When a person switched to a sedentary lifestyle. G
As has been shown, different types of early primitive economic and cultural systems also presupposed different types, or rather different qualities of human individuality. And the type and quality of man as a subject of the historical process, along with objective factors of climate, animal and plant worlds etc., played the most important, but, unfortunately, almost elusive methods scientific analysis role in the history of primitive society.
We find the most favorable conditions for the development of personal qualities of people in consanguineous communities of the subtropical-temperate zone with its clearly defined gender and age division of labor (including within the family) and a developed reciprocal system (within which, as noted, everyone was interested in contributing to the social consumption fund as large as possible in order to get more, but in the form of prestigious symbols and signs of public respect and recognition). In these conditions, faster than in other places, there was an improvement in the tools of individual labor (bows and arrows, the so-called “harvesting knives” and other things made using the microlithic-liner technique appeared), the development of individual ambitions (a powerful incentive for activity to satisfy them ) and an individual sense of responsibility both as a person (primarily a male breadwinner) to the community, and as members of a nuclear family to each other (wife and husband, parents and children). These trends, of course, had to be consolidated in traditional culture and reflected in ritual practice and myths.
Thus, By the time of the catastrophic climatic and landscape shifts that occurred at the boundary of the Pleistocene and Holocene about 10 thousand years ago, a type of society had already developed on Earth, potentially capable of 190
the development of more complex, including productive, forms of life activity than hunting and gathering. Its representatives (thanks to a sufficient degree of individualization of economic and social life) were capable of relatively quick and effective adaptation to new conditions, and multidirectional adaptation. The choice of forms of adaptation to changing conditions of existence was determined by a complex interweaving of objective (landscape, climate, relief, number of people) and subjective (the volume and nature of people’s knowledge, the presence among them of authoritative enthusiastic innovators - the Toynbean “creative minority”, the willingness of others to take risks and change forms of life) moments. There were significant differences between different regions.
Planetary catastrophe caused by rapid melting of glaciers, shifting and changing boundaries climatic zones and landscape zones, rising sea levels and flooding of colossal areas of coastal lowlands, changes in the coastline throughout the planet - caused a crisis in almost all life support systems of the late Pleistocene. The exception was perhaps the societies of tropical gatherers, since near the equator the climate remained almost unchanged, although vast expanses of land went under water, especially in the regions of Indochina - Indonesia - the Philippines. Everywhere, the previous ecological equilibrium, a certain balance between the hunting-gathering communities scattered across the planet and the environment, was disrupted. This, in turn, was associated with a crisis in information support for the life of people whose traditional knowledge did not meet the requirements of changed circumstances.
Humanity has found itself at a bifurcation point. In conditions when the degree of instability of traditional systems (based on an appropriating economy) sharply increased, a crisis broke out in the previous forms of life activity. Accordingly, a rapid increase in spontaneous fluctuations began - in the form of experimental, so to speak, “blind” searches for effective “responses” to the “challenges” of changed circumstances.
Success in this fight against the challenges of external forces was associated not least with the active and creative potential of people who found themselves in a critical situation. And they depended to a decisive extent on the type of sociocultural system that they represented. Among them, the greatest flexibility and mobility (including in spiritual terms) were demonstrated by those whose individual creative potential was less constrained by the traditional regulation of life activity. The corresponding societies had (other things being equal) the best chances of success.
However, we should not forget that external conditions in different regions were very different. The optimal combination of the challenge of external forces, the sociocultural type of society (with the corresponding nature of human individuality) and external conditions favorable for the transition to new types of economic activity (mild climate, the presence of reservoirs rich in fish, as well as plant and animal species suitable for domestication) was observed in the Middle East . Local protoneolithic societies at the turn of the Pleistocene and Holocene created, for the first time in human history, the prerequisites for the beginning of the civilizational process. Formation of a productive economy and breeding organization 191
Here, in the Eastern Mediterranean-Foreign Asian region, among communities, quite individualized in production and social terms, hunters and gatherers of rugged coastal-foothill-forest subtropical landscapes, approximately 12 thousand years ago we observe the formation of several lines of further evolution of primitive humanity. Among them, only one, associated with agricultural and pastoral farming, directly led to civilization. Somewhat later, similar processes occur in other regions globe, particularly in East Asia and Central and South America.
