The revise the paper of the Eurasian nomad history

x PREFACE

particular relevance to the Near East and Central Asia. My historical re­ search examined the process of state formation among the nomads of Mongolia and their relationship with China over the span of 2000 years. Of other places and peoples in the pastoral world, I maintained only a vague knowledge: enough not to seem stupid, too little to appear smart.

I would have, in all likelihood, continued to graze in my own pas­ tures had I not decided to teach a general course on pastoral nomadism. As any instructor knows, having to explain basic concepts and compare very different regions forces the specialist to take a broader perspective. It opens the mind to new and often surprising conclusions. At the same time there is the difficulty of generalizing from a wealth of a specialist literature with­ out bleaching out the complex shades of opinions on any issue. As a text­ book, The Nomadic Alternative seeks to cross this divide by examining a set of common themes that span the pastoral regions of Africa and Eurasia and thereby create a more integrated picture of nomadic pastoralists both in the past and present. Undoubtedly researchers in each area will feel that im­ portant issues or peoples have been neglected, while beginning students may feel there is far more about nomadic pastoralists than they ever wished to know.

I owe the greatest debt of gratitude to the many scholars whose work I cite. Without their research such a book would be impossible to produce. I would also like to thank the students in my Nomads classes at Harvard and Boston University whose direct and well aimed criticisms did much to improve the quality of the course, and I hope the book. I owe an additional debt of gratitude to those scholars who took the time and effort to com­ ment on the manuscript during its many stages of preparation, particularly Professors David Morgan of the University of London, John W. Olsen and Robert Netting of the University of Arizona, Jill Dubisch of Northern Ari­ zona University, and WaIter Sangree of the University of Rochester. At Prentice Hall, I would like to thank Nancy Roberts, my editor, for first en­ couraging me to write for a larger audience and Kerry Reardon who han­ dled the electronic production with speed and grace.

TIlOmas ]. Barfield Boston

I N~RODUCTION

It was the season of the nomad migration in northern Afghanistan and our truck ground to a halt, temporarily engulfed by a mass of animals. Dust clouds raised by thousands of sheep filled the sky as strings of camels decorated with beads, tassels, and cowrie shells passed in procession, the clanging of the bells around their necks beating out a rhythm indelibly linked with nomadic move­ ments and caravans. Armed men on horseback preceded and followed the col­ umn, while women dressed in bright satins with velvet capes embroidered in rich gold brocade sat atop the camels. The loads themselves were topped with carpets or some other piece of finery. Large mastiffs with clipped tails and ears trotted alongside, capable of eating a jeep for breakfast once the tents went up but surprisingly docile during the march. And then as quickly as they had ap­ peared they were gone, swallowed up by their own dust.

As we resumed our own journey, I asked the driver who these people were, where did they live and where were they going? "God knows, I don't," he replied. "They are kllchis, nomads, and they have no home but their tents." His answer was typical, for even in Afghanistan few seden­ tary people had a clear idea of who nomads were or what they really did for a living. Often what they did claim to know was based on old folk be­ liefs or strange stories they had heard. If misconceptions were prevalent

2 3 THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

Nomads on migration in northeastern Afghanistan crossing a bridge into their moun­ tainous summer pastures.

even in areas where nomads were common, then in other parts of the world the nomadic way of life was only the stuff of legend, a melange of images that included the haughty Masai warrior of East Africa leaning on his spear, the horsemen of Chinggis Khan overrunning Eurasia, or the sim­ ple Bedouin tent pitched at the base of an enormous sand dune.

INTRODUCTION

Jl was to get behind these images that [ li1ler returned to Afghanistan as an anlhIopologi~t and found myself 5tirrin~ up dust in such a nomaciLc migration. At first 1 rode a horse, but it died after eiltlilg poisonous plants. 1 was then told of the danger of poisonous plants and learned that the wealth of knowledge it took to be a successful pastoralist did not come cheaply Through the L; de of winter villages and SWTlmer camps, the world of the nomadic pastoralist became less mysterious but more complex with each passing month They were not isolated in any meaningfLtl sense nor could they be understood except in relation to the sedentary peoples around them. When I later compared my own ethnographic observations with earlier historical accounts I saw that the wide net of relationships no­ mads established with the outside world were not the products of recent events or acculturation. From their very beginnings nomadic peoples had always been integral parts of larger regional systems.

Anthropological fieldwork in various parts of the world has shown that these conclusions are not limited only to Afghanjstan or the Near East. While these studies have called into question the use of "pastoral nomad­ ism" as a unitary phenomenon, they all support the view that the world of the nomad rarely fits the stereotypes normally assigned to it 1 Nomadic pastoralists developed different patterns of organization depending on their specific cultural, ecological, political, or historical circumstances. Each region has its own pattern of development and interaction. To under­ stand this way of life we must look not only at the tents and animals but at the complex set of relationships nomadic peoples have established with their sedentary neighbors.

M Y T H S AND LEG END S

Perhaps because their way of life appears so different from our own, the world of the nomad has long fascinated sedentary people. Some writers have romantically lauded the nomad as a free spirit untrammeled by the petty restrictions, a theme strongly represented in modern Western literature. But the nomads have also been condemned by their neighbors for these same traits because, in the words of the fourteenth-century Arab social historian lbn KhaldLLT1,

The very nature of their existence is the negation of building, which is the basis of civili­ zation .... Furthermore, it is their nature to plunder whatever other people possess. Their sustenance lies wherever the shadow of their lance falls. They recognize no limit in tak­ ing the possessions of other people. Whenever their eyes fall upon some property, fur­ nishings or utensils, they take them. 2

The reality of nomadic pastoral life is, of course, nei ther idyllic as roman­ tics have imagined it, nor as mindlessly destructive as its critics have

4 5 THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

complained. Neither Yiew adequately ci1ptures tJ1e complexity of organiz­ ing a society around regulZlr movements nor recognizes the inlricate web of economic and political ties that link the nomad to a world beyond the steppe or desert.

In this regard one of the most end uring stereotypes is the myth of the "pure nomi1d/' one who subsists entirely on meat, milk, or blood, abhors farmers, farming, and grain, despises sedenlClry life in general, and never has contact with villages or cities except when he loots and burns them. Nothing could be farther from the truth 3 The historical and ethnographic record is full of nomads who also farm, trade, serve as soldiers, smuggle, Or drive trucks, just to mention a few occupations. As we will see in later chapters, even those nomads who did appear purely pastoral, such as the Bedouin of the Empty Quarter or horse riders of Mongolia, maintained an ideal of "purity" largely by means of the subsidies they received from neighboring sedentary societies with whom they had important political and economic relationships. While nomadic pastoralists have always viewed animal husbandry as the culturally ideal way of making a living, and the movement of all or part of the society as a normal and natural part of life, they never rejected other opportunities. However, these activities were always viewed as adjuncts to pastoralism whjch remained the key el­ ement of their cultural and social identity.

DEFINITIONS

What is nomadic pastoralism? This basic question is not as simple to answer as it might seem. In general, societies specializing in animal husbandry re­ quiring periodic movements are called pastoral nomads. This excludes such groups as hunter-gatherers, Gypsies, migrant farm workers, or corporate ex­ ecutives who are nomadic but not pastoral. It also excludes Danish dairy farmers and Texas cattle ranchers who specialize in pastoralism but are not nomadic. Thus, although the terms nomad and pastoralist are generally used interchangeably, at a basic level they are analytically distinct, the fonner re­ ferring to movement and the latter to a type of subsistence.

Nomadic societies built around a pastoral economic specialization are imbued with cultural values far beyond just doing a job. It is as much a way of life as a way of making a living. Organized around mobile house­ holds rather than individuals, it involves everyone-men, women, and children-in the various aspects of production. This distL.'1guishes no­ madic pastoralists from shepherds in Western Europe or cowboys of the Americas who also make a living herding animals. Shepherds and cow­ boys are men recruited from the larger sedentary society to which they reg­ ularly return. When raising livestock is only an individual occupational specialty firmly embedded in the surrounding sedentary culture, no sepa-

INTRODUCTION

rale society of pastoralisls ever comes into existence. Si.milarly, alpine vil­ lagers, with. Lheir heavy fixed investments iTI land, barns, and houses, are mountain farmers for whom animal husbandry is only a secondary activ­ ity. Hcidi is not the story of a Swiss nomad girl even though she herded cows and goats each summer

ANIMALS

The archaeological record indicates that the oldest domesticates were sheep, goats, and cattle. They are first found as components of a sedentary neolithic farming economy that r'elied on both agriculture and animal husbandry. Only later did nomadic pastoralism emerge as a specialization, associated with the domestication of transport animals such as donkeys, horses, and camels. What set early pastoralists apart from hunters of the same species was their emphasis on exploiting such by-products as milk, blood, wool, or hair which made live animals more valuable than dead ones. Selective breeding for characteristics to meet human requirements was so intensive that domesticated animals eventually became physically distinct from their wild progenitors. For example, the wild sheep has a thick coat of hair with only a thin fleece undercoat, but through selective breeding the hair largely disappeared on domesticated sheep and was replaced by a thick woolly coat. Similarly, milk production i11 domestic animals is much greater than in wild ones. Domesticated animals became partners in a mutualistic relationship with humans. Taken to seasonal pastures and protected from predators, many breeds could no longer survive or even reproduce successfully on their own. And for pastoralists the health of their herds became the key to their own survival.4

For all the cultural variety we see among nomadic pastoralists, the va­ riety of domesticated animal species they raise is surprisingly small, mak­ mg their comparison a variation on a smgle theme. The vast majority of nomadic pastoralists raise herds composed of six or fewer species: sheep, goats, cattle, horses, donkeys, and camels. There are, m addition, several species that have restricted distribution: yaks at high altitudes m the Ti­ betan plateau region, remdeer in the arctic north, and llamas and other cameloid species m highland South America. With the exception of the remdeer, which feed primarily on lichens, all are herbivores that feed on grass or bush species although each has different water and grazing re­ quirements. All these species have m common a gregarious social organi­ zation which facilitates control of their movement. Dogs are also kept by many pastoralists for protection. Of course, not all domesticated animals are compatible with nomadic pastoralism. Pigs are a prin1e example. They do not readily form manageable herds, have omnivorous feeding habits best met m forests or villages, require a moist environment, and have short

6 7 THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

legs that are not well adapted for walking long distances. Thus history never recorded great migrations of swi.ne-herding nomads with vast num­ bers of oinking pigs.

