AHC: "Sea Nomad" ethnic groups elsewhere

[Pat the Baker]

The term "Sea Nomads" (or, somewhat more pejoratively, "Sea Gypsies") refers to a number of different ethnic groups mostly concentrated in Southeast Asia, though the Tanka people of southern China and the Jalia Kaibarta of eastern India have also been labeled as such. While these peoples are all different from one another, they have one fundamental thing in common: a maritime nomadic lifestyle.

As mentioned, these peoples are generally clustered around Southeast Asia. Your challenge is to have groups with similar lifestyles emerge elsewhere.

 

[Plateosaurus]

The term "Sea Nomads" (or, somewhat more pejoratively, "Sea Gypsies") refers to a number of different ethnic groups mostly concentrated in Southeast Asia, though the Tanka people of southern China and the Jalia Kaibarta of eastern India have also been labeled as such. While these peoples are all different from one another, they have one fundamental thing in common: a maritime nomadic lifestyle.

As mentioned, these peoples are generally clustered around Southeast Asia. Your challenge is to have groups with similar lifestyles emerge elsewhere.

I guess a good chunk of Polynesia would qualify IIRC. Not all of them mind.

 

[Gabingston]

This could probably work in the Mediterranean and/or Baltic/North Sea(s).

 

[ReachODST]

If poly esia counts, I would count the eniglish too.

 

[LeoII]

Maybe somehow prevent the rise of the Boat Axe Culture, and instead a more hunting oriented Pitted Ware Culture becomes dominant in Scandinavia. They might start to act as sea Nomads, sailing up and down the coasts, following the seals and whales.

 

[Tosa Inu]

Isn't Viking style raiding and settling counted as Sea Nomads, or do you limit that to the lives mostly spent on the Ships/Boats to be counted?

 

[Wendell]

What about doing something with northern Atlantic Pre-Columbian Basque seafarers and fishermen?

 

[GullibleCynic]

If we're looking for a culture where the vast majority of the population live on boats and are not fixed to any particular location, that is difficult. Boats need to be built out of something and that's something is rarely available at sea.
Perhaps there could be a caravan culture that exists on the sea lanes, trading items from one end to the other at substantial markup, then buying the raw materials to repair or replace their boats.
You might be able to have a system where the culture is bound to a particular river instead. In that case they might be able to supply their own building materials, like Egyptian Reed boats. That would be fairly precarious and vulnerable to any land power, but it would be interestingly different than the caravan idea above.
Personally I wouldn't count an examples like the Vikings, or even the Polynesians. The Vikings did not represent a substantial fraction of the population, nor were they truly bound to the sea. The Polynesians were much more dependent on the sea itself, but fundamentally they aimed to settle new islands. I think we would need the civilization to regularly support fractions of the population who spend entire generations never touching land. At least that's how I interpret the challenge

Edit - relevant link

 

[Byzantion]

Inuit evolve boat techniques migrate along and across Greenland coasts to Iceland ? Maybe further to Scandinavia, Britannia, Hebrides. Or have them also migrate down the American coasts and rivers. And across the Bering strait to Siberia wäre they further migrate.