NOMADS IN HISTORY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH

Author(s): ILDIKÓ ECSEDY

Source: Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae , 1981, Vol. 35, No. 2/3 (1981),
pp. 201-218, 219-227
Published by: Akadémiai Kiadó

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23682186

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Acta Orientalin Academiae Scientiarum Hung. Tomus XXXV (2 — 3), 201 — 227 (1981)

NOMADS IN HISTORY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH1

BY

ILDIKÔ ECSEDY

A comprehensive summary of the complété history of nomade cann

be attempted here, because it could or at least should be equal to an endeavo
to write the universal history as a whole. Instead, this paper tries to pré
a survey of the related difficulties, i.e. the problème of nomads in histo
to be met and solved in the course of historical research.2
The final evolvement of nomadic stockbreeding and its expansion of
historical significance came about in an early period — during the 2nd millen
nium B. C. — when no border-lines were or could have been marked out and
defended, and when no frontier limited the spread and gaining of pasturing
land by herds and their herdsmen, and no défendable wall-line or effective
military defense represented insurmountable difficulties to the raids of nomadic
troops. However, information concerning the way of life of pastoral peoples
has been richer and much more detailed in recent times: the source material
on them is widening — so to say — in direct ratio to the narrowing down of
their geographica! and historical sphere of activity. But in this recent period,
the appearance of political borders compelled the livestock-breeders' societies
to exist under living conditions so alien to their original way of life, that even
direct information about them, when reflecting their historical rôle and
character, may suffer inévitable distortions.

1The Hungarian variant of this paper was prepared for the Conference Nomad
tàrsadalmak es âllamalakidatok [Nomadic Societies and State Formations], Budapest —
Visegrâd, October 25 — 28, 1978 (see the summary review of the Conference in this same
fascicle of the Acta Orient. Hung. XXXV, 1981, pp. 393—396). It will be published in the
volume of the Conference (of the same title, in the sériés Kôrôsi Csoma Kiskônyvtàr,
Akadémiai Kiadô, Budapest, in press).
2 For mere practical reasons, no reference is made to my earlier papers on ancient
nomads recorded by Chinese sources, formerly published in this same periodical (cf. my
book Nomâdok es kereskedôk Kina hatârain [«Nomade and Merchants in China's Border
lands»], Kôrôsi Csoma Kiskônyvtàr 16, Akadémiai Kiadô, Budapest 1979); and my
summary paper On the economic and social structure of nomadic societies (in the volume
Primitive Society and the Asiatic Mode of Production, ed. by F. Tôkei, Corvina, Budapest,
in préparation)

Acta Orient. Hung. XXXV. 1981

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 202 I. ECSEDY

The fragmentary and

not be deciphered wit
i.e. the direct and sch
ethnographical—ethn
position in world hist
concerning their past,
in close connection wi
the culture concerned.
claim successful activ
archaeologist and anthr
to approach the problè
The frontier-lines of
science history, were
in accordance with th
sible — over or beyon
economy to maintain l
narrowing down of
duction, and this sho
down of fields, withi

The fate of nomadic

ity and possibility to
their historical spher
conquer new territori
human expansion. In
(but in a measure not
a political aspect: if t
nities, thus crossing b
empire-size positions
and their neighbourho
That is why the ent
«frontier history» by
who was of the view:

3 Similarly joint effort

related problème, see e.g.
Proceedings of the Intern
national sur le pastoralism
de L'Equipe écologie et a
Science de l'Homme, Paris 1979.
4 See his book, dexcribing that part of Chinese history connected with the steppe
nomads: Inner Asian Frontiers of China (Boston 1962. Beaeon Press). Or his paper The

Acta Orient. Hung. XXXV. 1981

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 NOM ADS IN HISTORY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH 203

the «pure» nomads, of an isolated economy and territory, can be mainly

among the impoverished liverstock-breeders of, say, the 20th Century, f
among the given political borders, and thus deprived of their origina
conditions. Therefore, a survey of historical problems of nomadic li
breeders, such as this paper, must concentrate — as concerns final pr
of this way of life at least — on the historical région without impén
geographical borders in the Eurasian steppes and their inhabitants
tinent-wide political importance, i.e. the mounted pastoral nomads,
over or starting from Inner Asia. (All the more so, since for the main and
lessons of nomadic history, the author of this paper is primarily ind
the sources of Inner Asian history.)5
Thus when judging the character and significance of the activity of
pastoral nomads who were able to get over their own boundaries — i.e. t
a role in the history of their area —, the task of research is complic
the fact that they played an active part in the history of the sphere
the related borders, and thus their presence and participation has to be t
into considération far beyond their occasional registration in chronicle h
Furthermore, their behaviour may be différent according to their p
within or beyond their frontier sphere.
The steppe nomads also play a role of historical importance in ré
and countries alien for them: in the cultural sphere of those cultivator s
which they had to attack if meeting opposition, in this way initiating re
contacts even with civilizations trying to avoid them, for political r
e.g. with China. If only for these rudimentary connections — which by th

Frontier in History (1955): Studies in Frontier History, Gollected Papers 192

Le Monde d'Outre-mer. Passé et présent, Troisième Série. Essais IV. Mouton et Co. P
La Haye 1962 (pp. 469 — 491), p. 471: «... frontiers are of social, not géographie o
On the vulnerability of nomade if their original economic and social conditions
modified, and the lesson «at the core of all steppe-nomadic history: it is the poo
who is the pure nomad»: The geographica! factor in Mongol history (Gollected Pap
241 — 250; this form of the quotation: p. 257; the above form: p. 258). This «poo
form is, however, so distant from the earlier prospects of the nomads, that he ex
from the characteristics of historical nomadism, as confirmed in his recent paper
men, farmers, Urban culture (a paper submitted to the Conference cited in the abo
pp. 479 — 490), introducing the French summary, p. 479: «Ni l'histoire ni l'archéo
nous donnent la preuve qu'une société nomad «pure» ait jamais existé.» The cultiv
land does not seem to have been older than the domestication of animais — he says —
and nomadic livestock-breeding developed through specialization, in close contact or
mixed with hunting and gathering.
e Other papers of the 1978 Conference dealt with the problème of other types of
nomadism; among them the two nomadic cultures of lower historical prospects than that
of the Inner Asian nomads, namely that of the Near East and Africa respectively. On the
former one see the paper by R. Simon in this same fascicle (pp. 229 — 242), and on the
latter that of Cs. Ecsedy (pp. 365 — 372).

