RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES CENTER FOR CIVILIZATIONAL AND REGIONAL STUDIES NOMADIC PATHWAYS IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION Moscow 2003 The “CIVILIZATIONAL DIMENSION” Series Volume 5 Editorial Board of the Series: IGOR V. SLEDZEVSKI (Editor-in-Chief) DMITRI M. BONDARENKO, NATALIA A. KSENOFONTOVA, ALEXEI M. VASSILIEV Editors of the Volume: NIKOLAY N. KRADIN DMITRI M. BONDARENKO THOMAS J. BARFIELD The book is written by anthropologists, historians, and archaeologists specializing in nomadic studies. All the chapters presented here discuss various aspects of one significant problem: how could small nomadic peoples at the outskirts of agricultural civilizations subjugate vast territories between the Mediterranean and the Pacific? What was the impetus that set in motion the overwhelming forces of the nomads which made tremble the royal courts of Europe and Asia? Was it an outcome of any predictable historical process or a result of a chain of random events? A wide sample of nomadic peoples is discussed, mainly on the basis of new data. ISBN 5-201-04908-7 © Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2003 © Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2003 © The authors, 2003 Научное издание Nomadic Pathways in Social Evolution Утверждено к печати Институтом Африки РАН Зав. РИО Н.А. Ксенофонтова Компьютерная верстка Макет-дизайн И.Л. № 040962 от 26.04.99 Подписано к печати Объем 12 п.л. Тираж 250 экз. Заказ № Отпечатано в ПМЛ Института Африки РАН 103001, ул. Спиридоновка, 30/1 The “Civilizational Dimension” Series Vol. 1. D.M. Bondarenko, A.V. Korotayev (eds.). Civilizational Models of Politogenesis (in English, 2000; in Russian, 2002). Vol. 2. D.M. Bondarenko. Pre-imperial Benin: Formation and Evolution of the Socio-political Institutions System (in Russian, 2001). Vol. 3. A.A. Kazankov. Aggression in Archaic Societies (in Russian, 2001). Vol. 4. D.D. Beliaev, D.M. Bondarenko, S.A. Frantsouzoff (eds.). Second International Conference “Hierarchy and Power in the History of Civilizations”. Book of Abstracts (in English, 2002). Vol. 5. N.N. Kradin, D.M. Bondarenko (eds.). Nomadic Pathways in Social Evolution (in Russian, 2002; in English, see this volume). Vol. 6. L.A. Andreeva. “Vicarius Christi” on the Throne: The Christian Model of Power Sacralization in Russian History (in Russian, 2002). Vol. 7. A.V. Korotayev. The Origin of Islam: The Politico-anthropological and Socio-ecological Contexts (in Russian, 2003). Vol. 8. D.D. Beliaev Ancient Maya: A Civilizational Model of Politogenesis (in Russian, 2003). FOR NOTES CONTENTS Preface iv 1 Introduction: Social Evolution, Alternatives, and Nomadism. Dmitri M. Bondarenko, Andrey V. Korotayev 1 and Nikolay N. Kradin 2 Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in Historical Retrospective. Anatoly Khazanov 25 3 Typology of Pre-States and Statehood Systems of Nomads. Sergey A. Vasjutin 50 4 Cultural Capital, Livestock Raiding, and the Military Advantage of Traditional Pastoralists. William Irons 63 5 Nomadic Empires: Origins, Rise, Decline. Nikolay N. Kradin 73 6 Peculiarities of Social Development of the Sarmato- Alans and Their Image in the Evidence of Other Cultures. Sergey A. Yatsenko 88 7 The Development of Hierarchical Structures in the Bronze and Early Iron Age Societies of the South of Eastern Europe. Allexander P. Medvedev 100 8 Penetration of Nomads to the Arabian South and Formation of Tribal Oranization Among the North-East Yemen Agricultural Population. Andrey V. Korotayev 114 9 Modes of Politogenesis among the Tswana of South Africa. Alexander A. Kazankov 123 10 Power among Mongol Nomads of Chinggis Khan’s Epoch. Tatyana D. Skrynnikova 135 11 Political Culture of the Turkic-Mongolian Nomads in Historical and Ethnological Perspective. Sergey V. Dmitriev 148 12 The Chinggisids and Their Status in Central Asia and East Europe. Dmitri Yu. Arapov 158 13 Government of the Turkistan Region Native Population in the Russian Empire. Dmitri V. Vassiliev 165 14 Conclusion. Thomas J. Barfield 172 List of Contributors 180 iii PREFACE In the year 2000 an important international conference "Hierarchy and Power in the History of Civilizations" was held in Moscow. The Conference brought together many scholars from different countries1. A great variety of problems ranging from sociobiological preconditions for the relations of dominance to power mechanisms in the post-Soviet states was discussed. Among the Conference panels there was one titled "Hierarchy and Power in Nomadic Societies" (convened by Prof. Nikolay Kradin). Over twenty scholars from France, Russia, Ukraine, and the USA participated in its work. It is well known that the majority of the nomadology theoretical issues including those of the nomadic sociopolitical