Genesis of Nomadism. Lecture 1

1. Genesis of Nomadism

Lecture #1

2.

3. Eurasia in Antiquity

• The Stone Age – 2nd millennium BC-2nd thousand
BC (Southern Kazakhstan)
• Moistier culture
• The Neolithic Period
• The Bronze Age – 4th millennium BC-1st
millennium BC (Central, Northern and Eastern
Kazakhstan)
• The Andronov culture
• The Tasmolin culture

4. Tanbaly petroglyphes

5. Origins of nomadism I

• Eurasia’s ecological and geographical
settings at the beginning of the first
millennium BC
• “oasis-in-the steppe” (Owen Lattimore)
• Domestication of wild horses
• Invention of the stirrup and saddles
• Nomadic- sedentary interactions

6. Mongol Horse

7. Origins of Nomadism II

• The system of steppe wells
• The emergence of iron tools
• The use of animals as a means of
transportation
• The system of seasonal migrations
with livestock

8. Types of cattle breeding

• Sedentary
• Hunting
• Semi-nomadic
• Nomadic
• Travelnomadism

9. Social Organization

• Tribe and kinship
• Extended and basic kinship units of the
social organization of Kazakh
communities: juz, taipa, ru, ata balasy,
auyl
• Genealogies (shezhire) and its role in
the organization and operation of nomadic
communities

10. Human Civilization

• General Stages of Human Civilization:
• Agrarian (preindustrial), commercial
(industrial) and informational
(postindustrial)
• Traditional, industrial and postindustrial (Rene Genon)

11. Nomadic Civilization

• Breeding of enduring breeds of animals
• Putting up mobile herds
• System of seasonal migrations
• Metal smelting and the manufacture of
metal products
• Nomadic warfare
• Oral tradition

12. The Rise of Proto and Early Turks (3rd Century BC-2nd Century AD)

• The Saka (VIII-III BC, the early
Iron Age)
• The Massagets
• The Sarmatians
• The Hunnu (III-II BC)
• The Kangui (Kangles)
• The Wusun (Uisun)

13. The Ancient Turkic Era (6th-11th Centuries AD)

The Ancient Turkic Era
Centuries AD)
th
th
(6 -11
• The Eastern and Western Turkic Khagantes
• The Turgesh state
• The Karluk state
• The Oguz
• the Kimaks
• the Karakhanid state

14. Questions

1. Eurasia as a geographic, geopolitical, and cultural phenomenon
2. The “oasis-in-the-steppe paradigm” (Owen Lattimore)
3. Composition of nomadic herds and grazing animals
4. The ancient nomadic communities and their cultures
5. The proto-Turkic and early Turkish nomadic empires
6. A “Nomadic Civilization”?