ABSTRACT
Mauritania is one of the countries of the world in which the nomadic population is proportionately very important (Paccou, 1979). Whilst the absolute size of the nomadic population is larger in some neighbouring countries such as Algeria, Mali and Senegal, the fractions of the total population that are nomadic are much lower than in Mauritania. The results of the 1976 census of Mauritania show that the nomads no longer constitute a majority of the population but that they still exert a profound influence on the culture and way of life of the Moors who are the major ethnic group in the country.