organization, have not got final solutions up to now. At present there are many theories which interpret characteristic features of nomadic pastoralists differently. Could nomads overcome the threshold of statehood independently and if yes, how such societies should be defined? Why the economic basis of nomadism has changed so slightly in millennia while the political organization is changing constantly from acephalous tribes and chiefdoms to "nomadic empires"? What do nomadic sociopolitical institutions have and do not have in common with such notions typical for sedentary agricultural societies as the state, class, property, feudalism? All these questions were raised once and again during the Conference. The approaches demonstrated in the papers and subsequent discussions turned out so interesting and important that it was decided to publish the panel’s Proceedings as a separate volume in two languages, Russian and English. It was also decided to broaden the list of contributors by inviting several top specialists in the subject. Unfortunately, not all of them were able to accept the invitation. Besides, there are some differences between the Russian and English versions of the volume. The contributors were requested to concentrate on the following topics: (1) Theories of historical process and nomadism; (2) The typology of Eurasian complex nomadic societies (tribal unions, chiefdoms, empires, etc.); (3) The structure of power and authority in nomadic societies; (4) Types and models of leadership in nomadic societies; (5) Egalitarism and inequality in nomadic societies; (6) Relations between nomads and agriculturalists. Let the reader judge what has resulted of all this. 1 See the Conference report in Anthropology Today 2000, Vol. 16, No 6, p.23-24. iv We hope that this work will find a reflection in colleagues’ publications. We also believe that it will promote further discussions of significant problems of nomadology, a study of the nomadism’s place in the world historical process and of evolutionary processes in different social and natural environment milieu. Just this is the theoretical context of our volume. Thomas Barfield Dmitri Bondarenko Nikolay Kradin v 1 INTRODUCTION: SOCIAL EVOLUTION, ALTERNATIVES, AND NOMADISM Dmitri M. Bondarenko, Andrey V. Korotayev, and Nikolay N. Kradin In the modern social sciences and history, there are four groups of theories which variously explain basic principles of origin, further change and, sometimes, collapse of the complex human systems. The first of them are various unilinear theories of development or evolution (Marxism, neoevolutionism, modernization theories etc.). They show how the humanity has evolved from local groups of primitive hunters-gatherings to the modern post-industrial world society. The second ones are theories of civilizations. The proponents of these theories argue that there is no unified world history. Rather there are separate clusters of cultural activity that constitute different civilizations. The civilizations, like living organisms, are born, live and die (Spengler 1918; Toynbee 1934). The world-systems perspective and multilinear theories of social evolution are intermediate between these poles. The world-system approach (Wallerstein 1974; Chase-Dunn and Hall 1997; Sanderson 1999), like unilinear theories of development distinguish three models of society: mini- systems, world-empires and world-economies. But they are considered in space rather than in time. This makes the conceptualization of history more complete. The modern multilinear theories (Bondarenko and Korotayev 2000; Korotayev, Kradin, de Munk, Lynsha 2000) suppose that there are several possible paths of socio-political transformation. Some of these can lead to complexity, e.g. from a chiefdom to a true state; while others suppose the existence of the supercomplex community without a bureaucracy (e.g. 1 Greek poleis); while a third group preserves the tribal system under particular ecological conditions. In fact, the point here is that different dimensions of world history unfold on several planes at one time. Every dimension reflects corresponding parameters of the social systems’ activities on its co-ordinate net. However, none of the enumerated paradigms completely reflects the studied phenomenon’s specificity. The principal of complementarity once formulated by the Physicist Nils Bohr presupposes that these theories can explain a natural phenomenon only in the aggregate. It is very important to note at this point that even opposite theories may not exclude each other but rather reflect important structural parameters of the studied object. This book mainly deals with the multilinear evolutionist interpretation of the historical process. In the majority of chapters the world of nomads is