Paper short abstract:

Living in black tents all year round is considered to be the essential difference between nomads and settled people. This paper aims to evaluate the tent within social-spatial and socio-political category and analyze how nature-human-animal relationships have an impact on dwelling new place.

Paper long abstract:

Space is a place, one which is conceived, perceived, and inhabited by humans. Humans have both physical and cognitive relations with space. Thus, creating a dwelling place is to make a living and to provide a safe place in this space. In different geographic zones of the world, there are lots of communities with different social and economical conditions, maintaining various life styles. One of these is "nomadic pastoralism", i.e., groups which migrate seasonally from one place to another in order to find more productive fields for their animals. In many regions in The Middle East, especially in Turkey, nomads reside in black tents all year round and they carry their house and belongings with them during migration. Nevertheless, this situation does not mean that nomads maintain placeless and rootedness life. If house is considered as a socio-spatial and moral category, We must evaluate black tent "as it is called by Turkish nomads, a palace with forty windows" and interpret its value in pastoral nomadic life in Turkey. Black tent, was made from goat hair, symbolizes family, culture and solidarity. On migration route, each station where nomads pick up their tents is based on some nature-human- animal relationship. A black tent's location sometimes indicates a "memory place", a map or a spatial place to compare over the years. Additionally, this way of living gives us a chance to reconsider importance of settled place to feel safe and to compare between oikonomia and politikè.