Page 181 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

1000 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

include some of the first evidence for the riding of dynasty historian Sima Qian (c. 145–86 BCE). Even the
horses. These were still relatively sedentary cultures. most sympathetic Outer Eurasian historians portrayed
However, in the third millennium BCE, pastoralism of Inner Eurasia as a sort of black hole out of which pas-
some form spread throughout much of southern Russia toralists rode to rape and pillage the villages and cities of
and Ukraine and into parts of modern Kazakhstan. Evi- the “civilized” world. Not surprisingly, Inner Eurasian
dence from steppe burial mounds suggests that pastoral- pastoralists have traditionally been cast as “barbarians” in
ism was also becoming more nomadic, and this makes world historiography
ecological sense, for the most economical way to graze In part, this is because the mobility of pastoralism, the
large numbers of animals is to move them over large skills it teaches in the handling of large animals, and the
areas. By 2000 BCE, pastoralism of some form had spread ubiquity of raiding ensured that most pastoralist societies
towards the western borders of Mongolia. Nicola Di of Inner Eurasia have had a military influence out of pro-
Cosmo, a specialist on Inner Asia, writes,“A conservative portion to their sheer numbers.In a famous passage,Sima
interpretation would date a significant impact of horse- Qian wrote of the pastoralist Xiongnu to China’s north,
back riding on western and central Asia to between the
mid-third and early second millennium BCE” (2001, 26). The little boys start out by learning to ride sheep and shoot
In the first millennium BCE, pastoralism finally spread to birds and rats with a bow and arrow, and when they get a
Mongolia. It also appeared in new and more warlike little older they shoot foxes and hares, which are used for
food.Thus all the young men are able to use a bow and act
forms that may have depended on technological inno-
as armed cavalry in time of war. It is their custom to herd
vations such as the appearance of new and improved
their flocks in times of peace and make their living by hunt-
saddles and improved compound bows.
ing, but in periods of crisis they take up arms and go off
The dominant role of pastoralism in the steppes of
on plundering and marauding expeditions. (Watson 1961,
Inner Eurasia had a profound impact on the history of
2:155)
the entire region, and also on the way that the region’s
history has been perceived. Pastoralism cannot support The limited resources of pastoralist societies also en-
the large populations that agriculture can, and pastoral- sured that they were usually keen to engage in ex-
ists are normally nomadic or seminomadic, so pastoral- changes with neighboring communities of farmers, trad-
ism did not generate the areas of dense settlement char- ing livestock produce such as meat, skins, and cloths for
acteristic of so much of Outer Eurasia. For the most part, agricultural products and artisan goods including
this was a world without towns or cities. Instead of vil- weaponry. Evidence of such exchanges, some peaceful,
lages and cities, small, nomadic encampments dominated but some clearly violent, appears as early as the fourth
the steppes. Because cities and all the paraphernalia we millennium BCE on the edges of the Tripolye culture in
associate with cities and agrarian civilizations existed Ukraine, in the objects found within steppe burial
only in a few borderland regions of Inner Eurasia, the mounds and in the increasing use of fortifications by
history of the region was strikingly different from that of farming communities.
Outer Eurasia. For the historian, one of the most impor-
tant differences is that pastoralist societies generated few Inner Eurasia and
written records. Because historians rely heavily on such Cultural Exchange
records, they have tended to ignore societies that do not The mobility of pastoralists and their interest in ex-
produce them. Inner Eurasia has too often been seen changes ensured that goods, ideas, people, and influ-
through the eyes of the agrarian civilizations of Outer ences passed much more readily through the Inner
Eurasia, beginning with the works of the Greek historian Eurasian steppes than is commonly supposed. Pastoral-
Herodotus (c. 484–425 BCE) and the Chinese Han ists carried the technologies of pastoralism through the