Planetary environmental shifts associated with the melting of the glacier led to a divergence in the development paths of hunting-gathering groups of the Mediterranean-Central Asian region. I will note two of their main directions. On the one hand, in the conditions of the spread of forests north of the Alps and the Carpathians, hunting-gathering groups from the Northern Mediterranean (from the Iberian and Apennine Peninsulas, Southern France and the Balkans) began to develop wide areas of Central and Eastern, and then Northern and Northeastern Europe. The excess population settled in new, already forested spaces left by those who had gone to the high latitudes for herds reindeer hunters. On the other hand, with the increasing drying out of North Africa and Western Asia and the parallel advance of the seas, the population of many regions of the Middle East found themselves in a critical situation. The number of game animals was rapidly declining, which was especially acutely felt in Palestine, sandwiched between the sea, the spurs of Lebanon and the deserts approaching from the south (Sinai) and east (Arabia). Under these conditions, the “responses” to the “challenge” of external forces were, firstly, a reorientation towards the intensive use of food resources of water bodies, which quickly led to the development of specialized fishing, and, secondly, the formation of an early agricultural-pastoral economic and cultural complex - the basis further civilization process.
The first, Western Mediterranean-Central European line of development of hunting-gathering societies of closed landscapes of the first millennia of the Holocene is represented by materials from numerous Mesolithic cultures of the forest and forest-steppe spaces of Europe. They were characterized by adaptation to existing natural conditions and settlement within the corresponding landscape zone familiar to them. Wielding a bow and arrow, and being well adapted to life in the water-rich forest zone of Europe, small consanguineous communities of several families formed, as before in the Mediterranean, groups of related proto-ethnic groups. Within such intercommunity areas, information circulated and marriage partners, useful experiences and achievements were exchanged.
Constantly living near water, such people, without abandoning hunting and gathering, paid increasing attention over time to the use of food resources of water bodies. The first permanent settlements of specialized fishermen appeared in Europe (at the Dnieper rapids, in the area of the Iron Gates on the Danube, along the southern coast of the North Sea, in the Southern Baltic, etc.) approximately in the 8th-7th millennium BC. BC, while in the Eastern Mediterranean they date back at least one to two millennia earlier. Therefore, it is difficult to say whether shuttle-net fishing is being formed 192 ________________________________________
production in the most convenient places in Europe independently, or by borrowing the corresponding economic and technical achievements from the Middle East, from where groups of fishermen through the Mediterranean and the Aegean could get to the Black Sea and Danube regions quite early.
In conditions of a balanced hunting-fishing-gathering (with an increasingly focused on fishing) economic system, the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic proto-ethnic groups were distinguished by low population density and its very slow growth. With the increase in the number of people, it was possible to resettle several young families down or up the river, since the spaces were suitable for conducting a complex appropriative economy in Europe, as in North America, Siberia or Far East, for many millennia there was plenty.
As in Paleolithic times, these kind of consanguineous communities organically fit into the landscape, becoming the highest link of the corresponding biocenoses. But the consumer attitude towards the environment, which presupposed the already conscious "(as evidenced by ethnographic data) maintaining a balance between the number of people and the natural food base, blocked the possibilities of further evolution. Therefore, significant economic and sociocultural changes in the forest belt of Neolithic Europe were caused, first in total, by the spread of foreign, more developed population groups from the south, mainly from the Middle East through the Balkan-Danube-Carpathian region and the Caucasus.
In the Middle East, during the first millennia of the Holocene, a fundamentally different picture was observed, determined by the “Neolithic revolution” that swept the region. Researchers, in particular V.A. Shnirelman, managed to connect the areas of the most ancient agricultural crops with the centers of origin of cultivated plants N.I. Vavilova.
The emergence of agriculture was preceded by fairly effective gathering, thanks to which man learned the vegetative properties of plants and created the appropriate tools. However, the undoubted origin of agriculture based on gathering does not yet answer the question: why do people, instead of collecting ready-made crops in areas where edible plants naturally grow (as was the case in Paleolithic times), begin to cultivate the land in other places? Such places of land cultivation have always been areas located near places of permanent residence of people. Consequently, the origin of agriculture presupposed the presence of at least early forms of sedentary life, which should have appeared somewhat earlier than the cultivation of cultivated plants. According to the well-founded conclusion of V.F. Geninga, sedentarism arises primarily as a result of the reorientation of hunting-gathering communities towards the specialized use of aquatic food resources. This was due (particularly in the Middle East) to a catastrophic decrease in the number of game animals.
The focus on the active use of food resources in water bodies contributed to the concentration of the population along the banks of rivers, lakes and seas. This is where the first permanent settlements appeared, known in Palestine from the X-IX millennium BC. e. - on Lake Hule (Einan settlement) and nearby Mediterranean Sea near Mount Carmel. In both cases, evidence was found of sufficient Formation of a producing farm and breeding organization ___________________________193
but developed net-shuttle fishing (sinkers from nets, bones of deep-sea fish, etc.).
