ABSTRACT
This chapter explores several features of territorial activities among specialised populations of spatially mobile peoples by drawing on the author's long-term, participant observation among nomadic communities of artisans and entertainers in Pakistan. Separate and endogamous communities of nomadic bards and musicians, jugglers and acrobats, snake handlers and animal trainers, smiths and tinkers, weavers and toy makers and other groups of nomadic artisans and entertainers have been pervasive threads running through the complex fabric of South Asian social systems since earliest times. In public domains peripatetics always refer to their community membership by using specific skill or service terms. Across all peripatetic communities in Pakistan the basic social unit is the tent. The actual tent itself is often the only property corporately owned among most peripatetic communities. Tents are the basic social and economic unit among peripatetics and it is not uncommon for family units to travel and work alone.