Acta Orient. Eung. XXXV. 1981

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204 I. ECSEDY

sometimes prove to be
table to gain a thoroug
side», in order to she
nomads. The coherent n
historical processes t
horizon, bringing abou
need further argume
beginnings.
The appearance of p
cultural neighbours a
walls of their Settlem
and hostile angle, some
merely the harmful a
férences — striking in
pects. For a cultivato
simply «robbers»; wh
more distant, «peacef
pastoral communities
sources as well; these
sphere of nomadic hi
preting their conten
In addition, the recor
contain — or at least
important data either
representing further p
philological interprét
However, the eventu
about or from a noma
rôle of the nomads in
more frequently in th
preted and connected
in oral and written w
to the historical proces
economic or diplomat
In a paradox, so to sa
place in historiograph
politology — whose r
nized efforts of philo
needed in order to ens
of world history. Thu
conclusions drawn fr
minutious jigsaw-puz

Acta Orient. Eung. XXXV. 1981

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 NOMADS IX HISTORY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH 205

fragments of the mosaic of the past time. The frontière of the separate discip
lines, however, no matter how they provide protection — against major errors
for instance —, also mean limitations, especially for the up-to-date research
of universal history, urged bv a limited life-time of human beings, too. There is,
therefore, a need of science-historical importance to find a forum from time
to time where représentatives of the différent branches of sciences can trans
gress the due disciplinary boundaries for a peaceful confrontation, according
to the character of the topic, e.g. the history of nomads, not unaware, but
stepping over frontière of various types.
The nomad conquerors who obtained huge territories without taking
them completely in possession — by tilling the lands gained, by organizing
the countries won —, when living without respect to frontiers, also missed
the protection of those frontiers. Their primary defencelessness — both against
the forces of nature and the geographical or historical neighbours — must
have been in direct relation to their agressivity, but apparently in much more
complicated ways and forms than believed by the chroniclers of the early
records and even by a few scholars of recent times. The connection of practical
need with violence is to be explained at least not upon this order of sequence
considered as fatal; a mere poverty or weakness cannot be regarded as the
main reasons for nomadic martiality, especially not in times of victorious
wars and prosperity. Since the lack of limitations — meaning a lack of pro
tection — also makes it possible to develop a kind of mobility, and this could
partly serve as an explanation for the successful actions of nomads. Nomadic
societies even utilized a constant need of opposition, at least by strengthening
their social cohérence, provoked by the hostility of their natural and historical
environment. Historians of the attacked agricultural societies were hardly
able to recognize the double face or multifarious conséquences of collisions with
nomads, contributing to the dynamics of historical events and processes;
thus even the interprétation of their related records require a dialectic ap
proach, inevitably necessary to understand just the most characteristic indi
cations and phenomena of the nomads' rôle in history.
Depending on the geographic-ecological preconditions of their economy,
the pastoral nomads were directly exposed to the vicissitudes of their natural
environment. As a conséquence, the füll development of nomadism, of the
rider-nomad, stockbreeder way of life came about and became prédominant
only on the Eurasian steppe région, where ail the necessary meteorological,
botanical, etc., preconditions were provided, i.e. moderate climate and large
pasture lands, with the horse for crossing and conquering them. The area of
the steppe, however, is not at all so closely and exclusively connected with
a mounted conqueror and his stockbreeder way of life as a cultivated land with
its tillers and their culture. The living place (territory) of nomads is changed
according to the changing or just varying ecological or historical preconditions,
Acta Orient. Hung. XXXV. 1981

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 206 I. ECSEDY

and their way of life i

In this way the mult
emberrassing for resea
for criteria to distingu
ing the validity of o
différent territories,
taxes on rieh lands, o
robbers of the Near-E
under rudimentary co
The term nomad ma
area, period or source m
of nomadism in its c
with apparent local di
merian, Scythian or S
and their descendants
can be found among
especially in recent tim
reduced circumstances.
studies as well as by t
be overcome or just e
poses, only through a
as a whole from other
The historical differe
in the research of nom
environment, doser an
ists;6 it is the relativel
variety of adjustment
«diverseness» of noma
taken into considérat
différences or local var
land of similar size or
the same type of nom
capacity of adaptation

•The economy and soci

productive interrelations
development from point
— partly as a dispute wit
A. Rôna-Tas (see his pape
way of life] in the volum
motives and main types
factorsmaintaining and
on it.

Acta Orient. Hung. XXXV. 1981

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 NOMADS IN HISTORY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH 207

