The article tells about the conceptual and categorical apparatus of cattle breeding and nomadism. The terminology is a key issue in any science, including ethnology. The author pays attention to the actual
issues of clarifying some concepts of the traditional nomad economy, which use synonymous terms and sometimes-different definitions.
The debate was raised in the Soviet ethnographic science in the late 70s and early 80s of 20th c., the discussion scope were terms such as: "cattle breeding", "nomadism", "pastoral nomadism", "sedentary pastoralism", types, kinds, and forms and etc. However, the enlarged discussion has not received a final unambiguous solution and the issue remains open to this day.