The reduction in the number of game animals and the success of fishing thus contributed to the concentration of people around water bodies, creating conditions for the transition to sedentism. Fishing provided constant food without the need to move all members of the community. Men could sail for a day or more, while women and children remained in the communal village. Such changes in lifestyle contributed to the beginning of a rapid increase in population size and density. They made it easier (compared to the mobile lifestyle of hunters and gatherers) for pregnant and lactating women, and helped reduce the number of cases of death or injury to men (more frequent during hunting than during fishing).
Since fishing settlements were usually located at a considerable distance from fields of wild cereals and places of growth of other edible plants, there was a natural desire to bring such fields closer to communal settlements, especially since the conditions for growing plants (well-manured soils around settlements located near water, protection from wild animals and flocks of birds) were very favorable here. In other words, for the emergence of agriculture it was necessary the presence of at least three conditions (not taking into account the very fact of the crisis of the appropriating economy):
1) the presence in the environment of plant species that are fundamentally suitable for domestication;
2) the emergence, as a result of thousands of years of specialized collecting practice, of sufficient knowledge about the vegetative properties of plants and the tools necessary for agricultural work (at first, not very different from those used by the gatherers);
3) transition to a sedentary lifestyle near water bodies due to long-term intensive use of their food resources, primarily through the development of fisheries.
However, it is noteworthy that the primary cells of agriculture everywhere arise near water bodies with limited supplies of food resources, while on sea coasts, in floodplains and the mouths of great rivers, fishing retains a leading role for a long time. Yes, in the Middle East oldest forms agriculture is found in the Jordan Valley, as well as along the tributaries of the Tigris in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains and near the lakes of Central Anatolia (where they apparently came from Palestine and Syria), in areas where there were wild ancestors of many domestic plants, and the food resources of the reservoirs were limited, but not in the Nile Valley, swampy at that time, the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates, or on the Syro-Cilikian coast.
In the same way, the lakeside area of the Valley of Mexico, located among the dry plateau of Central Mexico, and the coasts closest to it are contrasted Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, lakes and river valleys of the Andean plateau - the Peruvian coast. The same, it seems, can be said about the relationship between economic development trends in the interior regions of Indochina with the eastern foothills of Tibet - and the coasts of Southeast Asia, China and Japan.
Opportunities for the emergence of agriculture probably existed in much wider areas than those where it first appeared. 194 Primitive foundations of civilization
But under conditions of fairly productive fishing, people, leading a sedentary life and even having the necessary knowledge in the field of agriculture, quite consciously preserve their traditional way of life.
The reorientation of the economy to the cultivation of edible plants occurs only in the case when the declining food resources of water bodies were no longer able to satisfy the needs of the growing population. Only the crisis of the traditional appropriating economy forces people to switch to agriculture and animal husbandry. As R. Carneiro showed using ethnographic materials from the Amazon, unless absolutely necessary, hunters and fishermen do not reorient themselves to agriculture.
That is why the Neolithic population of the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates valleys, the coasts of Syria and Cilicia, the Persian Gulf and Japan, the Caspian and Aral, Yucatan and Peru, and many other regions for a long time, maintaining direct relations with neighboring agricultural and pastoral societies and being familiar with the basics of their economic structure, remained committed to the fishing way of life, only partially and to a low extent supplementing it with hunting and gathering, and then with early forms of agriculture and cattle breeding.
During the 9th-6th millennium BC. e. specialized fishing societies in thin chains from the Middle East spread throughout the Mediterranean, rise to the middle reaches of the Nile, and develop the coasts of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. Groups similar to them at the same time become the leading ethnocultural force in the Caspian and Aral regions, the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. Such communities left traces of Neolithic settlements in the area of the Kerch Strait, on the Dnieper and Danube, along the coasts of the Baltic and North Seas, etc. But, being strictly tied to their ecological niches, fishing groups, in general, have little influence on the hunting societies of neighboring, internal regions. In addition, the possibilities for their development were fundamentally limited by natural resources, which man could only deplete, but not restore. Therefore, the line of evolution based on specialized fishing leads to a dead end, the only way out of which can be a reorientation to agricultural and pastoral activities. As G. Child rightly noted at one time. If societies with an appropriating economy live at the expense of nature, then those oriented towards a reproducing economy enter into cooperation with it. The latter ensures further development towards civilization.