cesses of adaptation, however, were not without risk; especially in

a Community had to adapt its life to reduced conditions for a
of time, at least the reserves and abilities, needed for further
be wasted. Among these nomads, forced to live under poorer
conditions, wandering in the geographical and economical péri
land of their ancestors, in areas of desert, etc., among the d
appearance of primitive or apparently re-primitivized nomad
only good sources and well-informed research can find the reason
of évaluation and points of orientation.
The image of the Eurasian steppe région, i.e. the homelan
nomads cannot be considered homogeneous either. Neither a
geographical and ecological factors that also have a history of
research of which — as well known — has just begun; nor from t
of the human, i.e. political aspect of the région concerned, forme
factors of human history.
Within the classical sphere of the history of stockbreeder
the forms of peoples' movements that had once played a rôle i
again appear from time to time, promoting or withdrawing the c
of différent ways of life, through their confrontation or even
historical scale of mobility begins from paleolithic-type migra
on the ecological périphéries or in emergency cases, i.e., whe
conditions are endangered. In normal période a regulär movem
teristic of the herds and herdsmen, between their place of rés
pasture land (and hunting place, etc.), while the most spectacu
the steppe are — in the eyes of the historians at least — the rare
actions of the rider-nomads, organized for attack and defence;
from one place and arrive as conquerors at the other one, stoppin
protecting or awe-inspiring walls that offered assurance of life in
a fixed place in a cultivators' society. The latter type of extraordi
movements, i.e. changes in the place of résidence of whole c
— endangering not only their enemies, but themselves, too, b
life through war — mark out only the sphere of a new political e
territory of a rider-nomad empire, where ail the social movemen
either belonging to nomad stockbreeding or inherited from
adopted by conquering another community, and another fiel
The sphere of power of conquering nomads covered not only
résidence and pastures, hunting places and war routes of the
rulers, but their geographical background within or around th
times preserving the population's own way of life, historically
nomad âges. For instance, the steppe région of Eurasia was jo
pleted by the Altai Mountain or by the huge woods of the taiga, a
Arctic Océan, seemingly useless from the economic viewpoint of

Acta Orient. Hung. XXXV. 1981

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208 I. ECSEDY

but providing territor

power etc. The actual
historical direction, ste
their mounted armies
chants or diplomate, oc
peaks of the attacked c
taxes on, even in cases
Consequently, only c
nomad authority rulin
as an isolated social unit
ing those historical eve
they did not take a dé
them or the ruling el
territory, we have to
foreign records, e.g. th
Chinese sources —, wh
by a record.
The related informa
férent ways if it con
weakened offsprings
theire, recorded unde
nomads. In these case
the help of other sour
or neighbouring peri
information, from a s
be used only with con
experts of the separate
indispensable specializ
By a direct depende
exposed — by their wa
since their rôle in the
mined or at least limi
the territory conquere
rounding territories. T
on nomads ought to
i.e. the historical pha
on their actual signif
cerned.

Informations originating from the périphéries of a civilization or a way

of life cannot be a solid basis for conclusions of général or universal validity.
No final lesson concerning nomad stockbreeding as a whole can be taken,
e.g. from the nomadic waves in Africa, by their herds destroying the shallow

Acta Orient. Eung. XXXV. 1981

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 NOMADS IN HISTORY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH 209

fertile strata of the soil and thus appearing as a mere factor of dang
cultivators of land. In these régions a low degree of Organization of
and their martiality realized only in acts of robbery, are closely rela
rudimentary economic and social phase of the agricultural co
encountered by them. In brief: the more primitive phase of cultivat
on a territory, the more dangerous the nomads can be consider
especially when the latter learn a comparatively high degree of war
The process of the desiccation of Jands, in addition to natural reason
attributed to the animais of nomad stock-breeders, but only to
permitted or limited by the cultivators of a given land.
The inhabitants of oasis areas along the long distance trade route
quick to use their contacts with the nomads, while the large ag
civilizations found it profitable to have nomad tribes Iiving in the b
In addition to the indirect historical benefits of their harmful prese
voking walls, war préparation and the long-term Organization of
their pasture lands could serve as battle-fields or protective belts
cultivated lands, and the strong empires both in East and West
or Byzantium, were willing to allow them to stay at their front
on their inner side. Their «greediness» represented a market for the
of other types of economy, and they were utilized as mediators in l
commerce by rich countries with a bustling trade activity. Wh
powerful opponents, they could also get weapons from them, in
them against external or internal enemies of the big «friend», ev
weapons could be turned against earlier friends, too. But their p
at least two facets in the neighbourhood of strong and rich historic
respectively, often depending on the policy pursued in the territory
Interrelated with strong and rich agricultural societies, the s
rieh rider-nomad conquerors themselves would not perhaps be
recognize or confess an identity with the peaceful and poor nom
their neighbours or subjects, or even their ancestors. Probably th
the reasons why we read so little in the chronicles about the origin
predecessors of the most powerful nomands, or the components of t
founding conquerors. The «forgetfulness» of the sources was well-ba
différence between the poor and weak ancestors and their martia
reflected both in the information from and about the nomad rulers a
sources recording them.
It is, therefore, not surprising that it is so difficult or just
to identify certain conqueror nomads, since they are not indee
at least concerning their economical state or historical phase, wi
community of nomads prior to the conquest in question — still l
rudimentary conditions — or with a related population which w
of power and its advantages, which became hostile or an enemy of t

Acta Orient. Hung. XXXV. 1981

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210 I. BCSEDY

At best a continuity o
can be pointed out with
name or even under dif
sources, both for hist
of the research dépen
records, on the degree
of their historians, and
disciplines.
Sometimes the antécéd
(e.g. in China) cannot
written sources of their
nomad population of a
earlier the population
either in the related ter
to flash a nomad Comm
a well-known conqueror
on the stage of histor
case of strong and rich
if they were not menti
and military power et
life or power-lost stock
resuit in a simple fals
could be found in the
manner: after an exam
connect the social uni
accordingly.
The real distinctive fe
other types of societi
history, is the economi
context of the corrélati
antécédents and the su
cally most significant w
nomads. The empire-s
terized by the domina
by the rider-nomad r
pastoral nomadism as
vation, i.e. with agricu
tivation of land. That is
Wall of China onwards,
those walls, and not w
to be met there —, ev
the related records und

Acta Orient. Eung. XXXV. 1981

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 NOMADS IN HISTORY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH 211

