Rubin Museum of Art - Nomadic Peoples Project - November 2008 "Nomadics" at RMA Events

"Mongol Nomad Home" by Ts. Tsegmed


The Last Nomads: Photographs from Inner Mongolia by A Yin opens

Date: Friday, October 31, 2008

A Yin is a 2007 recipient of the All Roads Film and Photography Program award, sponsored by the National Geographic Society.

Exhibition runs through March 2, 2009.

The Wuzhu Muqin are the last remaining nomadic tribe in China, and have become Mongolian photographer A Yin’s source of inspiration. Yin has become his people’s advocate, exposing to the rest of the world the ancient lifestyle they maintain amidst rapid modernization. Comprised of images captured over ten years, The Last Nomads: Photographs from Inner Mongolia by A Yin displays a striking visual account of daily life in the Inner Mongolian highlands, from the labors of migration to the intimacies of kinship. A Yin’s photographs demonstrate both his innate artistic talent and his sensitivity in documenting and displaying the inner world of his tribe.

For details on this weekend of films and talks celebrating the opening of The Last Nomads, an exhibition of photographs from Inner Mongolia by A Yin, see www.rmanyc.org/nomads.


Film & Discussion: A Man Called Nomad with discussion by Professors M. Nazif Shahrani and Thomas J. Barfield; $15

Date: Saturday, November 1, 2008
Start Time: 3:00 pm End Time: 5:00 pm

Location: Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, New York, N.Y.

"A Man Called Nomad"
by Alex Gabbay, China/Nepal/UK 2003(38 minutes)

The story of a man trying to adjust to the shifting realities of the modern world while retaining a sense of place. Looking into the life of 30-year old Choegatar, father and provider, we get a glance into a world where the temptations of the city interfere with natural life.

Followed By:

"Is There Room For Nomads?"

A discussion with anthropologists M. Nazif Shahrani and Thomas J. Barfield.

Professor M. Nazif Shahrani has conducted extensive ethnographic field research in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey, and since 1992 has carried out research work in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Professor Shahrani is author of "The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan", and co-producer of the documentary the "The Kirgiz of the Wakhan."

Professor Thomas J. Barfield has conducted extensive fieldwork among nomads in northern Afghanistan as well as having carried out research on the Kazaks in Xinjiang, China, and Uzbekistan. Professor Barfield's published work includes The Central Asian Arabs of Afghanistan: Pastoral Nomadism in Transition; The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China ; The Nomadic Alternative.

The Nomadics weekend is presented in association with the National Geographic Society and The Nomadic Peoples Project.

Nomadic Peoples Project

Scythian Nomad with Wife, 6th century B.C. Gold, length 16.2 cm, Siberian collection, Peter I. Hermitage.

The programs of the Nomadic Peoples Project are designed to bring attention to and build awareness about the history and culture of nomadic peoples and their way of life in the world today. Nomads the world over are living a precarious existence predicated on a delicate balance between their struggles with sedentary peoples over land, water resources, access to pasture, migration routes and longstanding cultural conflicts.

Nomadic societies have figured large in the history of the world from earliest times when the Huns and the Scythians rode out to conquer and rule large dominions, and the Mongols built the largest empire ever known. The interactions of nomadic peoples with sedentary populations has from time immemorial been infused with intensely charged dynamics that frequently led to conflict between these societies. Contemporary nomadic communities have inherited many of the challenges of their ancestors with the added complexities of large-scale industrialization, increased sedentary populations usurping pasture-lands, loss of traditional migration routes, and global warming leading to drought and desertification.

Despite the threats faced by many nomadic peoples in the world today, nomadic civilization has survived countless threats and is still the way of life for millions of people living out this most ancient of lifestyles. The Nomadic Peoples Project is dedicated to bringing attention to the living culture and circumstances of nomadic communities in todays globally industrialized environment.