There are also analytic divisions within species that are as vital (and obvious) to pastor"lists as differences among species. Domesticated herds of animals are controllable because they consist almost eXllusively of females and castrated males, for only a few males are reserved for stud. Thus all pastoralists make linguistic distinctions between these varieties and often have large vocabularies to describe animal age classifi­ cations, colors, and condition. The pastoral heritage of Indo-European languages provides English with such distinctive classificatory terms as ewe/wether/ram for sheep, cow/steer (ox)!bull for cattle, mare/gelding/stallion for horses, but, since most of us (anthropologists included) are now more familiar with cuts of meat than types of animals, we must learn what pas­ toralists assume is common sense.

CULTURAL/ECOLOGICAL ARE A S

Understanding the comparative ecology of pastoral nomadism is a necessary first start for any analysis. The interactions among the animals, land, and people produce a complex web of ecological relationships. While each spe­ cies is adapted to a particular set of ecological conditions and the mix of ani­ mals in a herd must be appropriate to the environment, our focus cannot be limited to the animals alone. With domestication, animals became intimately dependent on their human keepers for pasture, water, breeding, shelter, salt, and protection from predators. Therefore nomads had to become aware of the environmental relationship of the carrying capacity of the land to the number of animals raised, as well as the human relationship to the number of animals needed to prOVide a base of subsistence. Pastoralists never be­ came animal ecologists who could quantify this knowledge, but they were al­ ways acutely aware that their lives depended on a thorough knowledge of these relationships.

In this book we will focus our attention on the sub-arctic nomadic pas­ toralists of Africa and Eurasia who occupy an enormous belt of arid and semi-arid territory running southwest to northeast from East Africa to Mon­ golia. This pastoral area is bounded by the tropical forests of Africa and by agricultural civilizations in Eurasia (Europe and the Mediterranean littoral in the West, China and India in the East). Pastoralists here base their economies on the exploitation of similar sets of animals (that is, even if they specialize in raising only a few species, they usually have had knowledge of and access to the others) and have historically interacted with one another.

It may be argued that this choice of area arbitrarily excludes the pas­ toral peoples of highland South America and arctic Eurasia. However,

INTRODUCTION

both these regions are peripheral to the focus of this study because they de­ pend on the exploitation of a single region.aUy unique species and are the products of an evolution that was very different from the vast majority of pastoral nomadic sOCieties. For example, the nomadic herders of the north­ ern latitudes ralse remdeer, an ammal that cannot surv\ve outside of the tundra, while other domesticated grazing animals cannot survive there. Societies engaged in reindeer herding, though undoubtedly nomadic pas­ toralists, are part of a very different tradition which is best analyzed as the most sophisticated variation in a wide contirlUum of arctic reindeer exploi­ tation that ranges from simple hunting, to raising the animals for meat har­ vest alone, to their use for milking and traction. Similarly, llama-raising communities in the Andes are better understood as variations within an al­ pine farming or ranching tradition, since no distinct society of past ora lists ever emerged there.

Although they share access to a common set of domestic animals, sub-arctic Old World pastoral societies are divided into five distinct no­ madic pastoral zones, each with its own style of animal husbandry and so­ cialorganization.

1. The pastoral zone of cattle raising lies south of the Sahara, in the Sahel running across the entire continent, and in the savanna grasslands of East Africa following the line of the Great Rift Valley. While cattle are viewed as the most important livestock, many pastoralists also maintain flocks of sheep and goats for subsistence and donkeys for transport. Cam­ els are included in herds bordering the northern deserts. With the excep­ tion of donkeys, these animals all provide blood, milk, and meat for subsistence. Although many grassland areas also contain herds of wild grazing animals, pastoral tribes rarely hunt them for meat. Horticulture, where it exists, is exclusively in the hands of women. Pastoralists here con­ struct huts, often linking them together to create a cattle pen. This use of a fixed base means that grazing is restricted to areas around the cattle pens, which must be abandoned when the herds are moved to a new area. What is perhaps most striking to an observer familiar \·vith nomads elsew here is the minimal use of transport animals and the complete lack of tents.

2. The desert zone of camel pastoralism is contiguous with the Saharan and Arabian Deserts. Unlike their neighbors, these pastoralists commonly specialize in raising a single animal, the dromedary camel, on which they rely for food and transport The camel's fabled ability to go without water and walk long distances allows these nomads to exploit dis­ tant desert pastures inaccessible to other stock. (On the desert margin Some camel nomads also maintain flocks of sheep and goats, but they must be herded separately from camels.) While for other nomads, let alone sed­ entary people, the desert is a barrier to communication, for camel nomads the desert facilitates travel. The camel as "the ship of the desert" is no idle analogy. However, even these desert nomads never really supported

8 9 THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

themselves simply on camels' milk and meal. They commonly e>.torted a percentage of the date crop {rom the oasis famwrs of AraIJia, sold their male camels to the caraViln trade to acguirt' manufactured goods, and e\'en the classic Bedoui.n blnck tent is constructed of a goat-hair cloth not pro. Juced by deep-desert nomads.

3. The zone of sheep and goat pastor<llism lies north of the arid de· serts that support only camel raising and south of the Central Eurasian steppe, running along the Mediterranean littoral through the Anatolian and Iranian Plateaus into mountainous central Asia. Nomads here take ad­ vantage of changes in elevations, moving their livestock from lowland win· te r pasture to highland summer pasture, making camp in their extremely mobile blc.ck goat hair tents. The COl1lposition of their herds is quite di­ verse: sheep, goats, horses, camels, and donkeys. Only cattle are missing. Because they require better pasture, more water, and do poorly in negotiat­ ing mOlmtain trails than sheep and goats, nomads here associate cattle rais­ ing with farming Villages. Pastoral nomads in this region are economic specialists and have a symbiotic relationship with their sedentary neigh­ bors with v,'hom they are in constant contact, trading meat animals, wool, milk products, and hides for grain (which constitutes the bulk of their diet) and manufactured goods.

4. The Eurasian steppe pastoral zone is the home of the horse-riding nomads. l{urtning from the Black Sea to Mongolia, it is largely flat grass­ land punctuated by mountain chains that divide it into eastern and west­ ern parts. The forests of Europe, Siberia, and Manchuria mark its northern limits, while the predominantly agricultural regions of the Anatolian and Iranian Plateaus, the deserts and oases of Central Asia and China create its southern frontier. Although today much of this area is devoted to farming, u.ntil a few hundred years ago it was controlled exclusively by nomadic peoples. Their pastoral complex consisted of horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and Bactrian camels. They differed from nomads in other regions in their emphasis on horse riding and archery, the use of carts for transport, and the development of the felt-covered yurt for hOUSing. Historically, they had the greatest political impact on their neighbors, founding many great empires and dynasties, including the world's largest empire created by the Mongols in the thirteenth century.

5. The high-altitude pastures of the Tibetan Plateau and neighboring mou.ntaiI1. regions impose an extremely harsh climatic regime for humans and animals. The air is thin, ultraviolet radiation strong, and daily temper­ atures often swing wildly. Winters are severe and strong winds sweep the plainS. Yet the vast plateau grasslands offer rich grazing and, because they lie above the growth line for barley, there is no competition from the farm­ ers who inhabit the yalleys. To take advantage of this resource, pastoralists on the Tibetan Plateau herd yaks, sheep, goats, horses, and yak! cattle hy­ brids (dzo). Cattle are restricted to farming villages at lower altitudes and

NTRODUCTION

\ Ih.lJ'oI!IJ:,.",~·,. I . \ ~~n..... -

Kazak women in the Altai Mountains applying a traditional design to a felt mat made of pressed wool. The wool is softened with boiling water and then rolled back and forth until the fibers lock to create a strong bond.

camels are found only along the borders of Mongolia. The yak can survive only at high altitudes and provides milk, meat, and hair, as well as trans­ port Dzos produce more milk than yaks and have a wider tolerance for al­ titude changes than either of their parent species. Tibetan nomads employ a pitched tent that consists of panels woven from black yak hair. Wool and milk products are traded to valley villagers for barley which is a mainstay of the Tibetan diet

KEY ANIMALS

In each of the areas described above there is one key animal that appears to define pastoralism culturally, Central Eurasian nomads give priority to the horse. The high altitude nomads of the Tibetan Plateau praise the yak and yak hybrids, In sub-Saharan Africa, cattle are supremely valued, whiJe in the deserts of the Sahara and Arabia it is the camel. TIle more prosaic sheep and goat take pride of place in the Near East, Iranian Plateau, and Central Asia. The only species apparently not raised to cultural primacy among nomadic pastoralists anywhere is the hard-working donkey.

It is, however, the rare nomadic group that specializes in raising a sin­ gle animal because in most of Africa and Eurasia pastoralism is only viable when it incorporates a variety of species. The only significant exceptions are the desert camel nomads like the Bedouin of Arabia. On what basis

1 0 THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

lhen Ut) anthropologists cllld nomad~ alike give such prominencE' to any :;i.ngle species as a key animal, paliicularly vvhen their neighbors in an adjn­ Cl!nt zone may herd the same animals? We might nilturally assume that it is the economically most important species that defines an area, like sheep ~JT\d goats on the Iranian Pht:~au, but this is not alwi1ys the case. Mongo­ lian horse raisers and Tibetan yak breeders also base their subsistence pri­ marily on sheep. What is really at work is an expression of a hierarchy of cultural value, for in each pastoral zone there is one species that excites the imagination and is viewed as the ideal source of wealth and satisfaction. In some societies the productive stock takes pride of place while others give the nod to transport animals This cultural preference may be so strong that pastoral success is measured only by ownership of a single spe­ cies, even when other species are more important for subsistence.

The emergence of any key animal as a marker of regional pastoral identity is the product of remarkable synthesis of ecological possibilities and cu ltural ideals.

Key animals must meet four criteria: 1. The animal must be well adapted to the regional ecological condi­

tions so that large numbers can be supported. There is a high correlation between the original zone of domestication for a species and its emergence as a key animal among historic pastoralists in the same zone. Sheep and goats, horses, camels, and yaks all fit this pattern. Only the cattle of sub­ Saharan Africa appear to have been domesticated elsewhere (although some archaeologists dispute this), but in the past the adoption of cattle as key animals was more widespread. The Indo-European pastoralists of the second millennium B.C. were cattle herders, and an echo of the importance they put on these animals remains in the roots of many Indo-European words for wealth, which are ultimately related to cattle and in the venera­ tion of the sacred cow in India.