This opposition of nomad stock-breeding to the cultivation of

co-existence and the confrontation of their divergent interests pr
a historical importance at the time of their neolithic beginnings a
ration of the two types of economy, until as late as the times when
concerned could step out from the state of self-sufficiency of a p
omy. Düring long and regulär contacts, even the simplest and s
cultivator and pastoral communities came to recognize the adva
symbiosis, or at least of the products of the other economy. The b
or other forms of primitive exchange, even if they do not br
spicuous economical changes, were able to préparé higher type
their région, suitable already — for economic-historical reason
cipate in symbiotic corrélations as a more or less organic part o
nomical area.
Naturally this comfortable, but prospect-less connection, satisfying
mutual interests, could happen to survive in a basically unchanged form on
the by-roads and périphéries in the course of world history, without any more
direct or historical mobility than that required by the pastoral stock-breeding
and the related war preparedness for regulär attack and defence. The latter
activity itself, that is the constant necessity and an according ability of motion
and social-wide Organization, made the stock-breeder nomads able to appear
as Organizers in their sphere, as leaders in any social group bigger than a natural
nucleus, and as rulers in political formations.
Even the loose'political cohésion unifying the separate social units by
the force of weapons, or by the related fear and respect — by a kind of pax
nomadica — was due to the authority of the pastoral peoples, e.g. as apparent
in African empires up to the présent time. These préfigurations of an empire,
sometimes also called «states»,7 were always mentioned by the name of the

7 See an expert both of nomadism and modern theory of history, L. Krader on the
states of the steppe in the la3t one-and-a-half millennium, in a sen3e of his minimum
definition of a State: L. Krader, Formation of the State. Foundations of Modern Anthropo
logy Series, ed. by M. D. Siblins, Prentioe-Hall. Ine., Englewood Oliffs, New Jersey 1938,
Chapter Six, The Tatar State: Turks and Mongols. (The State 13 defined by Kräder as
«an on-going process of formation of an institution«, «a social institution» or «a political
institution . . . it exists alongside, and in interrelation with other institutions of human
society»: Préfacé, p. VII; «Tha state is a non-primitive form of government»: Introduction,
p. 13.) The same author dealt with the problem of The Origin of the State Among the
Nomade of Asia, in the volums The Early State. Ed. by H. J. M. Claesson — P. Skalnik:
New Babilon Studies in the Social Sciences 32. Mouton Publishers, The Hague—Paris —
New York 1978, pp. 93 — 107. This time his state-concept involves «the Organization» of
a «cla33-divided society» (p. 94) or its «formal Organization» (p. 93) only, considering the
easily changing, and variou3 type3 of rudimentary steppe hierarchy a3 a kind of cla3s
division, stating that «The Turks and Mongole had a clas3-divided society» from tha
Hsien-pis' time on (p. 99, without explaining, why not earlier — if so — or later).

Ada Orient. Hung. XXXV. 1981

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212 I. ECSEDY

Organizer (conqueror
reflecting their organ
their authority, tlii
a pastoral-cultivator s
was not their only sep
segments were assure
the balance of power
nomad was the conque
ing «gifts» in return
pating even in joint
nomic or social moti
territory of their po
that defended the wh
gaining a natural abi
types of political for
of nature or history
element, with an inc
could break the fatal
make the efforts nee
and a higher type of

At the historical be
lennia — the cultiva
with the pastoral popu
animais and thus als
nomadism. The «self-s
periferies with the a
e.g. in the early Nea
serious collision was
was brought about u
beyond the valley-an
steppe région.
In neolithic times' «
a specialized cultivati
rivalry and mutually
population that need
habitation. The econo
more narrow, in a se
extending économies
After a parallel devel
for new territories,

Acta Orient. Hung. XXXV. 1981

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 N03IADS IN HISTORY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH 213

times by arming tlieir whole community, travelling on horses (and on

here and there frightening the settled population that for a time l
appropriate methods of defence against them. Recent results of Nea
archaeology have revealed several millennia of a peaceful and primitive
nature ever-lasting symbiosis of cultivation and sheepbreeding, thu
tiator of a motion of historical importance must have been the pastora
developing a rider-nomadic pastoral way of life and needing new
lands for their herds, i.e. being forced to do so by objective needs
economy, exposed to natural and historical vicissitudes.
Although they were known for their marauding expéditions and r
as robbers, the rider-nomads played a significant rôle through their d
on their enemies and pillage that evoked a kind of regulär exchange of
and cultural goods; through their conquests they forced a kind of rudi
division of labour between communities with différent ways of lif
beginning of economic history, when autarchy was a means of surviva
the economy of the nomads that had to seek connections, being by its
one-sided, at least compared to agriculture's primitive complexity,
complementary gathering and hunting. The rich rider-nomads of the
well able to live on their own production, were also induced to seek
partners and carry out an exchange of goods, i.e. to obtain foreign
for their goods, and to find a market for their surplus herds. The alte
was to resort to the use of arms and force countries to pay this kind of
which was often recorded in those countries as a form of paid tribute
Both if forcing their neighbours to give them the required
gifts — by a measure considered as a tax drawn by the stronger
extracted in the form of robbery from the other one —, the nomads
their opponents to produce the surplus needed. The demand conc
only agricultural products; instead of perishable foods, in the main
labour-intensive luxury articles were wanted. In this way the rid
invadors or visitors provoked the increased activity of the craftsm
agricultural partners, sometimes of an industrial size, as seen from the
and dictators of the «nomadic fashion» (of the clothing and weap
of Byzantium to the silkware-producing manufactures in the Chine
The foreign products — demanded or bought, handed over in
looted — only partly served the personal use of the nomads; the
transmitted in various ways of exchange, during the usual multi-f
matie actions, often supported by military means. This process was so
not at ail apparent, and the true character and real motive of the
events has to be learnt by a circumspect confrontation of the sou
infrequently conceding some unveiling détails, independently from or
the intention of the authors. However, being aware of the economic r
the alternately shown friendly and hostile attempts to establish co

