part of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES). This commission is one of a number of academic working groups of the Union which collaborates with a broad, international range of researchers on nomadic peoples. The Commission has always aspired to be inclusive - drawing in as many interested parties as possible - researchers, practitioners, government and non-government officials, and crossing language and cultural divides.

Activities

Its activities are focused on organizing conferences for the IUAES as well as facilitating other meetings and workshops. The journal of Nomadic Peoples is part of its mandate. It maintains an email distribution list for important announcements (to join the list, you may register on-line). Above all it exists to encourage international exchanges and linkages among researchers and practitioners who are interested in nomadic and pastoral populations throughout the world.

Joining the Commission

Receive the latest updates and news from the Commission by subscribing to the mailing list.

Latest News

Volume 16. Issue 2 of Nomadic Peoples released

The latest issue of Nomadic Peoples is now available online on the Berghahn Journals Website. For complete details on the issue, including abstracts for each of the articles, please see the current issue page of this website.

2013 Annual Nomadic Peoples Best Student Essay

The Commission on Nomadic Peoples is pleased to announce the establishment of the Best Student Essay Prize on the broad topic of nomadic peoples as defined in the Journal of Nomadic Peoples.

The Best Student Essay prize has been established to: Promote young researchers in the field and to stimulate new research into the interdisciplinary study of nomadic peoples.

It especially encourages submissions from all continents. It is not restricted to the contemporary period but also encourages submissions from the disciplines of archaeology and history

The prize: The inaugural Best Student Essay prize of $250 will be awarded to the winner of the competition at the CNP Board Meeting during the IUAES Congress in Manchester August 5-10, 2013.

The essay will appear in the following issue of Nomadic Peoples. Essays should have been written during the period of graduate study and should not exceed 7,500 words. Entrants would normally be graduate students, but undergraduate students may also apply. Entrants should be paid student members of the Commission on Nomadic Peoples.

Book Release: The Passion of Max von Oppenheim: Archaeology and Intrigue in the Middle East from Wilhelm II to Hitler by Lionel Gossman

Born into a prominent German Jewish banking family, Baron Max von Oppenheim (1860-1946) was a keen amateur archaeologist and ethnologist. His discovery and excavation of Tell Halaf in Syria marked an important contribution to knowledge of the ancient Middle East, while his massive study of the Bedouins is still consulted by scholars today. He was also an ardent German patriot, eager to support his country’s pursuit of its “place in the sun”.

Excluded by his part-Jewish ancestry from the regular diplomatic service, Oppenheim earned a reputation as “the Kaiser’s spy” because of his intriguing against the British in Cairo, as well as his plan, at the start of the First World War, to incite Muslims under British, French and Russian rule to a jihad against the colonial powers. After 1933, despite being half-Jewish according to the Nuremberg Laws, Oppenheim was not persecuted by the Nazis. To the contrary, he placed his knowledge of the Middle East and his connections with Muslim leaders at the service of the regime.

Ranging widely over many fields — from war studies to archaeology and banking history — The Passion of Max von Oppenheim tells the gripping and at times unsettling story of one part-Jewish man’s passion for his country in the face of persistent and, in his later years, genocidal anti-Semitism. Download a PDF flyer for full details.