2. The key animal must be a necessary component of everyone's herd. An animal cannot become the cultural focus of a pastoral society if its own­ ership is restricted to only a minority of households. The horse is a good example because, while it has great prestige value among nomads in many parts of the world, only Central Eurasian pastoralists can maintain enough horses on the steppe to provide every household with them. Among the camel-raising Bedouin, the horse is a luxury animal (whose Arabian breeds are admired worldwide) maintained by wealthy households only at great cost, since the animal could not normally survive in the desert. Similarly, although horses are used widely on the Iranian Plateau, they cannot be supported entirely on available range land and require regular supple­ ments of grain.

3. The key animal's pastoral requirements take precedence over other stock. The choice of migration pattern and herd composition is limited by which species is considered most important. When there is a mix of ani-

INTRODUCTION 1 1

mals, the requirements of the key illlirnal often determine the composition of the herd as a \'\.hole. The yak's rcqulrC.:menl 01 a high allitude habitat means that Tibetan pastoralists can on1 y raise specialized breeds of sheep and goats which are also adapted to t)w rigors of highland living Simi­ larly, the reason deep-desert nomads specia 1iloc exclw;ively in raising cam­ els is not because they have aversion to other imimals, but because only [he camel can survive "",ith so little available wilter. These nomads cannot add sheep to their herds if they wish to exploit the best camel pasture. It is the high-demand animals that limit the mobility of the herd as a whole. While it is possible to overcome such limits by keeping different species in sepa­ rate herds, this requires more labor and, if the separation is permanent, it quickly becomes impractical. The choice of species herded by nomads is the product of a complex mix of ecological factors and economic opportu­ nities, but it is culture that sets their hierarchical order of importance.

4. The key animal must in some way define a nomad's social, politi­ cal, or economic relation to the world. What really sets a key animal spe­ cies apart from the other animals that nomads raise is the way it structures their relations with the larger world. Among East African pastoralists, cat­ tle are the glue for all social relationships. Marriages, friendships, ceremo­ nies, and conflicts all require cattle exchanges: A man without cattle cannot participate in society. Cattle are, to paraphrase Levi-Strauss, not just good to eat but good to think. The camel is the focus of Bedouin life not just be­ cause it is well adapted to the desert, but because the camel allowed the Bedouin to maintain the freedom they value so highly. Until recent times, the Bedouin were invulnerable to outside attack because their sedentary enemies could not pursue them, or even find them, in the desert. Among Central Eurasian nomads, the horse was revered because of the military and political advantages it gave the nomads there. Using swift cavalry, even a relatively small number of steppe nomads struck terror into their neighbors and dominated overland trade routes. Literally and figuratively, people looked up to the man on horseback. The emphaSis on sheep and goats in the Near East exemplified the more economically integrated no­ madic societies there-for their way of life depended on the sale of pastoral products to neighboring towns and villages.

E COL 0 G Y o F M 0 V E MEN T

Why would people want to become or remain nomadic pastoralists? Sed­ entary observers often assume it is just a form of homelessness and that nomads would settle if only given the opportill\ity. Others see it as a primitive relic-a form of simple production, a step above hunting and gathering that has no place in the modem world. Neither view is a fair generalization. Nomadic pastoralism is a specialization that fills an

1 2 THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

impurtant eculogical and economic niche which often provides a standa rd of living superi(.r to subsistence fanlling.

Nomads take ad\'antage of the seasonal appearance of vegetation by shifting animals from one set of pastures to another as part of a regular cycle of migration. For example, in mountainous areilS nomads may spend the winter in the lowlallds, move to the foothills in the spring, to the high mountain pastures in the summer, and return in LIte fall. If they attempted to stay i11 anyone place the whole year-roLmd, they would soon find them­ selves both short of pasture and subject to climatic extremes that their ani­ mals could not easily survive: in the winter the mountains are covered with snow, while the lowlands in summer are extremely hot. The mix of animals in a herd is also an adaptation to varying conditions, for each spe­ cies has its own specific grazing requirements. It is the nomads' willing­ ness to migrate \"ith their animals that permits them to raise a far greater number of animals than they could pOSSibly support on the limited natural pasture in anyone place.

While the migration from one pasture to another is the most easily recognizable facet of nomadic life, the number of moves pastoralists make is dependent on the types of animals in their herds, the quality of pasture available, the severity of climate, and the availability of water. When pas­ ture is dependable and relatively abundant, nomads may make only a few moves and stay for long periods in a single pasture. Where pasture is more unpredictable or of poorer quality, nomads may make frequent moves and stay for only short periods in each pasture. In other cases, particularly where water is in seasonally short supply, migrations may be related more closely to the patterns of rainfall, with nomads migrating to pastures with temporary sources of water and then returning to areas with permanent ones. In no case, however, do nomads "wander." They know where they are going and why. Similarly, their tent or hut is their home, the fact that they move it periodically does not make them "homeless."

PASTORAL ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION

Pastoralism is an efficient way to exploit natural grassland areas that are oth­ erwise unproductive. Grass cannot be digested by human beings, so raising animals that can use this resource is a way for people to tap a rich energy source indirectly and open huge areas of semi-arid range land to productive use. Pastoralism that employs such natural range land must be distin­ guished from commercial animal raising in which livestock are fed grain to produce meat or milk. Such agriculturally based forms of animal husbandry are often accused of being wasteful, particularly when practiced in poor countries, because many more people could be supported by consuming the

INTRODUCTION 1 3

ain directlv. But where animal hw-,bandry relies solely on grassland, milk and meat production does not compete dirt'ctl)' with humans for the same re-­ sources. lndeed, in many parts of the world pastoral and agricultural pro­ duction cycles are complementary. In northern Afghanistan, for example, pastoralists grazed their animals on the stubhlp of harvested fields in the fall and ,"'inter, but then left the agriculhU"ill valleys during the spring and sum­ mer growirtg season for the natural pashlres of the steppe and in the moun­ tains. Nomadic pastoralists can therefore make efficient use of large parts of the planet that are unsuitable for agriculture. In regions where drought is common, reserving land for pasture rather than using it for unirrigated agri­ culture is often highly adaptive, protecting the soil from erosion while pro­ ducing needed milk, meat:and hides.

The economics of pastor<:1lism are based on the type of animal raised and what is done with the products. In general, pastoralists make distinc­ tions between productive an.imals that yield meat, milk, wool, or hides for consumption or trade, transport animals that provide mobility, and protec­ tive animals that guard the other animals from predators. Sheep, goats, and cattle are obvious examples of the first category, horses, donkeys, yaks, and camels of the second, and dogs of the last. The distinction between productive and transport animals is sharper in some areas than others. For example, while horses and camels are considered primarily transport ani­ mals on the Iranian Plateau and rarely used for food, Central Eurasian no­ mads consider horseflesh a delicacy, and they milk mares to make a mildly alcoholic drink. Bedouins who specialize in camel raising consider the camel a productive as well as a transport animal, but keep horses as luxury riding animals that they would never consider milking or eating. All pas­ toral nomads must, by definition, have productive livestock, but acquisi­ tion of animals reserved completely for transport developed to meet the needs of nomads who moved frequently and had to move such heavy bag­ gage as tents or yurts, or where animals such as horses or camels gave the nomads a military advantage because they could move more rapidly over longer distances.

Nomadic pastoralism differs in a number of ways from sedentary agri­ culture in its allocation of resources and labor requirements, but it is the dy­ namic of herd growth that most starkly sets it apart from farming. While a farmer can increase his output only additively by bringing more land into production or increasing the amount of labor devoted to the same acreage, pastoralists have the potential to see their herds grow exponentially. If all goes well, a flock of twenty breeding ewes can become forty over the course of a few years, forty can become a hundred, hundreds become thousands. The actual rate of expansion is determined by the number of breeding fe­ males in a herd and their rate of reproduction. This is particularly apparent in the differential reproduction of large versus small stock. Large stock like cattle, horses, camels, and yaks take longer to mature and breed than small

1 4 THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

Kazak woman in the Altai Mountains milking a mare to make kumiss, a fermented drink that is a favorite of the horse raising pastoralists of Central Eurasia.

stock like sheep and goats. Large stock therefore represent a greater invest­ ment per unit than small stock, and herd size grows at a much slower rate. \!Vhether large or small, the number of livestock needed to support a family is a critical variable. Since animals are both items of consumption and produc­ tion, eating or selling too many animals in a single year may lead to future insolvency. For this reason nomadic pastoralists must always balance pres­ ent needs with the ability of the herds to maintain future production.

Of course, the pastoral dream of exponential herd growth is largely theoretical. Indeed, exponential herd growth is most commonly seen after a pastoral disaster-when it allows the recovery of a depleted herd-than in good times when too many animals begin to strain both available pas­ ture and lab or. Although every pastoral group has its story of a man who

INTRODUCTION 1 5

started with il few animab in his youth and who is nnw master of milny flocks, they have many more stories of wealthy herd ('wners r(~duced to poverty in a single season. For the reillity is !hilt diseilse, drought, storms, or theft can easily decimate a herd. Unlike the farmef who can safely store his hilrvestcd CfOP in a storeroom for future use, il pilstoralist's surplus ani­ mals are conti.nually at risk. They must be cared [or constimtly, dispersed widely to find enough pasture, and will eventually die. For this reason pastoralists have a strong incentive to exchange surplus animals for other goodS or engage in regular patterns of slaughter to prevent waste. In areas where marketing of livestock is not well developed, the high risks of ani­ mal raising also encourilge the use of animals for social transactions to make marriages, create friendships, provide hospitality, or buy political support. Such investment in social relalions is particularly Widespread in areas where sedentarization is not a viable alternative and networks of friends and relatives provide an economic safety net in times of disaster.

PAS TOR A L SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

The social organization of nomadic pastoral societies is of particular interest to anthTOpologists. After all, we have already defined nomadic pastoralism as a societai rather than occupational phenomenon. While nomadic pastoral­ ists display a variety of social organizations, they are generally tribal in na­ ture, that is, they are dominated by kinship relations.