3* Acta Orient. Hung. XXXV. 1981

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 214 I. ECSEDY

(«tributary» contacts, w
sources and the fragmen
provide more tasks, bu
lology.
Due to their intermediary function, the historical rôle of rider-nomads
is determined by the value, character etc. of the cultures with which they are
connected, or the goods they could transmit and so on. Their significance was
always dépendent on the objective circumstances beyond their control and
responsibility. Namely, on the early development of agriculture that founded
civilizations at the price of fixing the cultivators to their soil, thus also forcing
the stock-breeders to regularly move in order to find new pastures; on the
process of developing fortified Settlements, thus forcing them to use and
increase their mobility, in order to deliberately transgress the just outlined
borders, which represented limitations even for those civilizations which had
sought protection behind them; or on the final occupation of suitable lands,
accompanied by the growing number of Settlements (the so-called «urban
révolution»), the comparative isolation of which could be and was relieved
by the above mentioned process of the forced exchange or peaceful trans
mission of wares by the rider-nomads, who had the horse — the best means
of transport of the time — at hand.
The conséquences of the activity of the stock-breeder nomads are dépen
dent, among objective external factors, especially on the character or phase
of development of their opponents. Their armed actions and the damage
involved could represent extreme péril, as mentioned earlier, mainly for those
who were unable to adequately defend themselves in a proper way; the same
danger placed those who were able to organize themselves for defence and to
develop the technical (military) means, in a stronger position; and their
«greedy» agressivity compelled those who were capable of further economical
development, to increase their production, for instance for exchange purposes.
The armies of the rider-nomads could therefore function as intercontinental
mediators between societies temporarily closed in by their new walls, i.e.
relatively isolated for actual reasons of their historical évolution; and they
could act as catalysts even in those historical or economic-historical processes
which — by establishing new institutions, and a social and political framework
for peaceful and more modem forms of trade, diplomacy, transport, and the
dissémination of news, etc. — gradually made the warlike and dangerous form
of nomadic intermediation useless, with the nomadic way of life involved.
The relative or complété lack of an external framework or outlined
frontier — i.e. the form of nomade' life bringing about historical advantages —
could also represent a serious danger for their own society, even in times when
it may have been coniidered one of the co nponenfc-i responsible for their early
victories. Namely, compare! to the setfcled p~>oulation, their soeial coherenee

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 NOMADS IN HISTORY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH 215

was endangered by the fact that they lacked the directly territor
Organization. Instead of them the forms of social Organizatio
character gained special importance, developing close kinship
ular forms of their social-wide unity. At the beginning of nomad
was the vitally important effort of organizing their own wor
guished them from the other world and steeled them against the n
and their organizing ability proved to be a useful means of so
later periods.
The collective forms and regulär common efforts of the n
provided with a natural and ever-regenerating economical basis
of life, especially by the vital precondition of their large land, to
defended or used as a pasture in common efforts and collectiv
these social ties could not be strengthened by constant terri
scopes, under nomad conditions, they sometimes needed to b
even in conscious ways, by means of memorizable, folkloric form
historical and cultural tradition, to be learnt or contributed to by
of the community. The marked outlines of small communities
preconditions for the survival of the whole society, so they w
various modifications to a reasonable extent and within an economical com
pass of e.g. a tribal territory, and so on. These non-primary types of social ties,
transgressing natural frontière of direct blood relations, were apparently evoked
by historical concomitants and the special needs of the nomad stock-breeder
way of life. That is why the society of the nomads was characterized by a net
work of fictive kinship, by its basic units: the clans, i.e. — under prosperous
conditions, among rider-nomads able to conquer, that is to create regulär
and direct contacts within their sphere — a natural (kinship-based) concaténa
tion of exogamous, patriarchal and patrilineal kinship groups.
In the period of the early contacts or confrontation with a settled agri
cultural population, compared to its increasingly territorial and bureaucratie
social division, the System of clans, and the clans themselves, were given polit
ical importance by their basically natural character of blood-relation type,
while their fictitious motives and moments of political significance — within
organizing activities of a major social formation — had to be regularly streng
thened by a collective tradition. Based on a common way of life, i.e. a cultural
community, and being given a solid foundation by their common territory,
the fictitious cohesive factors could render good service in forming a real
community, far beyond the original limits of a kinship group, first of all in
periods of active or even conscious organizing trials, after a new conquest.
The rider-nomad conquerors tried to automatically establish their own
Organization on the new territory. The conquering leader declared himself the
«head of clan» of the subjugated, surrendered, recently allied communities
(or of their joint communities); he was Willing to accept those surrendered

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216 r. ecsedy

persons who had los

conqueror's communi
service, in lower or
at the first step at
more distant comm
exogamous relations
Marriage connecti
creating a constant c
this may also occur o
nomad empires, am
lennia of nomad mo
ments, the rider-n
kinship ties or coul
communities of hig
missions of nomad ru
The exogamous tra
kinship-network co
cohésion, having a
societies as well in th
be seen in the prospe
times to the beginnin
international comm
mediators, were th
forming Organization
— e.g. in the Asian
to the foundation o
times [e.g. in Easter
tury A.D.).
The tribal society
related clans and rea
and defended, as o
became strengthene
behind the new, var
nities of natural orig
families of clan-pro
— tribal — territory
places of résidence,
actions, expressed i
in a period when the
of taxation, Contro
even agressive manne
and stabilizing their

