SFB 586:  Difference and Integration - Interacation between Nomadic and Sedentary Peoples in Civilizations of the Old World's Arid Zone

• Subject Area: Humanities ; Geosciences
• Term: from 2001 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5484782

The research programme deals with the interrelation between nomadic and sedentary peoples in past and present. The geographical focus is the arid zone stretching from Morocco to China, where mobile and sedentary modes of life have been interacting since many centuries. Trade and exchange, distinction and conflict, attempts of domination and assimilation have often led to continuous intermeshing between nomads and sedentary, often urban societies. Their changeable coexistence has left deep imprints on civilizations in many parts of the world during long periods of time and still has retained its force.
The research team consists of specialists from different disciplines, such as Geography and Classical History, Oriental Studies as well as Cultural Ethnology, Egyptology and Archeology. The complex combination of seventeen research projects, planned for an initial phase of three years, aims at identifying types of interaction in most of the relevant spheres of social activity: trade and land tenure, political institutions and state organization, religious and ethical concepts, social and aesthetical value systems figure among the main aspects dealt with in several case studies.
Nomadic use of natural and human resources - mainly through extensive pastoralism, but also through other means of livelihood based on mobility as a mode of life - is certainly not a neglected field of research. Yet its interconnection with settled life in villages, urban centers and states has not been explored sufficiently. Results are expected to be significant also for the future, since increasing water shortages reinforce the need for appropriate pastoral land use, as nomadic forms of life also seem to spread in a number of mega-cities.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres

Completed projects

• A01 - Archäologische Untersuchungen zur Entwicklung des Nomadismus in Nordsyrien im 3. Jahrt. v. Chr. (Project Head Orthmann, Winfried )
• A02 - Reiternomaden in Transkaukasien (Project Head Furtwaengler, Andreas )
• A03 - The confederation of the Anezeh: Social actors between the centres of change (Project Heads Leder, Stefan ;  Nippa, Annegret )
• A04 - Nomads Without Pasture? Key Issues of Sustainable Development: Political Ecology and Human Security (Project Heads Breuer, Ingo ;  Gertel, Jörg )
• A05 - Wirtschaftliche Symbiose und kulturelle Dissidenz - Dienstleistungsnomadismus im ländlichen und städtischen Kontext (Project Head Streck, Bernhard )
• A07 - Ausprägung mobiler Lebens- und Wirtschaftsformen in Abhängigkeit von ökologischen Ressourcen in der Nordwestküstenregion Ägyptens von der Antike bis in islamische Zeit (Project Heads Brands, Gunnar ;  Vetter, Thomas ;  Zierdt, Michael )
• A08 - Germanic Peoples as Temporary Nomads in the Roman Empire (4th-6th Century A.D.). Rule and Retinue, Social Structures, Cultural Exchange (Project Heads Mehl, Andreas ;  Schmitt, Oliver )
• A09 - Arabisch-europäische Nomadenbilder und die Wahhäbiyya (1802-1818) (Project Head Elger, Ralf )
• B01 - Nomads and Sedentary People in Times of Desaster: Demography, Resources and Power in Egypt and Syria due to the Plague from 748/1347 (Project Head Franz, Kurt )
• B2 - Nomadische Herrschaft im sesshaften Kontext: Staatenbildung in Mittelasien, 16. und 18. Jahrhundert (Project Head Paul, Jürgen )
• B3 - Nomadismus und Staatlichkeit am Beispiel der Quadscharendynastie im Iran des 19. Jh`s (Project Head Schneider, Irene )
• B04 - Space and Mobility in Mesopotamia at the time of the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empire (Project Head Streck, Michael P. )
• B05 - Flexibilität und Tradition: Römische Herrschaft in Nordafrika zwischen Sesshaftigkeit und Nomadismus (Project Heads Schubert, Charlotte ;  Weiß, Alexander )
• B06 - Raumnutzung, Raumvorstellung und Raumorientierung am Rande der Arktis. Nomaden und Sesshafte in Nordwestsibirien (Project Head Schlee, Günther )
• B07 - Space and Mobility in Syria and Palestine at the time of the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empire (Project Head Berlejung, Angelika )
• B08 - Nomadic Rule in a Sedentary Context: States, cities, hinterland in Iran from the coming of the Rurks to the Mongols and Timurids (11th-15th centuries) (Project Head Paul, Jürgen )
• C3 - Flexibilität und Tradition: Römische Herrschaft im Maghreb zwischen Sesshabtigkeit und Nomadismus (Project Head Schubert, Charlotte )
• C4 - Nomaden als Bundesgenossen im Vorderern Orient von 63 v. Chr. bis um 630 n.Chr. (Project Head Mehl, Andreas )
• C6 - Nomaden und Seßhafte- Nordmesopotamien während der Arsakiden- und Sasanidenzeit (Project Heads Blocher, Felix ;  Brands, Gunnar )
• D1 - Differenz und Integration der Amurriter in Babylonien (Project Head Wilcke, Claus )
• D2 - Eine Archäologeie der Interaktionen: nomadische Gruppen, rurale Bevölkerungen und ägyptische Eroberer in Unternubien im Neuen Reich (2. H. 2. Jt. v. Chr.) (Project Head Fischer-Elfert, Hans-Werner )
• D03 - Transfermomente im Bereich der Waffentechnologie zwischen den Steppen- und sedentären Völkern zur Zeit der Parther und Sasaniden (Project Heads Mode, Markus ;  Tubach, Jürgen )
• D4 - Zwischen Stadt und Staat - Beduinengruppen am mittleren Euphrat vom 12. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert (Project Head Heidemann, Stefan )
• D05 - (Former) Nomads and Pastoral Land Use in Changing Political and Economic Contexts: Eastern Bukhara/Southern Tajikistan, 1868-2008 (Project Heads Paul, Jürgen ;  Schlee, Günther )
• D06 - Gebirgs- und Gebirgsrandzonen Mittelasiens als Interaktionsgebiete zwischen Nomaden und Sesshaften. Mikroregionale Untersuchungen zur Archäologie und Kulturgeschichte zwischen Zerafsan und Sachristansaj (Tadzikistan) (Project Head Mode, Markus )
• D07 - Nomadic and Sedentary Peoples - Northern Mesopotamia during the Arsakid- and Sasanian Perod (Project Head Hauser, Stefan R. )
• D08 - Nomaden auf dem Boden des spätrömischen und byzantinischen Reiches vom 3. bis zum frühen 14. Jahrhundert (Schwerpunkt westpontischer Raum) (Project Heads Mehl, Andreas ;  Oppermann, Manfred ;  Schmitt, Oliver )
• D09 - Market Institutions in the Relation of Nomadic and Sedentary People of South Kordofan/Nuba Mountains Region, Sudan (Project Head Rottenburg, Richard )
• E04 - The Image of the Mongols in the Literatures of the South Caucasus: Armenia and Georgia (Project Head Tubach, Jürgen )
• E05 - Die Nomaden des Zarenreiches im Bild ihrer russischen Kolonialherren (Project Heads Müller, Michael G. ;  Paul, Jürgen )
• E06 - Wechsellwirkung zwischen Sprache und gesellschaftlichen Normen: eine soziolinguistische Untersuchung im Spannungsfeld von Nomadismus und Sesshaftigkeit bei der kaschisch sprechenden Bevölkerung Kaschstans und der Mongolei (Project Head Beller-Hann, Ildiko )
• E07 - Image and Images of Nomads in Antiquity (Project Heads Schubert, Charlotte ;  Weiß, Alexander )
• E08 - New Technologies in the Tundra: High-Tech Equipment, Perception of Space and Spatial Orientation of Nomadic and Settled Populations of the Russian Arctic (Project Head Schlee, Günther )
• E09 - Power Technologies Productions of Space: Saami Territoriality and Indigenity (Project Head Miggelbrink, Judith )
• E10 - Sustainability of (Post-)Nomadic Resource Utilization Under Global Change - Conceptual Understanding Through Ecological-Economic Modelling (Project Head Frank, Karin )
• V - Central tasks of the Collaborative Research Center (Project Heads Gertel, Jörg ;  Paul, Jürgen )
• Ö - Exhibition (Project Head Nippa, Annegret )

• Applicant Institution: Universität Leipzig
• Participating University: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
• Participating Institution: Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung - UFZ; Themenbereich Smarte Modelle und Monitoring; Department Ökologische Systemanalyse; Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (IfL); Max-Planck-Institut für ethnologische Forschung
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Jörg Gertel