The patterns of movement inherent in nomadism make the household much more autonomous than among sedentary people. Decisions about where and with whom to camp, how to allocate pastoral labor, and the need to create lasting social ties within a potentially changing physical en­ vironment force individuals to cultivate their agnatic and affinal ties to other households. Strikingly, almost all pastoral nomads (excluding the Tuareg of North Africa) are exclUSively patrilineal in kinship organization: descent, residence, and inheritance rules are always through the male lirle. Marriages invariably required the payment of a brideprice, sometimes quite substantial, which transferred wealth from the fam.ily of the groom to the family of the bride. However, the status of women in most pastoral so­ cieties was generally higher than their sedentary sisters. In East Africa, for example, the inheritance of cattle was by means of allocations through the mother; in southwest Asia where Village women were secluded and veiled, nomadic women travelled freely and unveiled; in Mongolia, women acted as political brokers for their sons and were even appointed as regents after the death of a khan in the Mongol Empire.

Patterns of local cooperation and hostility were measured by distance of relation. In the Near East this ideal, though often more honored in the

I I

THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE1 6

Afghan nomad women are mistresses of their own tents and move about freely in a country where sedentary women are normally veiled and secluded.

breach, gave rise to the ethnographic cliche regularly recited by anthropol­ ogists and tribesmen alike: "Me against my brothers; my brothers and me against our cousins; my brothers, cousins, and me against the world." In the absence of an outside power, a pastoralist's political strength was de­ fined by the power of his kinship group. The strongest tribes and clans laid claim to the best pastures at the best time of year, weaker groups could use them only after they had moved on. The tribe was the largest group of effective kinship and marked the outer limits of ordinary identification.

While understanding social organization is necessary for explaining internal organization of pastoral nomadic tribes, it is insufficient to explain the organization of their external relations. Kinship played its most impor­ tant role at the level of the family, lineage, and clan, but units of organiza­ tion at the tribal or supratribal level were more political in nature. For example, Central Eurasian nomads formed empires that incorporated hun­ dreds of thousands, even millions of nomads, well beyond the capacity of kinship rules to regulate. Such tribal confederations formed through alli­ ance or conquest always contained unrelated tribes. Similarly, Near East­ ern tribes had extremely complex economic relations wi.th sedentary towns and villages that had nothing to do with kinship. It was this relationship with the outside world that was the most important factor in determining the size and complexity of nomadic political organization. As we shall see, regular patterns emerged in which nomads tended to create political organizations that mirrored in sophistication the organization of the neigh-

INTRODUCTION

boring sedent<lry peoples with whom they interacted. The most complex and centraliLcd emerged f<lcing powcrful sl<llcs such as Chi.na, while pasto­ ralists in East ,\[rica, who faced only other stateless rivals, had very decen­ tralized political organizations. In gross terms there was an arc of growing centralization running from East Africa to the steppes of Mongolia with four increasingly complex types of tribal organi/:ltion:

1. age sets ,md acephalous segmentary lineages in sub-S~haran Africa where trib~1 societies encountered few state societies until the colonial era;

2. lineages with permanent leaders but no regul<H supratribal organization in North Afric~ and Arabi~ where tribal socil'tiL'S faced regional states with which they had symbio'tic relations;

3. supra tribal confederations with powerful leaders who were p~rt of a regional political network within large empires distributed throughout the [ranian

. and/or Anatolian Plateaus linking tribes to states ~s conquerors or subjects;

4. centralized tribal states ruling over vast distances on the steppes of Central Eurasia, north of China and [ran, supported by predatory relationships with neighboring sedentary civilizations.

A P PRO A C H E S AND THE M E S

The complexity of pastoral nomadism is best analyzed by breaking each re­ gion into the related pieces described above: ecological base, social and eco­ nomic organization, and political relations with the outside world. This approach builds a framework in which regional pastoral systems as a whole, rather than their individual elements, can be compared. (However, just as each nomadic pastoral zone has its key animal, each also has its key research issues about which everyone seems to write. Issues researched intensively in one area are, unfortunately, often neglected by scholars working elsewhere.) By building from this framework we can understand the complexity of no­ madic pastoral life not onIy internally, but externally in the relations they es­ tablished with nonpastoral people through time.

As part of this analysis, however, we must always keep in mind that we are not dealing with an unchanging way of life. Nomadic pastoral soci­ eties cannot be understood without reference to their historical develop­ ment and their contemporary role in the modern world. Nomadic societies, like sedentary societies, have never existed in a vacuum. They have responded continuously to changes in their relationships to other no­ mads and to neighboring sedentary societies. To appreciate both their or­ ganizational strengths and weaknesses, we cannot restrict ourselves to an idealized "ethnographic present." Nomadic peoples exist in a specific time and space like other people. While current ethnographies can tell us much about pastoralism, we must turn to history and archaeology to determine

1 8 THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

h(m stable any form of pastoralism was and If it changed throui{h tIme. nus is C\lt'n more lrue 01 nomads in Ihe modem world, for over the past two centuries pastoralists have been adapting themsdves to the dominanc~ of centralized sedentary states. Vvith \'ast deserts or open steppe no longer a rduge from outside authorities, the nOffiClds hClV0 lost most of their pOliti­ cal and military autonomy. However, unlike hunter-gLlUlerers, pastoralists have adapted their traditional knowledge of animal husbandry to new eco­ nomic conditions and have found a niche in the modern world. Their de­ gree of success has been determined to some extent by 1,\(';;: ability to export their still-valuable pastoral produ.cts to new markets. .\s no one else is as well prepared to exploit the planet's large arid zones, they have a chance to survive as intact cultures far into the future.

NOT E S

1. Rada Dyson-j-J udson and Neville Dyson-Hudson, "Nomadic Pastoralism," Annual RevicUJotAnlhropology, 9 (1981), 15-61.

2. fun Khaldun, The Mllqnddimah, trans. Frans Rosenthal, ed. N. Dawood (princcton: Princeton University Press, 1967), p. 118.

3. Anatoly M. Khazanov, Nomads alld the Outside World (Cambridge: Cam­ bridge University Press, 1984).

4. ]uliet Clutton-Brock, ed., The Walkillg Larder: Pattems of Domesticntion, Pasto­ ralism and Predation (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989).

FURTHER READINGS

GENERAL ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF NOMADIC PASTORALISM

Carmichael, Peter, ed., Nomads London: Collier and Brown, 1991. Irons, William G., and Neville Dyson-Hudson, eds., Perspectives on Nomadism.

Leiden: Brill, 1972. ]ohnson, Douglas, The Nature of Nomadism' A Comparative Study of Pastoral Migrations

in So:dhwcstem Asia and Northem Africa. Chicago: The University of Chicago Department of Geography Research Paper No. 118, 1969.

Nelson, Cynthia, ed., The Desert and the SOUJn: Nomads in the Wider Society. Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California Press, 1973.

Spooner, Brian, The Cultural Ecology of Pastoral Nomads. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley,1973.

Weissleder, Wolfgang, ed., The Nomadic Alternative: Modes alld Models of Interactioll in the African-Asian Deserts and Steppe. The Hague: Mouton, 1978.

HE CATTLE KEEPERS:

EAST AFRICAN

PASTORALISM

Nomadic pastoralism in East Africa is most notable for its emphasis on cattle raising. Ownership of cattle is the key determinant of a man's \'/ealth and status. IViarriages, friendships, and ritual (";CL1tS all demand cattle exchanges or sacrifices_ :\ iigrating seasonally from one fixed cattle compound to another, these cattle-raising pastoralists lack the tents and large baggage animals so intimately associated with nomadic life else­ where. Instead, they erect permanent huts within fenced compounds from which they take their animals out to graze daily. Although pastoral­ ists often exchange animals with their neighbors for grain or manufac­ tured goods, regular markets for livestock are rare and the land around their camps is usually sown with millet, sorghum, or beans when there is sufficient rainfall. Social distinctions are based on gender, age, animal wealth, and kinship ties. Pastoralists here are unique among nomads in their use of age-set systems to determine the generational status, privi­ leges, and responsibilities of individuals through the life cycle. Political organizations are egalitarian and generally lack permanent leaders. Many of these features are adaptations to the demands of savanna pastoralism but others are the result of the absence of strong state political structures in surrounding societies until the colonial period.

1 9

130 THE NOMADIC ALTERNATiVE

READINGSFURTHER

Azoy, Whitney, Huzkashi' Game and Power ill A/Shallistan. Philadelphia: Uni'!ersitYof Pennsylvania Press, 1982.

Beck, Lois, Nomad: A Year in the Life of a Qashqa'i Tribesl/lQll ill irall. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Bradburd, Daniel, Ambiguous Relations Kin, Class alld Conflict among the Komachi Pastornlists. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990.

Digard, Jean-Pierre, Techniques des nomads baxtljari d'Jran. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1981­ Glatzer, Bemt, Nomaden von Glwrjistml. Weisbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1977.

Khoury, Phil1ip and Joseph Kostiner, eds., Tribes alld State Formal/all il1 the Middle East Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

Michaud, Roland and Sabrina, Caravans to Tartarlj. New York: Viking, 1978.

Pehrson, Robert N., The Social Organization of the MaITi Baluch. New York: VVenner

Gren, 1966. Shahrani, M. Nazif, The Kirghiz alld Wakhi of Afghallistan Seattle University of

Washington Press, 1979. Szabo, Albert and Thomas Barfield, Afghanistan. AI1 Atlas of IndigCllous Domestic

Architecture Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991. Tapper, Nancy, Bartered Brides: Politics, Gender, and Marriage in an Afghan Tribal

Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

::::---­

HE HORSE RIDERS.­

NOMADS

OF THE EURASIAN STEPPE

Of all the world's pastoralists, none left a more indelible historical impres­ sion than the horse-riding nomads of the Eurasian steppe. With an econ­ omy based on a mobile form of animal husbandry that scattered people across a vast landscape, they lived under the sky's great blue dome in tents of felt, consuming milk and meat as the central part of their diet, and glorifying military adventure and heroic personal achievement. These horse-riding peoples stood in stark contrast to neighboring sedentary civi­

. lizations. Though relatively few in number and seeming to lack even the basis for state organization, for more than 2,500 years they nevertheless managed to create great empires that continually terrorized and periodi­ cally conquered powerful sedentary states in northern China, Iran and Af­ ghanistan, and Eastern Europe.