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 XOMADS IX HISTORY AXD HISTORICAL RESEARCH 217

The most important agricultural tasks, namely: tilling th

and settling the population on the cultivable lands, by their
centration around the ruler's court (in an «urban révolution», re
in préfigurations of really urban Settlements), primarily req
constant frameworks for stabilizing and protecting the new
without the direct need for closed natural small communitie
a basis of patriarchal résistance and oppose the centralizing e
and formai (bureaucratie) phase of social development in ag
formations, leaving the politically neutral and controllable kinsh
untouched for a time, the social Organization of the rider-noma
could preserve the particular Community form of the clans (join
a tribe in fortunate cases), involving new trends towards politica
with political activity that did not contradict their natural o
nated from their natural bases and patriarchal cohésion.
While the early cultivators' communities and agricultural soc
have defended their cultivated lands and perishable Settlemen
walls, fortifications and frontière, limited to a minimum size as
of the rudimentary technical level (of tools and weapons for ins
growing external danger, the Community units of the clan
nomadic societies could remain open to societies and culture
way of life or even beyond their sphere of power.
The societies of settled cultivators with their walled central «countries»
beyond a city-wall, even the city-states of the Mediterranean Antiquity (polis,
and civitas) could represent only exclusive communities, guarding their achieve
ments with a jealousy, due to their limited capacity and willingness to accept
outsiders within their institutional walls. The growth in size and number could
have brought about an essentially new situation, requiring new measures
concerning the economy and Organization. Meanwhile, in the heydays of steppe
stock-breeding, the more «natural», tribal communities and their tribal (and,
through kinship-ties: sometimes inter-tribal) clan-system — able to be extended
under prosperous economical conditions and according to changed social
conditions of e.g. a conquest — , could become and remain inclusive, i.e. open:
Willing and able to accept and include as members ail those who wanted to
share their way of life. At most a relative overpopulation — compared to the
territory needed for their extensive, nomad stock-breeding — may have
provoked a movement of a part of the population to find a new land
instead, thus establishing a new situation. In fortunate cases it is possible
to observe the beginnings of a further clan-system, forming a new tribe
under the rule of a leading clan, in order to found a new empire under
the rule of a leading tribe, according to rules and customs of the steppe
nomads, as far as they could still find new pastures, herds and people to
conquer.

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218 I. BCSEDY

On the conquered ter

(stabilized by economic
hâve a useful historic
nating the artificial an
it could connect geogra
units — as long as the
could be provided, un
they wanted to learn
their institutional achi
for their own empire —
of the Chinggisids —,
other societies, which
and natural basic stru
learn implies this fatal
to the conquered cult
the time when the tr
cultural contacts avoi
cases, the nomad con
organizing methods e.g
civilizatory methods
The open character
by the difficulties th
number, and territorial
about a territory desig
it, we can never be ce
of nomads — if anothe
the same time, in the
source. As a matter of
gathering, or even a fe
tory, together with s
grazing herds of the n
or join in the way of
appear behind their n
Thus the names rela
ambiguous in many w
belong to a smaller ré
may be due to a new r
social group, and terr
leading persons must b
events and processes o
falsificatory manner
single point of time, et

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 NOMADS IN HISTORY AND HISTOEICAL RESEARCH 219

and processes, treated under a new name (and date) in the so

mentioning the true motives concerned.
Unfortunately not all the nomad conquerors considered i
leave their own-written record to the posterity, with inner inf
their world. The need for writing seems to have been not at
since their natural communities, able to mobilize their members
lation as a whole, were or could be in constant or at least r
contact. They could also organize their society without bureaucr
even the fictive motives and strengthening factors of unity
social, cultural or historical memento could spread and surviv
As a matter of fact, the lack of a form of médiation that could
— by clerks, clérical leaders etc. — made the common tradit
spread, and more effective as a integrating factor. That coul
sible for a comparatively late appearance of their own scrip
nomads (in the Türk Empire, in the 8th Century Β. C., befo
of their power), in order to unify in a lasting form — on sto
paper — all that was endangered by disintegration, in order
memory of the disappearing glory of their people for furth
perhaps even to revive it. This explains why the historian of
confronted by records made by foreign hands, information t
eyes, mechanically cutting the steppe into unidentifiable par
names, even in times of an actual power unifying it by weapon.
the «countries» of the nomads and their linguistical-cultural-
tion, or the phases of the latter process — mentioned sometimes
désignations, some of them being misunderstandable as ethni
raise as much problème in the records made by the nomads
several cases quite similar to those to be solved in the foreign re
* * *

The tribal Organization (based on a par

nomads, like every other phenomenon of
double facets. It could pro vide every membe
(of comparatively small size and, on princi
goods and rights available in their sphere
by customary law or common actions; but
regarding inner matters within the politi
even stronger unity among the small com
separating them from other communities.
ization resulted in the equality-minded C
practice that used to be called démocratie —
and stabilization in the Mediterranean an
strengthening of the small, patriarchal c

Acta Orient. Hung. XXXV. 19

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 220 I. ECSEDÏ

of séparation and di
bigger communities.
of separatism could h
tion, since the mor
system could develo
The conquered (ac
could preserve thei
empire, because the
such units or accordi
ance with their orig
separative tendencie
communities of the c
surrendered other n
archal character on
archy of the comm
séquences of one an
stances they may hin
The patriarchal de
after ail, provided
activity that led to a
size, character and o
ularly between the
empire-size spread
should have renoun
about the collapse o
society as a kind of «
It could develop to r
economy — that ba
by the way of life
protected both agai
tory» practice of in
querors to preserve t
involved.

The démocratie forms of social Organization of the nomads primarily

reached a lasting and peaceful validity in the cultivators' city-states of
Mediterranian Antiquity, where the pastoral components of the founders
surrendered themselves to the culture of the invaded land. But where a steppe
empire was ruled by livestock-breeder nomads, the démocratie character of
the conquerors' communities had to be implemented within or against hier
archy of clans and tribes, and its most effective forms were made possible
inside the social scope of the conquerors, defending their privilèges — at least
that of requiring tributes — against any other of their subjects.

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 NOM ADS IN HISTOEY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH 221

