Circular nomadism is forced movement with no aggression and no root

Evidence

But is the nomad not overdetermined by the conditions of his existence? Rather than the enjoyment of freedom, is nomadism not a form of obedience to contingencies that are restrictive? Take, f<Jr example, circulaI’ nomadism: each time a portion of the territory is exhausted, the group moves around. Its function is to ensure the survival of the group by means of this circularity. This is the nomadism practiced by populations that move [rom one part of the forest to another, by the Arawak communities who navigated from island to island in the Caribbean, by hired laborers in their pilgrimage from farm to farm, by circus people in their peregrinations from village to village, aIl of whom are driven by sorne specifie need to move, in which daring or aggression play no part. CirculaI’ nomadism is a not-intolerant fornl of an impossible settlement. — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 117

Categorization

• SEED: Circular nomadism as ‘obedience to contingencies’ complicates the romantic anti-root position — an angle for an essay pushing back on Deleuze/Guattari’s celebration of nomadism.
• XREF: Contradicts the celebratory reading of nomadism the reader may associate with Deleuze/Guattari — nomads as freedom-lovers are here exposed as contingent-driven. — connects to: Rejecting essentialism need not collapse into postmodern nomadism that erases difference. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 1017; The drought let Siyad force sedentarization and detribalization on displaced nomads; Nomadic belonging-in-motion and oil-age rootlessness are opposites — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 207 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Rejecting essentialism need not collapse into postmodern nomadism that erases difference. #complicates (0.78) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 1017
• The drought let Siyad force sedentarization and detribalization on displaced nomads #expands (0.75)