The invasion of the Roman Empire by Attila the Hun and his follow­ ers in the fifth century and the immense conquests of Chinggis Khan and his successors in the thirteenth are perhaps the best-remembered nomadic incursions, But these were but two of a string of successive nomadic em­ pires: Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, Khazars, Kipchaks, the Golden Horde, and Kalrnuks along the European frontiers; Massagetae, Sakas, Yueh-chih, Tocharians, Hephalites, Turks, Chaghatai Mongols, Timurids, Uzbeks, and

1 3 1

1 3 2 HE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

Kazaks north of the Iranian Plateau; and Hsiung-nu, Wu-sun, Hsien-Pi, ]ou-jan, Turks, Uighurs, Mongols, Oirals, and Zunghar~ on the borders of China. Yet our understanding of them has long been clouded by prejudice because sedentary historians tended to treal nom,ld lC atlacks as a form of natural history, like a plague of locusts In ancient China for example, court officials argued that it was j rnpossible to maintain civilized relations with people who moved to and fro like birds ilnd beasts. Medieval Chris_ tian and Muslim commentators, on the other hand, explained invasions by nomadic peoples such as the Huns or Mongols as God's punishment for sinful societies. Even in more recent times it v\ as argued that nomads in­ vaded sedentary areas primarily in response to drought The truth is far different The nomads of Central Eurasia had their own distinct political and economic organization that was logical and coherent but, because it was based on such dilferent principles than agricultural civilizations, its unique dynamic was rarely recognized.

HORSE DOMESTICATION AND THE RISE

OF STEPPE PASTORALISM

Archaeological evidence indicates that the horse was domesticated arotmd 4000 RC. on the steppes of southern Russia, much later than sheep, goats, or cattle. Recent research has also detected microscopic evidence of bit wear on horse teeth from this period, indicating that horseback riding may have been intimately associated with the animal's domestication, although this is still subject to debate. l However, it would be until around 1000 B.C. before horse­ riding nomadic pastoralists would make an appearance on the stage of world history. Before that time, horse raising was part of a mixed economy associ­ ated with farmers who also raised livestock. They inhabited permanent vil­ lages located along the banks of the rivers that flowed through the steppe. The presence of pig bones recovered from archaeological sites is an indica­ tion of their sedentary life, for no nomadic tribes raise pigs.

Horses were uncommon outside the steppe region in early times and their adoption by peoples in other regions was initially associated with the use of chariots, not horse riding. While early horse-drawn chariots were slow and clumsy, little more than glorified carts, by 1700 B.C. the introduc­ tion of the spoked wheel and sophisticated bridling systems made possible new lightweight designs capable of fast movement. First appearing in the areas bordering the steppe lands, the light horse-drawn chariot spread quickly to regions such as Egypt and Mesopotamia where horses had to be imported. The Hittite and Assyrian empires in particular depended on light chariots to overwhelm enemy foot soldiers. Although the transmis­ sion links are not yet fully known, chariot technology had entered China

THE HORSE RIDERS 1 3 3

The small but hardy steppe horse provided the nomads of Central Eurasia with an un­ precedented mobility that was a key element of their military power.

by 1200 B.C. where it became an integral part of the region's military orga­ nization.

2 In all these sedentary societies, chariots were not only weapons

of war, but became symbols of power for their ruling aristocracies. The world of the steppe nomad came into existence as a result of a se­

ries of changes in economy, horse techrlOlogy, and weaponry. Taking ad­ vantage of mobility provided by carts pulled by horses or oxen, some groups became more nomadic. Leaving the protection of river valleys, they began to migrate across the grasslands with large herds of animalp. The Bronze Age invasions of Iran and India by Indo-Europeans around 1200 B.C. displayed such mobile pastoral economies. But the people fought on foot or from chariots. Contemporary illustrations show no evidence of cavalry; the few horse riders shown are mounted clumsily on the rump as

1 34 THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

if they were riding a donkey 3 Around 900 E.C., the nascent steppe nomads ffiClde two drumiltir innovations. The first W<1S a form of horse riding that gave the rider more control over his animal, including a saddle and an im­ proved system of bits and bridling. The second \\!(1S mounted archery. Using the compound bOI\ mounted ar(h~'rs now ;'c'iined ,\ cavalry that was both swifl and deadh', able to attack an enemy at a distance or even while retreating (the famous "Parthian shot"). The steppe nomads now combined a mobile economy with a powerful mobile military. This new culture soon displaced the semj-nomadic, ri verine agricultural settlements and even began to threaten neighboring sedentary civilizations.

In the west, the first historically known nomads were the Cimmerians and Scythians who descended on the kingdoms of the Near East at the end of the eighth century B.C. Later, the Scythians allied themselves with the Assyrians in 674 B.C., but then helped to destroy their erstwhile allies and raided from northern Iran to the borders of Egypt. The nomads of Mongo­ lia underwent a similar transformation, although they did not enter the Chinese historical record until much later. Sun Tzu's classic Art of War (dating from the middle of the fourth century B.C.) made not a single men­ tion of cavalry, yet within a few decades of its completion, tribes of horse­ riding nomads known as Hu were raiding along China's whole northern frontier. In response, the border Chinese states themselves quickly adopted cavalry troops into their own armies.

.. King Wu-Iing of Chao (325-299 B.C.) changed the customs of his people, ordering them to adopt the barbarian dress and practice riding and shooting, and led them north in a successful attack on the forest barbarians and the Lou-fan.

4

This new steppe nomadic world formed a distinct culture that simul­ taneousl y disdained alien customs while coveting foreign goods which were often imported over great distances. Its famous "animal style" of art, with leaping stags and fighting animals executed in gold, carved wood, or boldly colored felt applique, certainly displayed a cultural ethos strikingly different from that of their sedentary neighbors. 5

We find our most vivid account of these ancient mounted nomads in the writings of the Greek traveller and historian Herodotus, who visited the Scythians in the middle of'the fifth century B.C. Herodotus described them as heavy drinkers of imported wine who also smoked hemp and \NOr­ shiped a pantheon of gods. They built elaborate tombs stocked with rich goods and sacrifices (some hwnan) for their dead. Many of these details were dramatically confirmed by discoveries of frozen tombs in the Siberian borderlands of Mongolia dating from this period which produced some of the oldest examples of feltwork, carpet weaving, and horse decorations in the world. Indeed, the bodies resting in the tombs were so well preserved that their vivid tattooing remained intact 6

THE HORSE RIDERS 1 35

" In a display of Kazak horsemanship and physical strength, each rider competes to pull his op­ ponent from his horse. Such scenes have impressed sedentary visitors to the steppe from the time of Herodotus.

But it was in war, Herodotus explained, that the Scythians were most feared, a characteristic that would be noted in later Chinese accounts of the nomads in Mongolia:

In what concerns war, their customs are the following. The Scythian soldier drinks the blood of the first man he overthrows in battle. Whatever the number he slays, he cuts off all their heads and carries them to the king; since he is thus entitled to a share of the booty, whereto he forfeits all claim if he does not produce a head. ... The skulls of their enemies, not indeed of all, but of those they most detest, they treat as follows. Having sawn off the portion below the eyebrows, and cleaned out the inside, they cover the out­ side with leather. When a man is poor, this is all that he does; but if he is rich, he also lines the inside with gold: in either case the skull is used as a drinking CUp.7

The urliformity in nomadic material culture and other customs across the Eurasian steppes was quite striking. Yet, as Owen Lattimore has ar­ gUed, it was not the spread of a single people that brought about this change but the embrace of a new technology and way of life by many pre­ Viously distinct societies along the fringes of the steppe. Marginal farmers from China, forest hunters from Siberia, and the more sedentary irlhabi­ tants of the steppe itself all adopted a fully nomadic style of life to more ef­ fectively exploit the Central Eurasian grasslands, and in the process created a common culture of their owns That such profound changes could occur rapidly was seen much later in history when the horse was reintroduced to the plains of North America by the Sparuards. Only after neighboring tribes acquired the horse could Plains Indian culture develop. Within a century, a wide variety of tribes with heterogeneous origins had all

-I 36 THE NOMADiC ALTERNATIVE

adopted simil<.lr cultural practices based on horse riding and bison hunt­ ing 9 So natural did this style of life appear to outsiders that in the popular imagination it became the stereotype for all North American Indian cul­ tw-cs, even though it did not exist in the precontact period.

NOMADIC PASTORALISM

IN CENTRAL EURASIA

Horse-riding ?astoralists historically occupied the grasslands and mountain pastures of Central Eurasia, those rolling plains of grass, scrub land, and semi-desert punctuated by high mountain ranges which extend from the Hungarian Plain and the Black Sea in the west across the Kazak steppe and Mongolian Plateau to the borders of Manchuria and the Pacific Ocean. On the north, this region is bounded by the thick forests of Siberia and RUSSia, while its southern frontier confronted the ancient urban civilizations of An­ atolia, Iran, Turkestan, and China.

The steppe lands are divided into two distinct geographical zones: the Mongolian Plateau in the east, and the Russian and Kazak steppes in the west. The eastern zone, averaging 1,500 meters or more in elevation, is much higher than the western steppe which lies at around sea level. They are separated by the Pamir, Tien-shan, and Altai mountain ranges. This di­ vision is more than topographic, for it has long marked a significant politi­ cal and cultural frontier. Those nomads on the Mongolian Plateau have always focused their attention on China, while those on the Kazak and southern Russian steppe have had closer connections with the Near East and Europe. Historically, even religions and languages often changed at this point. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for example, Bud­ dhist Mongols occupied the east, while Muslim Turks dominated the west, a pattern that has continued in modified form down to the present day. For this reason, nomadic empires typically had their borders at this point and those that spanned the whole steppe zone invariably split into at least two parts along this fault line.

Pastoral nomadism was the dominant way of life in Central Eurasia throughout most of its known history because the steppe zone itself was inhospitable to agriculture. This may come as a surprise to those who think of the American Great Plains or Russian steppe as ideal grain-grow­ ing areas, but until the introduction of steel plows and steam-driven trac­ tors in the late nineteenth century, it was difficult or impossible to break the thick sod of these permanent grasslands. In addition, the steppe's se­ verely cold winter, short growing season, and relatively low average rain­ fall (punctuated by cycles of drought) made agriculture less dependable than pastoralism. Therefore, except along the flood plains of major rivers

THE HORSE RIDERS 1 37

or in sheltered mountai.n valleys, permanent farming communities were rare. Even in those regions, farming Villages were particularly vulnerable to destructive raids by their nomadic neighbors. Many were abandoned in times of political disorder and not reestablished for many generations, if ever.

