Everyday life information‐seeking behaviors of nomadic pastoralists in their oral culture

Abstract

Nomadic pastoralists, due to their lifestyle and the dominance of oral culture, have not received much attention from information service providers and little is known about their information behavior. This qualitative ethnographic study entailed twenty semi‐structured interviews with Iranian Bakhtiari nomadic pastoralists using everyday life information seeking (ELIS) framework. Nomadic pastoralists' ELIS is dominated by reliance on human information sources including elders, chiefs (Khans) and family members. Most of their information needs relate to practical issues of daily life (e.g., animal husbandry, handicraft, and parenting) and therefore they prefer information sources that tap into their local and indigenous knowledge (e.g., elders) and value experience and skill over formal education when obtaining information from people. However, they purify their local knowledge through exposure to modern education. Relevance to daily life matters or practicality, previous successful utilization of information, and accessibility are among the factors they consider when choosing information sources.