Within the separate clans of the rider-nomads, the traditional or

was adequately ensured by a kinship-based, patriarchal hierarchy that
be modified, if required so, in a conscious or active (fictive) way. A Commu
of the nomads could be represented by its «natural» leaders — heads of clan
tribes — in connection with other eommunities, against other element
the empire; however, a hierarchy of these actual or potential leaders somet
appeared as a patriarchal aristocracy, rapidly developing according to
hierarchy of the separate eommunities, whose traditional séparation
ensured by their way of life, tribute-paying dutv and so on.
After a conquest, new tasks would appear — for instance, to con
the increased population — which extended beyond the patriarchal sépar
of the small eommunities, and new ranks and titles were established to ful
them, that often avoided or crossed over the old hierarchy, regulated b
toms. The new funetions were apparently primarily of a military char
they were perhaps more important from the point of view of an empire,
the traditional ranks, and they were attributed higher prestige espec
among the conquered subjects. The new rank was not limited to one s
Community, and it was not necessarily given only to the privileged conque
thus the new type of officiais were able to promote the political intégr
of the steppe empires.
The conquerors would send leaders or officiais from their own eom
nities or from those of their allies, but generally they were accompani
their families, and they appeared as représentatives of their own exoga
clan-system, i.e. as founders and heads of new clans. In this way the
division and unity of the empire was determined both by a patriarchal and
officiai hierarchy, coloured by the original position and kinship-relatio
the wives, i.e. «alien» relations, too, of the leaders and their clans (tr
The related integrating effect was also reflected by the written sour
often leaving unmentioned the original Community of a leader or the e
affinity of his kinship, without indicating his social distance and its n
in the communitv which he led as an officiai, or the territory surrendered
him. But having positions and ranks both in their old and new eommun
both of clan (or tribe) and empire-size validity and character, all the pe
considered worth mentioning were recorded with their ranks and titles, th
the steppe people seem to have consisted merely of leaders. Conseque
a careful analysis of the sources is needed for an appropriate évaluat
social homogeneity («equality»), i.e. patriarchal democractic traditions o
nomads or the related records, even if they are declared e.g. by the Ch
historians not to have known social «etiquette» and the «cérémonies» d
a social hierarchy.
Since the demoeratism of nomads' Organization could best develo
the strengest clans/tribes, i.e. in those of the conqueror rider-nomads, it

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222 I. ECSEDY

be manifested by the
•won against their sub
hierarchy among an
coherent communiti
entity: a type of hig
while still preserving
the highest possibili
stock-breeder way of
among the ruling elem
(the leaders' commu
by the natural exhau
relations on the stepp
according to their m
economical possibilit
Those nomad conqu
a conquered agricult
giving up their surv
even though the lea
exist under their tra
and cultural tradition
of constant wars, by
archical relations int
culous form in the M
However, since the
size, etc., were unwi
passés, or at least no
of empire — reachin
force of weapons bot
a rider-nomad empir
develop into a real st
their cultivator subjec
As a traditional stepp
circumstances beyond
the limitations of ea
active and important
Once their monopol
the double-facet phen
to show the disadvant
of nomadic «product
achievement, involv
creasingly became a
paredness required by

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 NOMADS IN HISTORY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH 223

of weapons — obtainable and owned by every member of the

proved victorious against peaceful cultivators, until the prof
and permanent fortifications were established in the agricultura
and the challenge of the nomad danger was answered by a d
military technique and Organization.
After all, the ever-recurring wars and the manifold mo
nomads could also endanger the biological survival of their own
Their earlier active part in various contacts, once even forcin
nities to regularly produce a surplus, now became mere plund
robbers to engage in parasitic behaviour. As a matter of fact,
background of the open character of the nomads' society bec
down by political frontière, imposing increasingly poorer living
their traditional way of life, and even this impoverished an
nomadism met the bans that had been lifted by a sprea
economy.
This last, so-to-say obsolete phase of the history of nomads requires an
unbiased and circumspect analysis, never forgetting the original importance
and historical corrélations of their way of life and activity. Upon their histori
cally active, economically promotive period, they can be evaluated in a more
objective («just») way than upon the condemning complaints of the chronicle
writers; and their multi-coloured historical rôle may also help us to understand
the recent colours of their world.
When examining the written or folklore memories of nomad stock
breeding, always directly exposed to nature, we can recognize in them a close
and natural contact between man and nature, or society and its environment,
that no longer exists, closed in by the protecting walls of our industrial civiliza
tion, it is missing in our locally fixed, colour-losing universe. This kind of
feeling about something being missed might play a rôle in the recent upswing
in the research into nomadism, also as a concomitant of the illusion about
a «happy wild man», but concealing a justifiable nostalgia about the real
historical values concerned. Unfortunately, the other lesson, offered by the
history of the nomads, is not learnt as much as it would be désirable, namely
concerning the «historical crime» of the nomad way of life, involving an econ
omy and prosperity based on the power of weapons, the final failure showing
the prospects — i.e. the lack of prospects — of any historical practice based
on the daily danger of war and social-wide militarisai.

* * * *

The steppe région was a neighbour

to the prosperity of Mediterranian
in Europe, while in Asia it was confro

Acta Orient. Hung. XXXV.

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 224 I. ECSEDY

tions.8 Being open to

way of life, the nomad
in the West and in t
velopment were suffi
and they utilized the
or cultural achievemen
in the sphere of the p
equipped for defence,
that seem quite simila
Within a rider-nom
efforts, tribal territo
the economical tasks o
the clans (and even p
or less — independen
tribal territory. The r
from the first standa
地分 ti-fen, referrin
différent from the C
sometimes misinterp
一 impossible e.g. to
records to belong to
this alone implying a c
division) regarding t
of time.

The expression fen-ti, however, was used in China not only in connection
with steppe nomads — from the Hsiung-nuB on 一，and its meaning should
be determined at least in the light of its original usage, namely in descriptions
of ancient Chinese agricultural communities that were reported to have lived
under a System of «well-fields» (井田 ching-t'ien — ineluding the term t'ien
of cultivated land). This vague term, referring to ancient times when social
or economical différences had not yet caused any suffering to the cultivators
of land, became a Utopian demand of the Chinese peasant movements and
a slogan of other reformist efforts. Thus it became the name of land-relations
devoid of privacy, representing an ancient type of harmonious common
ownership relations, the due share concerned being just the basis or possibility
of individual holding within a communal territory. The old Chinese, mythic
or Utopian term ching-t’ien must have been applied in this sense to the nomads’
land relations as well.