The history of the nomads of Central Eurasia and their relationships with surrounding regions is, of course, predicated on what the nomads themselves took for granted: their cycles of movement, the demands of stock raising, economic constraints, and basic poli tical organization. While often denigrated as primitive by outside observers, steppe nomadic pasto­ ralism is in fact a sophistisated economic specialization.

THE FIVE ANIMALS

Nomadism in Central Eurasia depends on the exploitation of extensive but seasonal steppe and mountain pastures. Since humans cannot digest grass, raising livestock is an efficient way of exploiting the energy of a grassland's ecosystem. The herds consist, as the Mongols say, of the five animals: sheep, goats, horses, cattle, and camels. Of these, sheep and horses are the most important, but the ideal is to have all the animals nec­ essary for both subsistence and transportation so that a family or tribe can approach sel£-sufficiency in pastoral prod uction. There was never any specialization in the production of a Single species (such as developed among the camel-raising Bedouin of the Near East and North Africa), al­

I though the proportion of each species within a herd always reflects the constraints imposed by local ecological conditions: a higher percentage of cattle in wetter regions, an increased percentage of goats in areas of mar­ ginal pasture, and larger numbers of camels along desert margins. As Table 5.1 illustrates, herd composition is basically similar whether the no­ mads use the open steppe or mountain pastures.

More than in any other pastoral area, the nomads of Central Eurasia take full advantage of multiple uses of their animals. The relatively rigid dis­ tinction between transport animals and subsistence animals that is common elsewhere is unusual here. If an animal can be used for both, it will be used for both. Steppe nomads not only ride horses but also milk mares, eat horse meat (and sometimes blood), and use their skins for leather. Similarly, while the camel is used primarily as a baggage animal, it is also milked, used as a SOurce of hair, and occasionally eaten. Oxen, which are exclusively subsis­ tence animals elsewhere, are also employed to pull carts or carry loads. A Chinese history of the second century RC. even claimed that a young child first learned to ride a sheep before graduating to a horse!

The horse has always held cultural pride of place among steppe no­ mads. Indeed, from its inception, traditional steppe pastoralism has been defined by the preeminence it gives to horse raising and horse riding. For

, 3 8 THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

TABLE 5.1 Herd Composition on the Eurasian Steppe by Region

NORTHERN MONGOLIA, 1940S (PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL LIVESTOCK)

REGION SI-IEEP GOATS CATTLE HORSES CAMELS

Eastern Steppe 58.6 14.0 11.7 12.8 29

Khanghai Forest-Steppe 577 17.0 13.0 11.1 12

Gobi Desert Steppe 511 27.6 4.5 92 76

Altai Mountain Steppe 56.0 29.1 5.7 65 2.7

Total 55.8 21.9 87 99 36

TURKESTAN (PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL LIVESTOCK)

REGION SHEEP GOATS CATTLE HORSES CAMELS DONKEYS PIGS'

Xinjiang. 1933 71.0 10.0 12.0 6.0 tew

Kuldja, 1877 75.0 6.0 7.0 110 10

Kazakhstan, 1920s 51.0 8.4 24.4 120 2.2 2.0

Kirghizia, 1920s 550 13.6 17.0 11.4 1.0 1.8

Turkmenia, 1920s ._- 74 --- 128 38 6.3 3.1

(Pigs are an indication of Russian settlement as they are not found among steppe nomads.)

Source Lawrence Krader. "The Ecology of Central Asian Pastoralism" Southwestern Journal of Anthropotogy (1955), 11: 301-326, p. 313.

just as camels transformed the deserts of the Near East from barriers into highways, so horse riding has permitted rapid movement of nomads across vast distances, allowing communication and cooperation among peoples and tribes that are of necessity highly dispersed. The horse figures most prominently in the military exploits of the nomads because it gives them the mobility and power in battle to defeat much larger opponents. The oral epics of steppe peoples have always sung praises to the horse, and its sacrifice was an important ritual in traditional steppe religions. Indeed, the man on horseback is the very symbol of steppe nomadism and, as a metaphor for military and political power, has passed into the cultures of neighboring sedentary societies. Your own city probably has at least one stahle (collecting pigeon droppings) of a great man astride an oversized bronze horse. However, while some anthropologists have labelled these nomadic pastoralists "horse cultures," horse raising was never the exclu­ sive focus of any steppe tribe in spite of the animal's cultural and military importance. For although there are no great sheep epics, they are the foun­ dation of the steppe economy, with horse raising only an important ad­ junct to this more essential task. tO

THE HOl'lSE RIDERS 1 j 9

Kazak girl getting the sheep in line for milking. Although the steppe nomads have al. ways given pride of place to their horses, their economy is based primarily on sheep raising.

Sheep and goats are by far the most important subsistence animals and are the mainstay of steppe pastoralism because they reproduce more rapidly than cattle or horses and can consume a wider variety of grasses. They are also the main source of milk and meat for food; wool, hair, and hides used to produce felt, rope, clothing, and storage bags; and dried dung which can be used as fueL Large stock such as cattle, camels, and

o HE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

horses also provide a secondat·y source of milk and meat. Fermented mare's milk (k/lllJiss), in particular, has been the favorite drink of the stepPe nomads for thousands of years.

On the Mongolian Plateau, sheep historically accounted for between So and 60 percent of all animals raised, although their numbers declined in re­ gions \vhere the pasture was poor in grasses, such as in the arid deserts, at high altitudes, or in the forest margins. The proportion of sheep reached its maximum among nomads who were engaged in Significant trade with urban markets. For example, under the same ecolOgical conditions in nineteenth_ century Kuldja (lli Valley), sheep constituted 76 percent of the flocks among the Kazaks, for whom the sale of lambskins was very important, as COnt­ pared with 54 percent among the more subsistence-oriented Kalmuks. ll

The number of horses and cattle are highest in those parts of the steppe with access to abundant pasture and water. Steppe horses are par­ ticularly well adapted to the harsh conditions of the region. Although small in size, they are very hardy and capable of living on the open range throughout the winter without fodder, conditions that would kill other breeds of horses. Herds of horses and cattle must be grazed separately from the sheep and goats because the latter crop the grass too closely for large stock to graze after them. Therefore special pastures are reserved for grazing large stock or they are pastured ahead of the sheep and goats when a Single area is used.

Camels found on the Eurasian steppe are primarily of the two­ humped variety known as Bactrian. In addition to providing transport for nomadic families, camels were the mainstay of the overland caravan route for more than 2,000 years. Unlike their one-humped relatives in Arabia, Bactrian camels have a thick wool coat that enables them to survive cold winters. Camel's hair is highly valued for making cloth and continues to be an important export to the world market today. The percentage of cam­ els is highest in arid areas where it is more difficult to raise horses and cat­ tle. For example, in the desert region between the Caspian and Aral seas, the Turkmen kept three times as many camels in their herds than the steppe-dwelling Kazaks to their north. Similarly, the Mongols maintained more than twice as many camels in the Gobi Desert than on the Eastern Steppe, and six times more than in the Khanghai Forest Steppe (Table 5.1).

THE MIGRATORY CYCLE

Here, as elsewhere, the nomadic life is based on the ability of people to move with their animals throughout the seasonal migration. Shelter and household goods must be portable. In this respect, nothing is more strik­ ing than the yurt used throughout the Eurasian steppe. It consists of a se­ ries of folding wooden lattice frameworks that are set in a circle around a door frame. Curved wooden spokes are tied onto the top of the lattice

THE HORSE RIDERS 1 4 1

frame and linked to a round wooden crown to form a hemispherical or conical dome, depending on the angle at which they are bent. The result­ ing framework is lightweight yet exceptionally strong and cannot be eas­ ily blown down. In the winter, the yurt is covered by thick mats of wool felt which provide insulation against even bitter cold. In the summer, the side felts are removed and replaced by reed matting that allows air to cir­ culate. In ancient times, yurts were erected on large carts and moved around as a unit, but by the Middle Ages this practice had become rela­ tively rare. However, the use of wheeled carts pulled by oxen or horses to transport goods has always been characteristic of nomadic life in Central Eurasia, whereas in the neighboring regions of the Near East, nomads used no wheeled vehicles'. Those families that could not afford yurts em­ ployed Simpler felt-covered huts. 12

The migratory cycle took two basic forms: horizontal movements across the steppe and vertical movements in and out of mountains. Those nomads who used the flat steppe made much longer migrations because they moved to more northern latitudes to find summer pasture, while their mountain-dwelling neighbors could accomplish the same feat simply by changing the altitude of their camps. The Kazak nomads who migrated across the steppe between the banks of the Caspian and Aral seas often travelled more than 500 kilometers round-trip, while the Kirghiz pastoral­ ists in the Pamir Mountain region moved less than 100 kilometers because

Erecting a yurt frame which will be covered with panels of felt. The yurt can withstand the se­ vere cold and high winds common to Central Eurasia in the winter.

143 1 4 THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

lheir winler camps in lower-lying mountilin viJlleys were close to their summer camps al the snow line.

Regardless of whether horizontal or vertical movements are involved limited winter pasture has always been the key constraint on pastoral prO: duction. The range of choices for a winler camp is restricted because it must provide ready access to water, shelter from the wind, and sufficient pasture to last the season. Once selected, winter camps tend to remain fixed and families return to the same site each year. Winter camps have the highest population density, sometimes including many hundreds of yurts. Favored locations include lower-lying mountain valleys, river flood plains, and depressions on the steppe. Wind-swept areas free of snow are preferred, but if the ground is covered with snow, then the horses can be let loose to paw through the icy surface and uncover the pasture below. The pasture can then be used by other animals. V/inter pastures prOvide only a bare minimum of subsistence, and UI1der open-range conditions, the livestock lose considerable weight. As a somewhat sardonic Kazak prov­ erb explains: "Sheep are fat in the summer, strong in the autumn, weak in the winler, and dead by spring." Winter herding is also a dangerous busi­ ness, for shepherds freeze along with the animals if caught unprepared.

