[8] Despite the silence of the classical and medieval writers, scholars argue that the Sarakatsani are a Greek people, possibly descended from pre-classical indigenous pastoralists, citing linguistic evidence and certain aspects of their traditional culture and socioeconomic organisation.

A popular theory, based on linguistics and material culture, suggests that the Sarakatsani are descended from the Dorians, who were isolated for centuries in the mountains.

[14] Many of the 19th century descriptions of the Sarakatsani do not differentiate them from the other great shepherd people of the Balkans, the Aromanians ("Vlachs") a Romance-speaking population.

Among these, Danish scholar Carsten Høeg, who travelled twice to Greece between 1920 and 1925 and studied the dialect and narrations of the Sarakatsani, is arguably the most influential.

[19] Euripides Makris (1997) describes the Sarakatsani as "the most ancient Greek tribe of nomadic shepherds, whose origins can be traced to time imemorial".

[20] English historian and anthropologist John K. Campbell arrives at the conclusion that the Sarakatsani must have always lived in—more or less—the same conditions and areas as they were found in his days of research in the mid-1950s.

[21] As a result of his field studies of the Sarakatsani of Epirus, Nicholas Hammond, a British historian, considers them descendants of Greek pastoralists living in the region of Gramos and Pindus since the early Byzantine period, who were dispossessed of their pastures by the Aromanians at the latest by the 12th century.

[22] According to Kapka Kassabova, who lived among the Sarakatsani in Bulgaria, in modern times, four major factors account for the disintegration of the people's traditional nomadic lifestyle: (a) after WWI, in agreements such as the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, new borders were drawn up between Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey, which made nomadic caravans engaged in transhumance both costly and dangerous; (b) in the wake of WWII and the outbreak of the Cold War, these national borders froze relations and outlawed the movement of animals and people from the Aegean and Thracian Balkan lowlands into the interior; (c) the process of collectivization in Bulgaria undertaken from 1957 onwards led to the slaughter of much livestock, together with outright theft of flocks; and (d) with the collapse of communism and the onset of privatization, both the mass slaughter of livestock and their export led to a drastic loss of animals, with no residual state infrastructure left to protect them.

It was only a group of animal lovers who mustered the remaining stocks and established an area to conserve them in Orelyak, which enabled the Karakachan breeds of horse, sheep and dog to survive intact.

He also asserts that the increasing pressure on the limited areas available for winter grazing in the coastal plains has resulted in disputes between the two groups on the use of the pastures.

In addition, during the time of his research, many Aromanians often lived in substantial villages where shepherding was not among their occupations, and demonstrated different art forms, values and institutions, from those of the Sarakatsani.

[21] The Sarakatsani also differ from the Aromanians in that they dower their daughters, assign a lower position to women and adhere to an even stricter patriarchal structure.

The newlywed couple initially takes up residence near the husband's family of origin, while divorce and remarriage after widowhood are unknown.

Therefore, the avoidance of negative public opinion provides a strong incentive to live up to the values and standards of propriety held by the community as a whole.

Other ceremonial events, outside the formal Christian calendar, are weddings and funerals; the latter are ritual occasions that involve not only the immediate family of the deceased, but also the members of the largest kindred, while funerary practice is consistent with that of the church.

The head of each participating family pays a share at the end of each season to tselingas, the stani leader, in whose name the lease was originally taken.

Their life centers year-round on the needs of their flocks; men and boys are usually responsible for the protection and general care of the flocks, like shearing and milking, while women are occupied with the building of the dwellings, sheepfolds and goat pens; child care, and other domestic tasks, including preparing, spinning and dying the shorn wool; and tending chickens, the eggs of which are their only source of personal income.

Until the mid-20th century, the Sarakatsani were scattered in many parts of Greece, with those of the northern Greek regions moving frequently for the summer months to neighbouring countries, such as Albania, southern Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and East Thrace in Turkey.

[32] It has been difficult to establish the exact number of the Sarakatsani over the years, since they were dispersed and migrated in summer and winter and were not considered a distinct group such that census data have not included separate information on them.

The vast majority of the Sarakatsani have abandoned the nomadic way of life and live permanently in their villages, while many members of the younger generation have moved to the principal Greek cities.

There were 50 Sarakatsani families living on Mount Kandili, working as resin gatherers encased in layers of elaborate costume.

Photographs taken only few decades ago of Sarakatsani women in traditional costume sitting outside their wigwam-shaped branch woven huts.

The Sarkatsanoi were known by various names by the indigenous population, usually based on where they were perceived to have come from, and in Evia they were generally called Roumi, Romi or Roumeliotes after the Roumeli region.