Title: Charles Stépanoff, Carole Ferret, Gaëlle Lacaze et Julien Thorez eds., Nomadismes d'Asie centrale et septentrionale
Abstract: This unique book brings together studies on nomads and the nomadic way of life in Siberia and Central Asia that have been conducted over the last 150 years.In so doing, the authors have created a masterpiece of academic work suitable for a wider audience.Throughout the five sections of the book the authors adhere to academic rules of presenting research made comprehensive and clear with maps, boxes that explain specific terms, items, rituals or other important issues, along with high quality pictures.The book is ordered in a way that presents different scales of analysis ranging from history to the ecosystem, all the way to the lives and the individual relationships between herders and their animals.By avoiding more conventional chapters like religion, history, material culture etc., the authors have opted for descriptive titles that capture the core of nomadism, which is mobility and space.The authors therefore avoid linking a nomadic way of life to specific societies or ethnicities or to any kind of mobility.Nomadism is a "way of life" marked by mobility that affects and includes the whole family and depends on the needs of the animals they rear.This lifestyle can be chosen temporarily, along with or in opposition to cities