Aided by spring rains, steppe pastures bloom after the winter snows melt and camping groups disperse widely to take advantage of the newly abundant pasture. Moving deep into these grasslands, the nomads draw on seasonally available pools of melted snow in low-lying areas to water their cattle and horses. In such pasture the sheep do not have to be wa­ tered at all, getting the moisture they need from the grass and dew. Ani­ mals weak from the winter's cold and hunger begin to recover their weight and vitality. Lambing commences in the spring and fresh milk becomes available. Although normally considered one of the best of times, there is always the potential for disaster if the pastures fail to appear on time or the temperatures drop too low. The greatest danger is an unseasonable snow­ storm that covers the steppe with snow or ice. In only a few days under these conditions, much of the livestock, particularly the newborn young, can die. Although such an event might occur but once a generation, it can cripple the pastoral economy for years.

Movement to the summer pastures begins when the spring grasses begin to dry out or are consumed by the animals. Households are most dispersed during this season in order to take advantage of all available pasture. In these summer pastures, the animals rapidly gain weight. To maximize production, the herd is often split so that the milking animals can remain near the camp while the other animals are taken to better graz­ ing in more distant pastures. Women devote considerable effort to milk processing. Mares are milked separately to produce kumiss, but the milk from sheep, goats, and cows is mixed together to make butter, cheese, or yoghurt which can be dried into rocklike balls (qrut) for later use. The

THE HORSE RIDERS

Kazak women and girls spend most of the summer processing sheep and cow's milk into iried yogurt which can be stored indefinitely. The milk is first boiled and then set overnight to lerment into yogurt. The fresh yogurt is then put in a porous bag to separate the solids from ~e liquids. The reSUlting soft paste is then rolled into balls and set to dry in the sun until it be­ :omes as hard as rock.

summer pastures are abandoned at the onset of cooler weather when the nomads begin the return migration to their winter quarters. The sheep are normally sheared at this time. Most of the wool is reserved for making felt which is produced by first beating the wool, pouring boiling water on 11, and then rolling it back and forth until the fibers lock to create the fab­ ric. Felts are often decorated by applying a layer of dyed wool to the sur­ :ace before rolling. Heavy felt panels made of coarse wool are used to cover yurts, while the more delicate wool sheared from the lambs is used (0 make cloaks, winter boots, or saddle blankets. Wool may also be spun into thread, dyed, and woven into rugs, saddlebags, or knotted carpets. Hair from goats is used to make ropes and coarse cloth, while camels' hair is coHected for sale or for making fine cloth. Autumn is also traditionally lhe time to breed sheep in order to ensure a spring lambing, for lambs dropped out of season on the open steppe have a high mortality rate.

Pastoralists who employ stored fodder cut it in the fall, but the more Iraditional strategy is to graze the animals away from the winter encamp­ nent as long as pOSSible to preserve the nearby pasture for the hardest :imes. While pastoralists attempt to maintain as many live animals as possible, they must also carefully calculate how many animals they can

THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE THE HORSE RIDERS 1 451 4 4 1 reasonably support through the winter, Where nomads cannot sell their animals to sedentary markets, surplus livestock is slaughtered and the meat smoked for use during the winter. Before Central Eurasia was incor_ porated into the expanding Russian and Chinese empires in the seVen_ teenth and eighteenth centuries, autp,nn was also traditionally the time when nomads preferred to raid sedentan areas because their horses Were strong, the work of the pastoral cycle was largely done, and the farmers had their harvests completed. Such raids provided grain to help the no­ mads through the winter.

CONTROL OF RESOURCES

In steppe societies, pasture was held in common by extended kinship groups. Nomadic migrations were not random, but within a defined range of pastures to which a group had access. Where pasture was de­ pendable, nomads tended to have on Iy a few fixed camping sites to which they returned each year. This was particularly true in the forest steppe zone where pastoralists might establish permanent winter villages with barns for their animals and cultivate nearby fields for grain and fodder. Where only marginal pastures were available, the migratory cycle dis­ played both more frequent movement and greater variation in the loca­ tion of camps. In the absence of state control, a pastoralist's range was defined by the power of his kinship group. The strongest tribes and clans laid claim to the best pastures at the best time of year; weaker groups could use them only after they had moved on. Right of transit through another's territory was a generally accepted principle, although disputes could easily arise when migrating groups were accused of moving too slowly in order to graze their animals. While nomads defended propri­ etary rights in such fixed investments as wells or scarce winter campsites (particularly if they had built barns or houses), the concept of exclusive land ownership was poorly developed.

The nomads' ability to readily transport their herds and families had considerable political importance. In particular, it made them practically invulnerable to conquest by neighboring sedentary states until modern times. For, unJ.ike farming communities, when steppe nomads were threat­ ened with invasion they could move their entire population and pastoral economy out of harm's way. Attackers encountered nothing but an empty plain with dust on th,: horizon, and with only abandoned campsites to oc­ cupy, they were invariably forced to leave. The nomads would then harass a retreating army all the way back to the frontier, often inflicting such heavy losses that they would not think of returning any time soon. The Persian king Darius the Great lost much of his army when he attempted to chase the Scythian nomads across the steppes of southern Russia in 514 B.C. The Chinese also complained of the same tactics four centuries later during

their wars with the Hsiung-nu of Mongolia. No match for China's large ar­ Jllies, the I-Isiung-nu made it Cl point to retreat before Uley were allacked:

If the battle is going well for them they will advance, but if not, they will retreat, for they do not consider it Cl disgrace to run away. Their only concern is self-advantage, and they know nothing of propriety or righteousness.

13

On the other hand, attacks by other pastoral peoples who sought to occupy key pasture areas permanently could not be resisted by strategic re­ treats. [f successful, these groups could occupy vital winter campsites and thereby take control of the whole area. Given a choice between submitting or fleeing, many defeateci tribes maintained their autonomy by emigration. 11le history of Central Eu~asia is therefore replete with examples of whole peoples periodically relocating themselves hundreds, even thousands, of kilometers away, where they then established new migraton ranges. Such masS movements necessarily displaced other tribes in their turn, eventually leading to invasions of sedentary areas by those nomads occupying the margin of the steppe. Such large-scale emigrations were exceptional, how­ ever, the results of political decisions by tribes to find a new home range rather than fight for their old one. They were not the product of hungry sheep seeking new pasture.

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

THE FAMILY CAMP GROUP

Throughout Central Eurasia, pastoralists shared similar principles of organi­ zation. The minimal social unit on the steppe was the household, usually measured by the number of tents, and the minimal economic and political unit was the camp group (aul, Turkish; ayil, Mongolian). The term was ap­ plied both to the small, mobile camping groups consisting of only a dozen yurts and to the hundreds that might occupy a single large winter camping area. Ideally, it was composed of patrilineal relatives who shared common

·pasture and camped together when possible. This description of the Kalmuk IIpattern was typical of the ideal:

An extended family may consist of several generations of consanguine male relatives, connected more or less closely by patrilineal descent, together with wives and immature

1 children, and headed by the senior male of the senior family. After marriage a son may demand his livestock and move away, but ideally he should remain with his father and brothers. Moving away is a sign of trouble between kin. There is a tendency for ex­ tended family herds to be held in common as long as possible. 14

Camping groups composed of extended families were well adapted to pastoral production. As we saw in the last chapter, they could supply

146 THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE

all the labor needpd to maximize herding without ha\" ing to regularly hire outsiders. Because pasture was held in common and a herdsman could ef­ ficiently look after hundreds of animals, individually owned livestock could be combined to create a single large herd. Similarly, camping as ex­ tended family groups milde it cClsier for the women to carry out their coop_ eriltive tasks like milk processing or felt making. But a man was always responsible for his livestock and, as noted above, if he disagreed with their management he had the right to remove them and go elsewhere. Large groups of kin also provided protection against theft and served as allies in disputes with other groups

MARRIAGE ALLIANCES AND THE ROLE OF WOMEN

Women in st .'ye nomadic pastoral societies had more authority and auton­ omy than their sisters in neighboring sedentary societies, or pastoral nomadic societies in other regions for that matter. Women played a key role ill daily economic life. Although the details cannot be conlirmed for the entire rus­ tory of Central Eurasia, most visitors made COrtUT1.ents similar to those of Jo­ hann de Piano Carpini, the Pope's envoy to the Mongols in the thirteenth century:

The men do nothing but occupy themselves with their arrows and to a small extent look after their herds; for the rest they go hunting and practice archery .... Both men and women stay in the saddle for a long time .... AII the work rests on the shoulders of the women; they make the fur coats, clothes, shoes, bootlegs and every1hing else made from leather. They also drive the carts and mend them, load the camels, and are very quick and efficient in all their work. All the women wear trousers, and some of them shoot with the bow as accurately as the men. 15

Although in formal terms these societies were strongly patrilineal, in many groups steppe nomadic women participated in tribal politiCS and sometimes even war. Herodotus stated that while among the Scythian no­ mads of the Black Sea steppe, women were generally secluded, among the neighboring Sarmatian tribes, women participated in raids and could not marry until they had killed an enemy in battle. He also noted that these tribes were occasionally led by queens; one of whom had defeated an in­ vading Persian army and killed its emperor. Later Chinese accounts also regularly depicted elite women in critical positions, especially during con­ flicts over royal succession. Medieval Arab and Persian writers were con­ tinually astounded at the freedom of steppe nomadic women and the prominent role they played in court politics. The best-documented exam­ ple of this was seen in the early Mongol empire in the thirteenth century when the senior wife of the "Great Khan" was the normal choice for regent during the interregnum following the death of her husband.

THE HORSE RIDERS 147

Marriage rules throughout Central Eurasia shess the importance of claJl exogilmy; that is, partners should always come from Cl group that is ~ot patrilinealJy related to them in the previous five, seven, or even nine ,enerations. This is not to say they married strangers; the preferred choice I~f a bride was from a man's mother's clan, so that over time reciprocal alarriage alliances would bind the two groups together.!6 Such reciprocal j[iance patterns gave women an important structural role linking tribes to­

',ether. So daughters, while lost to their natal families, still bound them to ~ther groups. For example, the Unggirad, the clan of Chinggis Khan's wife Borte, were fond of proclaiming that their political power lay in the llrength of their marriage .alliances and not on their military prowess:

They are our daughters and daughters of our daughters, who, become princesses by their marriage, serve as shields against our enemies and by the petitions they present to

1their husbands obtain favors for us. ?

