From Portraits, by John Berger, which was published last month by Verso. A contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine, Berger is the author of numerous books, including Ways of Seeing (1972).

There is no question that the living crowd the dead. And where the density of the living population is high, the dead cede ground. By contrast, there are other areas in the world, very thinly populated, where the dead assemble. Often these places are arid or poor. The deserts or the polar regions are the most extreme examples.

Many such areas prompted — indeed insisted on — a nomadic way of…