Zolotoordynskoe Obozrenie (Jun 2021)
Sedentarization of the Medieval Nomads of Eastern Europe: Understandings and Manifestations
Abstract
Research objectives: To demonstrate that, contrary to the opinion of many researchers of the history and culture of nomads during the Middle Ages, sedentarization (the transition from a nomadic to settled lifestyle) was neither an end in itself nor the result of a natural historical development of nomadic societies. Research materials: This study is based on a source analysis of archaeological data, medieval written sources, and the works of travelers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who described the lifestyle and mentality of the Turkic and Mongol nomads who lived in the steppes of Eurasia at that time. Results and novelty of the research: Soviet researchers explained the gradual but sequential transition of nomads to a settled lifestyle through the methodology of a three-staged scheme: 1) the tabor stage represented by rare archaeological sites in the steppe; 2) the semi-nomadic stage with the appearance of stationary burial mounds and settlements in the steppe, which marked the places of nomadic wintering; 3) the stage of settlement with the appearance of nomadic burial grounds near cities and the deposition of elements of the material culture of nomads in the cultural layers of medieval cities. However, an in-depth analysis of traces of nomadic culture in the territory of the Bulgar and Golden Horde cities shows that they occupied an extremely insignificant place in the general complex of urban culture. Medieval narrative sources indicate the indifferent attitude of the bulk of nomads to cities. The observations of travelers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries confirm and supplement the information recorded by medieval authors. Historical, ethnographic, and sociological data of domestic and foreign researchers in the first half of the twentieth century indicate that the sedentarization of Kazakhs, Kalmyks, and Mongols was a consequence of the social policy of the Soviet government, which was interested in establishing strict control over nomads. As such, the author drew the following conclusions: 1) the “first stage of nomadism” was actually the migration of nomads in search of new habitats; 2) the “second stage” was the most natural and the only possible form of existence of nomadic communities in the natural and geographical conditions of the Eurasian steppes (those researchers are correct who thought and still think so); 3) there was no “third stage of nomadism” at all, since nomads cease to be nomads per se after their forced transition to this stage.
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