Marriage involved the payment of a large brideprice in livestock, gener­ .lly collected from a large group of agnates, although a man might live with Jis prospective in-laws and do brideservice instead. Among the nineteenth­ century Kazak, this amounted to between 50 and 100 animals, preferably norses, measured in groups of nine (an auspicious number). However, a woman also brought a Significant dowry to the marriage, sometimes equal to the brideprice, that included both household furnishings and luxury goods. [Chinggis Khan, for example, made his first political alliance by giving a valuable sable skin he received as dowry to the powerful khan of a neighbor­ ing tribe.) Marriage created a new household and a man could then demand iUs share of the herd. The youngest son not only got his own share but also eventually inherited the remaining property of his father. This practice, ulti­ mogeniture, was a form of social security, since the youngest son was ex­ reeted to support his elderly parents. Rank, as opposed to personal rroperty, generally went to the eldest son upon his father's death although a man could legally appoint any son as his heir.

CLAN AND LINEAGE ORGANIZATION

The household and camp 'group were the most important units in the daily Me of the Central Eillasian nomad, but to deal with the world it was neces­ sary to organize into larger units. Within the nomadic world, political and lOeial organization was based on a model of nested kinship groups, the coni­ iJll clan. The conical clan was an extensive patrilineal kinship organization in which members of a common descent group were ranked and segmented along genealogical lines (Figure 5.1). This genealogical charter was impor­ lant because it justified rights to pasture, created social or military obligations ~tween kinship groups, and established the legitimacy of local political au­ ~ority. vVhen nomads lost their autonomy to sedentary governments, the

THE NOMADIC ALTERNATIVE148

CLAN GEhlEALOGY (Senior sons 10 the leh)

Ancestor of Intermediate Lineage 11

Ancestor of I ntermediote

Lineage I

'--~

oL

nasty (of Central Eurasian heritage) ruled over the Ottoman Empire for more than 600 years.

It would be a mistake; however, to assume that the conical clan was Ihe true fou,'1dation of supra tribal government. Though based on a kinship idiom, particularly in describing the organization of component tribes, the nomadic polities of Central Eurasia encompassed millions of people. For example, the Kazaks numbered well over four million in the nineteenth century, while the Chinese estimated the ancient HSiung-nu and medieval Turks at one million each. This scale of organization was pOSSible in part

Present L...-::;,. L....::o U because "genealogical descent" in central Eurasia was more similar to what

lineage Chiefs d~

Lineoge 0, Area of Lineage B, lineage C,TERRITORIAL

Local Lineage A, Chief: c Chief,dChief: b Chi.ef:a

DIVISIONS

~ ~ ....JI ~--------y~-------~)

District af In~ermediate District of Inlermediate

Lineage I, ChieL 0 Lineage 11, Chief: c

, y Territory of Conical Clan {Chiefdom!.

Chief: a

FIGURE 5.1 Schematic model of chiefdom integrated on conical clan lines.

Marshall Sahlins, Tribesmen. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968, p. 25.

political importance of this extensive genealogical system disappeared and 18

kinship links remained important onJy at the 10callevel This segmentary structure was more than a mental construct. It was

reinforced by permanent chieftains who provided leadership and internal order for lineages, clans, and whole tribes. The idiom of kinship was the common currency for determining the legitimacy of leadership. Elder gen­ erations were superior in rank to younger generations, just as elder broth­ ers were superior in rank to younger brothers. By extension, lineages and clans were hierarchically ranked on the basis of seniority. There were also hierarchical distinctions between noble lineages (white bone) and common lineages (black bone), but from the lowest to highest all members of the

THE HORSE RIDERS 1 4 9

tribe claimed descent from a common ancestor. This meant that deviations mm the ideal had to be disguised by manipuJating, distorting, or even in­ v~nting genealogies that justified changes in the status quo. Powerful indi­ viduals saw ancestors retroactively promoted at the expense of declining elites and "structural amnesia" relegated genei1logically senior (but politi­ cally weak) lines of descent to oblivion. This tradition produced ruling lin­ eages of unparalleled duration. The direct descendi1nts of the Hsiung-nu ioUIlder Mao-tun retained their authority for 600 )"ars, the direct descen­ dants of Chinggis Khan for 700 years, and a Single unbroken Turkish dy­

1we would today label ethnic identity than to the sharply defined genealogi­ cal tribes of the Bedouin. With each reorganization of the steppe, new

Iidentities would emerge. For example, the Mongols began as a fairly small i group, but after their great conquests many of the formerly distinct neigh­ boring tribes began to identify themselves as "Mongols," often retaining their older tribal affiliation as a clan name.

Even so, such large empires went far beyond the needs of simple (or even complex) pastoralism. In fact, they were designed for some­ lhing quite different: the permanent extortion of the world's great sed­

,mtary civilizations.

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

llarge-SCale political organization among steppe nomads was designed to deal primarily with external relations. Indeed, it could only be financed ~Y. bringing in revenue from the outside because the pastoral economy was too extensive and undiversified to support a sophisticated state struc­ hire. Rulers of steppe empires therefore did not expect to support them­ !elves by extracting revenue from their nomadic subjects, rather the reverse. They used the military might of their nomad followers to extract ~venue from outsiders which couJd not only pay for the administration of the empire but also could be redistributed among the potentially rebel­ lous component tribes to keep them happy. In the southern Russian ~eppe, this revenue came from the control of vital links in overland trade

•• ..... IVI t""\ V I V M. L"-' C- n I~ M. I I V t::

own strategies of economic production and, as among the Kazaks in Xingjiang, are likely to return to older patterns of family based production. While the economic policies in each of these new states is developing dif. ferently, in all of them animal husbandry will take on a more important role. Pastoralism that was formerly perceived as marginal by the distant central planners in Moscow is now considered vital by officials of national governments with capitals in Alma Ata, Ashkabad, and Bishkek. They need to increase pastoral production of all types in order to feed the local population and as a way to generate revenue by exporting pastoral prod. ucts to neighboring countries.

Whatever the final results of the changes in these countries, it is clear that the nomads of Central Eurasia, with access to the world's largest grasslands, will continue to be important to the economy of the region. Overland trade is once again reviving the region's economic life. Railroads and highways, a new silk route of iron and asphalt, permit the export of pastoral products to distant cities where they fetch high prices. Similarly, goods from around the world now find their way into the heart of Asia. In the Altai it is not uncommon to see TV antennas rising from Kazak winter camps. (Indeed, during my own visit in 1987 to one distant valley, accom­ panied by a producer from Kazak television, community leaders de­ manded to know when they would get a satellite dish like their neighbors!) But with these new links, pastoralism is likely to become more similar to cattle ranching in the United States, a business with explicit standards of profit and loss. But no matter how the economy changes, nomadic pasta­ ralists will remain key symbols of Kazak or Mongol ethnic identity, even as the majority of Kazaks and Mongols settle into the region's growing cities. Like the camel-raising Bedouin, the cultural identity of the descendants of Chinggis Khan is so closely tied to the history of great deeds by men on horseback that even as their number declines, their role as symbols of a proud way of life will grow.

NOT E S

1. David Anthony, and Dorcas Brown, "The Origins of Horseback Riding," Antiquity, 65 (1991),22-38.

2. K.C. Chang, Archaeology of Ancient China (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), pp. 279-80; Edward Shaughnessy, "Historical Perspectives on the Intro­ duction of the Chariot in China," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 48 (1988),189-238·

3. James Downs, "The Origin and Spread of Riding in the Near East and Cen­ tral Asia, American Anthropologist, 63 (1961), 1193-1203.

4. Burton Watson, trans., Records of the Grand Historian of China, translated from The Shih-chi of Ssu-ma Ch'ien (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961),11, 159.

I-RI:: HOHSE RIDER~ 177

5. cf. Karl Jettmar, The Art of the Steppes (New York: Crown, 1964).

6. Sergei Rudenko, Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen (London: Dent & Sons, 1970).

7. Herodotus, The History, trans. David Grene (Chicago: University of Chicago press, 1987), Book IV, Chapters 64-65.

8. Owen Lattimore, Inner Asian Frontiers of China (New York: American Geo­ graphical Society, 1940), pp. 58-66.

9. Preston Holder, The Hoe and the Horse on the Plains (Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1970).

10. Elizabeth Bacon, "Types of Pastoral Nomadism in Central and Southwest Asia," Southwestern Journal of Anthropologtj, 10 (1954), 44-68.

11. Lawrence Krader, "The Ecology of Central Asian Pastoralism," Southwest­ ern Journal of Anthropology, 11 (1955),313.

12. Peter A. Andrews, "The White House of Khurasan: The Felt Tents of the Iranian Yomut and Goklen," The Journal of the British Institute of Iranian Studies, 11 (1973),93-110; cf. Richard Bulliet, The Camel and the Wheel (Cambridge: Harvard Uni­ versi ty Press, 1977).

13. Wa tson, Records, I1, 155.

14. David Aberle, The Kinship System of the Kalmuk Mongols (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1953), p. 9.

15. Bertold Spuler, ed., History of the Mongols: Based on Eastern and Western Ac­ counts of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), pp. 8D-81.

16. Charles Lindholm, "Kinship Structure and Political Authority: The Middle East and Central Asia," Journal of Comparative History and Society, 28 (1986), 334-55.

17. Francis Cleaves, trans., The Secret History of the Mongols (Cambridge: Har­ Yard University Press, 1982), p. 16, note 48.

18. Lawrence Krader, Social Organization of the Mongol- Turkic Pastoral Nomads (The Hague: Mouton, 1963).

19. Thomas Barfield, "The HSiung-nu Imperial Confederacy: Organization and Foreign Policy," Journal of Asian Studies, 41 (1981),45-61.

20. Watson, Records, Il, p. 172.

21. Ying-shih Yu, Trade and Expansion in Han China: A Study in the Structure of Sino-Barbarian Economic Relations (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), pp. 41-42.

22. Watson, Records, I1, p. 168.

23. Watson, Records, 11, p. 176.

24. M,A.N. Loewe, "The Campaigns of Han Wu-ti," in Chinese Ways in War­ fare, eds. Frank Kierman and John Fairbank (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974).

25. Watson, Records, I1, p. 186.

2'· '1(; . Ifj 'Pp. G(. G