Ibn Khaldun and Ernest Gellner have both developed comprehensive yet very different theories of social cohesion. Whereas traces the development intense group solidarity to ascetic lifestyles nomadic warriors, for cohesion is a product material conditions. In contrast Khaldun?s theory, where all ties are generated through similar processes, in Gellner?s model patterns collective change time, tha...

In the Near East, nomadic hunter-gatherer societies became sedentary farmers for the first time during the transition into the Neolithic. Sedentary life presented a risk of isolation for Neolithic groups. As fluid intergroup interactions are crucial for the sharing of information, resources and genes, Neolithic villages developed a network of contacts. In this paper we study obsidian exchange b...

Army ants form nomadic insect colonies whose chief food is other social insects. Here we compare the rate of army ant raids with the average density of their potential prey from 28 New World subtropical and tropical localities. We estimate that army ant raids occur at the rate of 1.22 m per day in tropical forests. Army ant raid rates increased with primary productivity, and with the density of...

This paper empirically investigates the biogeographic determinants of the human DRD4 exon III locus, a particular gene variant associated with the human personality trait of novelty-seeking behavior. Providing a novel compilation of worldwide DRD4 exon III allele frequencies in a large sample of indigenous populations around the world, this study employs population-specific biogeographic charac...

This article reports an association between the variation of dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) allele frequencies around the globe and population migration patterns in prehistoric times. After compiling existing data on DRD4 allele frequencies of 2,320 individuals from 39 populations and on the migration pattern of these groups, we found that, compared to sedentary populations, migratory populations ...

The paper describes the idea and the structure of a mobile information system under development in the HIPS project that allows for supporting nomadic activities. Nomadic activities are a widespread class of human activities. Many activities are distributed in time, space and social groups. In contrast to print media till now electronic information and communication media did not support nomadi...