The strangeness of somali nomads

[Midas]

Something I've been thinking about recently after reading about other nomadic societies to understand what's particular to our own. Is how weird and different we are compared to the others I've read about. The major other pastoral nomadic societies seem to be the sahelian and sahran nomads Of which the tuareg and the fulani are good examples of. Then we have the central asian steppe nomads like the Mongols and kazakhs/uzbeks. In all of these societies what you find is very stratified social hierarchy with a small aristocratic ruling clas and these hierarchies are almost caste like in their division. In central asia for example mongolian aristocrats would have their herds managed by the equivalent of nomadic Serfs who would move the livestock from pasture to pasture

After reading about these societies I realized while there is variation it seems all the main pastoral nomadic societies seem to fit into this pattern with only one real exception which is somalis. Now why is that the case ? I honestly have no idea maybe its connected to the homogeneity of our society whereas these other societies seem to have conquered and integrated other smaller ethnic groups into their confederation.

 

[Midas]

Oh and I forgot to add we seem to be the only nomadic pastoralist society who was also seafaring.

 

[Masdhir]

Does it have something to do with Somali's conception of property ownership? I don't know much about those other people's, but the only way I can imagine such a situation arising is that they recognize one person or group as owning all the property, and another class acting as the renters. While, in my understanding at least, Somali's view livestock as personal property, and land as belonging to a kinship section.

 

[Midas]

Does it have something to do with Somali's conception of property ownership? I don't know much about those other people's, but the only way I can imagine such a situation arising is that they recognize one person or group as owning all the property, and another class acting as the renters. While, in my understanding at least, Somali's view livestock as personal property, and land as belonging to a kinship section.

I dont think they view it that way either. These guys were basically the equivalent of feudal aristocracts and those guys had conceptions of personal property.

I assume it has to do probably with thr nature of somali pastrolaism and the fact that there isn't some ruling aristocrat class in our society