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This is a call for papers for a panel on “Popular Religious Rituals and Folkloric Beliefs among Pastoral Nomads of the Middle East and Central Eurasia” which will be held during the Fourth World Congress for Middle East Studies (WOCMES), 18th-22nd August 2014 in Ankara (Turkey).http://www.wocmes2014.org/Among the anthropological studies of Pastoral Nomads of the Middle East and Central Eurasia, popular religious rituals and folkloric beliefs are the most neglected topics (Peters 2008). As Tapper (2008) states: “In the ethnography of Middle Eastern societies, settled or nomadic, tribal or peasant, perhaps the most neglected area of life is the whole realm of religion, ritual, symbolism and ideology, particularly at the level of local community. Many ethnographers of nomads, for example Cunnison (1966); Asad (1970); Bates (1973); Ahmad (1973); Irons (1975); Glatzer (1977), pursuing their main interest in economics, kinship, social structure and politics are content to record that their subjects are Muslims and to note ways in which their customs differ from Islamic prescriptions.”In this regard we are interested in receiving proposals which present new and unpublished researches on any topics related to the anthropological studies of popular religious rituals and folkloric beliefs among Pastoral Nomads of the Middle East and Central Eurasia.Please send the title of your proposal, your discipline, a 500-wordabstract and your full academic affiliation including your e-mail addressas an attached file (Office Word) by 15th Jan. 2014 to: