Theme 3. The development of livestock

Currently, most experts believe that cattle breeding appeared at one time or a little later than agriculture. Having surplus food, farmers had the opportunity to feed the young killed in the hunt of animals - thus, there was a gradual domestication. In the IX-VIII millennia BC. er in the Middle East, goats and sheep were domesticated, and a little later, cattle. Settling on new territories, the agricultural tribes brought with them the skills of an integrated agricultural and pastoral economy; in IV-III BC. er agricultural settlements spread to the vast expanses of the northern Black Sea region and the Caspian Sea. In these steppe expanses lived wild horses, Tarpans, which were soon tamed by the population of these places.

In the Caspian Sea and present-day Kazakhstan, only a few lands were available for cultivation with a hoe, and the farmers settled on fertile land in the floodplains of few rivers. However, the surrounding steppe was abundant pastures, where large herds of cattle grazed - so that cattle breeding clearly prevailed in the economy of the local population. On one square kilometer, a feathery grass grassland could feed 6-7 horses or bulls, and to feed one family of 5 people required a herd of about 25 heads of cattle, therefore, the density of the cattle-breeding population in the steppe could reach 1.3 people / km2.

Thus, the density of the pastoral population only slightly exceeds the maximum density for hunters and gatherers; it is 5-10 times less than that of the hoe farmers and is hundreds of times less than those who use irrigation. The ecological niche of herders is very narrow and overpopulation occurs rather quickly. Trying to introduce remote pastures into economic circulation, the inhabitants of the steppes gradually switched to egg-raising cattle breeding, in which the main population remained in the village, and the herders together with the herds went all summer to long pastures. The next step in this direction was nomadic cattle breeding; Steppe inhabitants began to wander along with their flocks.

The impetus for these rapid and fundamental changes that occurred in the VIII century BC. e., there was a new fundamental discovery - the creation of strict fishing. The development of riders followed the creation of strict fishing: horsemanship was no longer the art of a few horsemen - it became accessible to all, and all men mounted their horses. The nomads of Central Asia usually wintered in the areas south of Syr Darya, and in the summer they overtook their herds for one and a half to two thousand kilometers to rich pastures of northern Kazakhstan (due to the harsh climate, these pastures could not be used in winter). Nomadism helped to master the northern steppes and mountain meadows, but it required a change of lifestyle. Nomads refused to plant food, they ate mainly milk and dairy products. The most important inventions of the nomads, without which life in the steppes was impossible, were cheese and felt.

With the transition to nomadic cattle breeding, the whole appearance of the steppes changed dramatically. Numerous villages have disappeared, life has now passed in carts, in constant movement of people along with herds from one pasture to another. The women and children rode in the tent carts mounted on the wheels - but there were tribes where women also mounted horses; The Greek historian Herodotus reports that women have “with their husbands and even without them on horseback go hunting, come out on a campaign, and wear the same clothes with men”. Archeologists testify that the bridle, the symbol of the horseman, was often put into the graves of women - just like the graves of men. The way of life on horseback made many antique historians wonder.

“They seemed to have rooted to their horses ...” wrote the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus about the Huns, “and often sitting on them ... do their usual activities. They spend the day and night on horseback, buy and sell, eat and drink, and, bending over the steep neck of the horse, fall asleep ... When you have to confer about serious matters, they also hold meetings, sitting on horses. ”

Nomadism allowed the development of new pastures, but the population density in the steppe remained low. The ecological niche of herders was very narrow, and hunger was a constant phenomenon. Chinese chronicles are full of reports of hunger among the nomads.

"In the same year, there was a famine in the Sünnu lands, 6-7 people died from every ten population, 6-7 heads fell out of every ten livestock ... Cünnu suffered from drought and locusts for several years, the land lay naked for several thousand li , people and cattle were starving and sick, most of them died or fell ... There was hunger, instead of bread, powdered bones were used, rampant diseases were raging, from which a great many people died ... ”

Arab writers report frequent famine among the Tatars; There are reports that during the years of famine, nomads ate carrion, sold their children into slavery. The lack of livelihood spawned the custom of the sacrifice of the old to the Massagets; in some tribes it was decided to kill widows; infants were killed and buried along with their deceased mother. Under the conditions of a half-starved existence, Bedouins of Arabia often killed newborn girls. According to reports, the average life expectancy of nomads was 36-38 years.

The way of life of nomads was determined not only by the limited resources of the nomadic economy, but also by its instability. The ecological conditions of the steppes were changeable, favorable years were replaced by droughts and jutes. In the Central Asian steppes, jute occurred once in 7-11 years; snowstorm or icy snow led to a massive loss of livestock; in another year, more than half the livestock died. The death of livestock meant terrible hunger; the nomads had no choice but to die or go on a raid. “We have constant wars,” said the Scythian Toxaris of the Roman writer Lucian, “we either attack others ourselves, or withstand attacks, or fight for pastures ...”. “These tribes ... all people without distinction are warriors,” Ammianus Marcellinus spoke of Arabs.

The eternal and universal struggle in the steppe was called by the Kazakhs “barymta”. “Kazakh tribes and clans were constantly at enmity between themselves,” wrote the historian S. E. Tolybekov. - Each nomadic village, having heard about the approach of the enemy, immediately collected its property and, hastily loading it on camels, started running away. If the threat was great, they even threw a yurt and a flock of sheep, fled, in what they were, hijacking their horses and camels. ”

The nomads were tempered in the struggle with the elements and in constant clashes with each other. In each race there was a rider who was distinguished by courage and physical strength; constantly manifesting himself in battles, he gradually became a “batyr”, “bogatyr”. Batyrs led the birth in battles, they were the main characters of the Kazakh epic.

“Young and strong are respected,” says the Chinese historian about the Huns, “the old and the weak are honored little ... the strong eat the fat and the best, the old feed on them ... Whoever in battle will chop off the enemy’s head will receive a cup of wine as a reward” . Herodot writes the same about the Scythian customs: “When a Scythian kills the first enemy, he drinks his blood. The warrior brings the heads of all those killed in battle to the king. After all, only those who brought the head of the enemy receive a share of loot, otherwise they don’t ... The skin from the head is torn off ... The Scythian warrior uses the made leather as a hand towel, ties it to the bridle of his horse and proudly flaunts it. Who has more of these leather towels, he is considered the most valiant husband. ” “The happy ones are those who die in battle,” says Ammianus Marcellinus about Alans, “and those who live to old age, and die a natural death, are persecuted by their cruel mockery, like geeks and cowards. They are not as proud of anything as the murder of a man, and in the form of a glorious trophy they hang on their horses the skin of the slain, torn from the skull. ”

The cult of war was manifested in the worship of the sword, Herodot announced the worship of the sword by the Scythians, Ammianus Marcellinus - among the Alans.

In the endless battles, only the strongest and bravest survived - thus, the nomads were subjected to natural selection, which consolidated such qualities as physical strength, endurance, and aggressiveness. Ancient and medieval authors have repeatedly noted the physical superiority of nomads over the inhabitants of cities and villages. “Kipchaks are strong, strong, healthy people,” writes Ibn Batuta. “They are so hardened that they need neither fire nor food adapted to a person’s taste; they feed on grass roots and half-baked meat of every kind of cattle, ”says Ammianus Marcellinus about the Huns. “They skillfully shoot a bow from a horse, by nature they are fierce, ruthless ...” writes a Chinese historian about the Turks. In both China and the Muslim states, the inhabitants of the steppes were considered the best warriors, and from them selected military units were recruited.

Natural selection for strength, agility, endurance was complemented by the education of military qualities, starting from early childhood. “The boy, as soon as he can sit astride a ram, shoots birds and small animals from the bow and eats them,” says the Chinese historian about bringing up the Huns. The Mongols and Kazakhs, 12-13-year-old young men, along with their fathers, went on raids. Women also took part in the raids; among the savromats, “the girl does not marry until she kills the enemy,” testifies Herodotus. According to archaeologists, a fifth of the Sarmatian graves with weapons keep the remains of women.

Wars between nomadic tribes often led to the unification of the Great Steppe and the creation of nomadic empires. The united state put an end to intertribal wars, but did not reduce the demographic pressure in the steppes. Earlier in the years of jute, nomads went on a raid on a neighboring tribe, and the population decreased due to military losses, now the only way to save from starvation was to unite the steppe forces and invade agricultural countries. Thus, the union of nomads generated a wave of invasions.

The invasion acquired a particularly formidable character when new weapons fell into the hands of nomads. The first nomad created by the New Arms was a light fighting chariot drawn by a pair of horses, followed by the mastery of archery, then a heavy bow, saddle and stirrup were invented, which allowed the use of a sword. All these fundamental discoveries upset the military balance between nomads and farmers - and a wave of invasions of invincible and cruel conquerors fell upon agricultural civilizations.

The conquest led to the creation of estate societies, in which the bulk of the population, the descendants of the defeated farmers, was exploited by the descendants of the conquerors. In the new society, nomads made up the military "knightly" estate, they divided the conquered country into "feuds", erected castles and enslaved the peasants. Since in the epoch before the creation of artillery, invasions of nomads occurred regularly at intervals of one to two or three centuries, most of the societies of that time were “feudal”.

It is also necessary to say a few words about the environmental aspect of the life of a nomadic society. Permanent wars in the steppe made nomads congenital warriors-cavalrymen, strong, courageous, hardy and aggressive - in their physical and psychological characteristics, in their way of life, the nomads were unlike peasants-farmers. These differences were the result of dwelling in another ecological niche, the consequence of adaptation to other environmental conditions. According to the laws of biology, dwelling in another ecological niche leads to the formation of species differences, thus it can be assumed that the process of the emergence of nomadism was also the beginning of the identification of a new type of people (just as farmers were a new species in relation to hunters). Thus, we can observe how a fundamental technical discovery - the invention of the harsh udils - led to such dramatic changes in people's lives that we can speak about the formation of a new species (or subspecies) of Homo sapiens.