An attempt at reconstructing the theory of nomadism proposed by Anatoly M. Khazanov

Abstract

The findings adopted in the 1970s and 1980s by Anatoly Mikhailovich Khazanov concerning the description of nomadic peoples have had a significant impact on the contemporary approach to research on the economy, social structures and relations between nomads and settled communities. The aim of this article is to analyse Khazanov's key assumptions and to evaluate them critically. It presents also a biography of the scholar. His academic work developed in the context of the ideological and political constraints of the USSR, which significantly influenced the shape of the theory. The authors based their work on Khazanov’s fundamental monograph Nomads and the outside world (1984), and on comparative literature in the field of anthropology and ethnology. Khazanov's reconstructed model treats nomadism as a narrow economic specialisation, parallel to agriculture. The authors' conclusions point to the high cognitive value of this concept in terms of organising the terminology and typology of pastoral phenomena. At the same time, its limitations were emphasised, resulting from the postulated ahistoricity of nomadic societies and the thesis about the anti-developmental nature of their economy.