Lecture 12 min.
Today most specialists believe that cattle breeding emerged at the same time as agriculture, or slightly later. Having a surplus of food, farmers gained the ability to raise the young of animals killed during the hunt - this is how gradual domestication took place. In the 9th-8th millennia BC, goats and sheep were domesticated in the Near East, and somewhat later, cattle. As they spread into new territories, farming tribes brought with them the skills of a combined farming-and-herding economy; in the 4th-3rd millennia BC farming settlements spread across the vast expanses of the northern Black Sea region and the Caspian region. Wild horses, tarpans, lived across these steppe expanses, and they were soon tamed by the local population.
In the Caspian region and present-day Kazakhstan, only a few lands were suitable for hoe cultivation, and farmers settled on fertile plots in the floodplains of the few rivers available. The surrounding steppes, however, were abundant pastureland where large herds of livestock grazed - so that livestock breeding clearly predominated in the economy of the local population. One square kilometer of feather-grass-and-forb steppe could feed 6-7 horses or oxen, and feeding one family of five required a herd of roughly 25 head of cattle; consequently, the density of the pastoral population on the steppe could reach 1.3 people per km².
Thus the density of the pastoral population only slightly exceeded the maximum density achievable by hunter-gatherers; it was 5-10 times lower than among hoe farmers and hundreds of times lower than among farmers who used irrigation. The ecological niche of pastoralists is very narrow, and overpopulation sets in fairly quickly. In an attempt to bring remote pastures into economic use, the inhabitants of the steppes gradually shifted to yaylag, or transhumant, pastoralism, in which most of the population remained in the settlement while herders took the livestock to distant pastures for the whole summer. The next step in this direction was nomadic pastoralism: the inhabitants of the steppes began migrating together with their herds.
The impetus for these rapid and fundamental changes, which took place in the 8th century BC, was a new, fundamental discovery - the creation of the rigid bit. The creation of the rigid bit was followed by the mastery of horsemanship: riding ceased to be the art of a few skilled horsemen and became accessible to everyone, and all men took to the saddle. The nomads of Central Asia typically wintered in areas south of the Syr Darya, and in summer drove their herds one and a half to two thousand kilometers to the rich pastures of northern Kazakhstan (because of the harsh climate, these pastures could not be used in winter). Nomadism made it possible to settle the northern steppes and mountain meadows, but it required a change in way of life. The nomads gave up plant foods, living mainly on milk and dairy products. The most important inventions of the nomads, without which life on the steppe would have been impossible, were cheese and felt.
With the shift to nomadic pastoralism, the entire character of the steppes changed dramatically. The numerous settlements disappeared, and life now unfolded in wagons, in the constant movement of people together with their herds from one pasture to another. Women and children rode in tent-covered carts mounted on wheels - though there were tribes where women, too, took to horseback; the Greek historian Herodotus relates that among the Sauromatians women "ride out to hunt on horseback together with their husbands, and even without them, go on campaigns, and wear the same clothing as men." Archaeologists attest that a bridle, the symbol of a rider, was often placed in the graves of women, just as in the graves of men. This way of life on horseback never failed to astonish ancient historians.
"They seem to have grown fused to their horses… - wrote the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus about the Huns, - and often, while sitting on them… they carry on their everyday business. They spend day and night on horseback, buy and sell, eat and drink, and, leaning against the steep neck of the horse, fall asleep... When they need to deliberate on serious matters, they hold their councils sitting on horseback."
Nomadism made it possible to open up new pastures, but the population density of the steppe remained low. The ecological niche of pastoralists was very narrow, and hunger was a constant occurrence. Chinese chronicles are full of reports of famine among the nomads.
"That same year there was a famine in the lands of the Xiongnu; of every ten people six or seven died, and of every ten head of livestock six or seven perished… The Xiongnu suffered from drought and locusts for several years, the land lay bare for several thousand li, people and livestock went hungry and fell ill, and most of them died or perished… There was a famine; instead of bread people ate bones ground into powder, epidemics raged, and a great many people died of them…"
Arab writers report frequent famine among the Tatars; there are accounts that in years of famine nomads ate carrion and sold their children into slavery. The scarcity of means of subsistence gave rise among the Massagetae to the custom of sacrificing the elderly; among some tribes it was customary to put widows to death, and infants were killed and buried together with their deceased mother. Living in conditions of semi-starvation, the Bedouin of Arabia often killed newborn girls. According to available data, the average life expectancy of nomads was 36-38 years.
The nomads' way of life was shaped not only by the limited resources of the nomadic economy but also by its instability. The ecological conditions of the steppe were changeable, and favorable years alternated with droughts and juts. In the steppes of Central Asia a jut occurred roughly once every 7-11 years; a snowstorm or an ice crust would cause mass die-offs of livestock, and in some years more than half of the herds perished. The loss of livestock meant terrible famine; nomads had no choice but to die or go raiding. "We wage constant wars," says the Scythian Toxaris in the work of the Roman writer Lucian, "we either attack others ourselves, or withstand attacks, or clash with each other over pastures…" "Among these tribes… all the people, without distinction, are warriors," Ammianus Marcellinus said of the Arabs.