8This last part of my paper is based on the lecture read at the 1978 Conference
under the title Az eurâzsiai lovasnomâdok vïlàga mint a jöldmüves kozosségek «tôrténelmi
környezete» [The world of Eurasian rider-nomads as a «historical environment» of agricul
tural communiticeT

Acta Orient. Hung. XXXV. 198i

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 NOMADS IS H1STOKY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH 225

The ancient Chinese «well-field» system referred to the «revo

period of neolithic settlement-organization, where common ef
the preconditions for the «civilized» world of cultivatable (irr
cultivated in «equal» (and regulary changeable) plots by indivi
This small universe of agrieulturer settlement-founders — a «
cosmos», in Marx's words® — was without protection and in
a separate entity, but it was easily organizable and controllabl
paying unit within a «country», governed by a ruling «royal» clan
centre. The «small countries» of later agricultural Utopian d
subjects as taxable agricultural communes, being solid bases of soc
controlled from the fortified peaks of the «big country» of t
(11—13th centuries B. C.).
This «civilized» subjugation and paternalist «eternalization
tinuing séparation of Asian agricultural Settlements became st
same time as the birth and Organization of a higher, bigger and o
munity, proved timely in the Mediterranean sphere, namely
of ancient Greece, as symbolyzed by the mythic synoikismos of k
unifying his people within Athen.10 Thus the two extremities of
steppes represent divergent phases of human évolution at the
ance of classical nomadism — that of rider-nomads —, thus evoki
reactions from the steppe. The related différences in the historic
of the nomads in the western and eastern area of their sphere
also serve as bases for historical conclusions.
The parallel beginnings of historical Settlements and communities in
Europe and in Asia respectively, conceal some lessons, e.g. when interpreting
Chinese sources concerning the time of the early young states on the land
of China. A few considérations relating to the preconditions and prospects
of Mediterranian Antiquity have proved fruitful in marking out the original
trends of historical development in Eastern Asia, similar to the beginnings
of world history that started from Ancient Greece, before history took in China
its specific «Asiatic» turn, according to the ecological and human preconditions

9 On the old agricultural commuriities, and on the double nature of communal

ownership and individual possession, i.e. private appropriation in them, see L. Krader,
The Asiatic Mode of Production. Sources, Development and Critique in the Writings of
Karl Marx: Dialectic and Society 1, Van Gorcuxn and Comp. Β. V. — Assen, The Nether
lands 1975, p. (177 — )178 etc.; F. T6kei, Essays on the Asiatic Mode of Production, Akadé
miai Kiadô, Budapest 1979: Contribution to the neio debate on the Asiatic mode οf production,
p. 119 sqq, and see his préfacé to the volume Primitive Society and the Asiatic Mode of
Production (cf. note 2 above).
10 Cf. F. Tôkei, Der Ursprung der Polis : Antike und Feudalismus. Zur marxistischen
Geschichtstheorie (Beiträge zu Interpretationsproblemen Marxscher Formulierungen),
Band II, pp. 31 — 112.

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226 I. ECSEDY

given there.11 Naturally Fa

classical antiquity. The co
rider-nomad history, sin
both polar régions of the
The primitive agricultu
of their historical prospect
by double nature, namely b
and social relations, accom
the later historical conséq
also dépendent on the histo
steppe nomads must have h
tural civilizations. This role
the communal bases becam
tion and power, and in th
their füll forms, promotin
In the archaic commun
belong to the very nature
and since the communal f
in a natural way, by the
Community becomes clear
The différences that hav
cerning the proper ratio of
E.g. classical antiquity, whe
usual among the rider-nom
— in the form of a Symp
states, demonstrating the
evaluated in the light of th
the heights of monopoliz
expressed astonished views
action of the rider-nomad
rank») given their due shar
feasts in a «big tent», and
However, the mention o
may be misleading, since
or just the weakness of a d
in written form. Very fre
over the «revolting» elemen
that became dominant in
corrélations, the historical
11 Cf. my book A kinai âl
Akadémiai Kiadô, Budapest
11 See note 9.

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 NOMADS IN HISTOEY AND HISTOEICAL EESEAECH 227

torical environment can help to draw the appropriate conclusio

the rider-nomad attacks that represented a continuons danger
less cultivators and the defensive, i.e. isolating economic poli
offer good examples of the objective necessity of communal fa
inévitable for the biological survival of an endangered commun
ical disparity of the Mediterranian sphere can be observed —
of the Ancient Orient — in the specific advantage provided
private factors, e.g. for small gardens in the mild climate, offe
oil, wine or fruit on the easy routes along the seashores, that l
ience of historical importance of private production and own
that opened up the beginnings of European history.
Classical nomadism appeared on the Eurasian steppes dur
izing phase of the new communities of the settled agricultu
Then — in the 2nd millennium B. C., especially in its secon
eastern parts of the steppe the rider-nomads mostly met the c
of civilization-founding activity, so they could represent a thr
thening danger — to such collective forms of economical an
ment, or, by subjugating the communities concerned, they
to the collective factors of the surrendered society, organizing
while utilizing the community-creating capacity of nomad soci
however, the archaic compassés proved too narrow for the
culture of increasing communities, the traditional framewor
or lost its earlier importance, and — for historical survival — «
h ad to be unified within a new, higher community. In the
patriarchal ties of nomad communities, coloured by an eve
democratism of social-wide military activity, offered a model o
that could cross or transgress archaic agricultural frontiers
tional limitations.
Under neolithic conditions — and their survivais, to a decreasing
extent — it was the specialized nomad stock-breeding that implied an objec
tive, i.e. economical factor that made social unity necessary by the need for
common pasture: even if used by a smaller group, it could be conquered and
defended only by a bigger community. The «private» division of pasture lands
was impossible or senseless, so they could be the guarantees or symbols of
social unity, long after the military danger that had provoked and maintained
it. A symbolizing function of common pasture — and common wood, etc. —
also survived in later periods, e.g. as a factor of village Organization in Euro
pean feudalism. This could be the reason, although historical research still
has the task of clarifying it, why the cultivator founders of city states of
classical antiquity — aware of their own civilizatory achievements — glorified
their «pastoral» virtues, and sang about their «pastoral Muse» and the «pros
perous pasture-lands» of their city.

4 Acta Orient. Hung. XXXV. 1981

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