The Kazakhs called this eternal, universal struggle on the steppe "barymta." "The Kazakh tribes and clans were in constant conflict with one another," wrote the historian S. Ye. Tolybekov. "Every nomadic aul, upon hearing of an approaching enemy, would immediately gather its belongings and, hastily loading them onto camels, take flight. If the danger was great, people would abandon even their yurt and their flock of sheep, and flee just as they were, driving off their horses and camels."
The nomads were toughened by their struggle against the elements and by constant clashes with one another. Every clan had a horseman distinguished by courage and physical strength; by repeatedly proving himself in battle, he gradually became a "batyr," a hero. Batyrs led their clans in battle and were the central heroes of Kazakh epic poetry.
"The young and strong are respected," says a Chinese historian about the Huns, "the old and weak are little honored… The strong eat the fat and the best food, the old eat after them… Whoever cuts off an enemy's head in battle receives as a reward a cup of wine and everything taken as booty." Herodotus writes the same about the customs of the Scythians: "When a Scythian kills his first enemy, he drinks his blood. A warrior brings the heads of all those he has killed in battle to the king, for only the one who brings the head of an enemy receives a share of the booty - otherwise he gets none… The skin is flayed from the head… The Scythian warrior uses the tanned skin as a hand towel, ties it to his horse's bridle, and proudly shows it off. Whoever has the most such leather towels is considered the most valiant man." "Those among them are considered fortunate who die in battle," says Ammianus Marcellinus of the Alans, "while those who live to old age and die a natural death are pursued with cruel mockery, as degenerates and cowards. There is nothing they take greater pride in than killing a man, and as a glorious trophy they hang on their horses the skin flayed from the skulls of those they have slain."
The cult of war found expression in the worship of the sword; Herodotus reports the worship of the sword among the Scythians, and Ammianus Marcellinus among the Alans.
In endless battles, only the strongest and boldest survived - thus the nomads underwent a process of natural selection that reinforced qualities such as physical strength, endurance, and aggressiveness. Ancient and medieval authors repeatedly noted the physical superiority of nomads over the inhabitants of towns and villages. "The Kipchaks are a sturdy, strong, healthy people," writes Ibn Battuta. "They are so hardened that they need neither fire nor food suited to human taste; they live on the roots of grasses and the half-raw meat of any livestock," says Ammianus Marcellinus of the Huns. "They shoot skillfully with a bow from horseback, and are by nature fierce and merciless…" writes a Chinese historian of the Turks. Both in China and in the Muslim states, the inhabitants of the steppe were considered the finest warriors, and elite military units were recruited from among them.
Natural selection for strength, agility, and endurance was reinforced by the cultivation of martial qualities from early childhood. "As soon as a boy can sit astride a ram, he shoots birds and small animals with a bow and eats them," says a Chinese historian about the upbringing of Hun children. Among the Mongols and Kazakhs, boys of 12-13 went on raids together with their fathers. Women, too, took part in raids; among the Sauromatians, "a girl does not marry until she has killed an enemy," Herodotus attests. According to archaeologists, a fifth of Sarmatian graves containing weapons hold the remains of women.
Wars between nomadic tribes often led to the unification of the Great Steppe and the creation of nomadic empires. A unified state put an end to inter-tribal wars, but it did not reduce the demographic pressure on the steppe. Whereas previously, in years of jut, nomads had raided a neighboring tribe and the population declined through losses in war, now the only way to escape famine was to unite the forces of the steppe and invade the farming countries. Thus the unification of the nomads gave rise to waves of invasion.
An invasion became especially formidable when new weapons fell into the hands of the nomads. The first New Weapon created by the nomads was the light war chariot drawn by a pair of horses; this was followed by the mastery of mounted archery, and then by the invention of the heavy bow, and the saddle and stirrup, which made it possible to use the saber. Each of these fundamental innovations upset the military balance between nomads and farmers - and waves of invasion by invincible, ruthless conquerors broke over the agricultural civilizations.
Conquest led to the formation of caste-like societies in which the bulk of the population, descendants of the defeated farmers, was exploited by the descendants of the conquerors. In the new society, the nomads formed a military "knightly" estate; they divided the conquered country into "fiefs," built castles, and enslaved the peasants. Since, in the era before the invention of artillery, nomad invasions occurred regularly at intervals of one, two, or three centuries, most societies of that time were "feudal."
A few words should also be said about the ecological aspect of nomadic society's life. Constant warfare on the steppe made nomads born cavalry warriors - strong, fearless, hardy, and aggressive; in their physical and psychological traits and in their way of life, nomads were unlike peasant farmers. These differences were a consequence of living in a different ecological niche, a consequence of adaptation to different ecological conditions. By the laws of biology, occupying a different ecological niche leads to the formation of differences between species; thus one may suppose that the process by which nomadism took shape also marked the emergence of a new species of human being (just as farmers were a new species relative to hunters). Thus we can observe how a fundamental technical discovery - the invention of the rigid bit - led to changes in people's lives so drastic that one can speak of the formation of a new species (or subspecies) of Homo sapiens.
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