Thus, in zones with limited food resources of water bodies, in the presence of favorable external factors, in conditions of increasing demographic pressure, a relatively rapid transition from fishing-hunting-gathering forms of economy to an early agricultural-pastoral economy occurs. However, in areas rich in fish resources, society can exist for quite a long time on the basis of specialized fishing and sea hunting. Over a sufficiently long period, both marked lines of evolution provide approximately equal opportunities for advancement - based on the regular receipt of surplus food products and sedentary lifestyle - demographic potential, system efficiency public organization, accumulation and movement of cultural information, development of religious and mythological ideas, ritual and magical practices, various types Formation of a producing farm and breeding organization
arts, etc. Among the early farmers and higher fishermen, we equally see large stationary settlements and clan cults, a system of gender and age stratification with the first elements of dominance within the communities of individual noble clans and families. Ethnographically, this is well illustrated by materials from New Guinea and Melanesia.
At the same time, it is important to emphasize that, as V.F. rightly noted. Gening, the actual clan relations, based on the idea of vertical kinship associated with the counting of tribes and genealogical lines, going into the depths of the past, appear only with the transition to settled life. They have a certain socio-economic content: justification (through the continuity of generations) of the right of those living to permanent fishing grounds (primarily fishing) and land used (for agricultural crops or pastures). Tribal settled communities own their territories on the basis that these lands belonged to their ancestors, whose spirits retain supreme patronage over them.
It was in the Neolithic, with the transition to sedentarism based on higher forms fishing and early agriculture, a clan appears as a social institution with a clear knowledge by its members of the stages of kinship, as well as rituals of honoring the founder of the clan and other ancestors, including those that no one living has seen, but heard about them from representatives of older generations. This is reflected in the veneration of graves and the cult of the skulls of ancestors, in the practice of creating ancestral burial grounds and the appearance of totem poles with symbolically represented images of ancestors, often endowed with expressive totemic features. Such pillars are well known, for example, among the Polynesians or the Indians of the northwestern coast of North America.
Meanwhile, as the food resources of water bodies are depleted and the crisis of fishing societies begins, especially with the increase in population, when some people were forced to settle far from water bodies rich in fish, we observe a constant increase in the role of agriculture and livestock farming (naturally, where it was possible ).
Moreover, in many places previously inhabited by groups wholly focused on fishing, rapid rates of development (in relation to neighboring territories with more ancient agricultural traditions) are observed. The above applies to Egypt, Sumer and the river valley. Indus (compared to Palestine and Syria, Zagros and Central Anatolia) starting from the 5th millennium BC. e., and to the coasts of Yucatan and Peru (compared to the plateau of Central Mexico and the valleys of the Andes) from, respectively, the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. e.
It should also be noted that while the population of the centers of rapid development, based on increasingly improved forms of agriculture, intensified its development, on their periphery the rate of evolution and population growth was much lower. Therefore, the excess human mass from such centers increasingly settled in the surrounding lands, where natural conditions were favorable for farming.
The demographic potential of the early farmers was always significantly greater than that of their neighbors, and their economic and cultural type was higher and more perfect. Therefore, when interacting with their neighbors, they, as a rule, either displaced or assimilated them. However, in some cases, if
Primitive foundations of civilization
Fishermen came into contact with the advancing farmers; the latter, perceiving the basis of a reproducing economy, could preserve their ethno-linguistic identity. This, obviously, happened in Lower Mesopotamia during the formation of the community of the ancient Sumerians.
The beginning of the evolution of Eurasian ancient civilizations
Ten thousand years ago, people conducted an appropriative economy: they took (appropriated) directly from nature what they needed for life - they were engaged in hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants.
Small groups of hunter-gatherers moved around, so there were few permanent settlements in prehistory. This way of life excluded the possibility of accumulating property, and therefore it is impossible to talk about property relations (property - relations between people regarding the conditions of production and the results of their productive use; property - the appropriation of an economic good by some to the exclusion of others). Indeed, people treated the results of the hunt as prey, and it did not become their property. The territory was also not secured, because with the depletion of the necessary resources, the group left it. Even if a forest plot was later assigned to a family, it did not become its property. The family simply had to track potential prey in the forest.
Hunting and war significantly influenced the distribution of power relations within the community of ancient people. A successful hunt requires a leader who has the special qualities of an experienced hunter and a brave warrior. For these qualities, a person was respected and his word and opinion became mandatory for his relatives (became an authoritative decision). However, the leader was chosen by hunter-gatherers, and his status was not hereditary.
The distribution of the spoils took place in accordance with traditions. For example, the hunter whose arrow hit the animal first received half of the skin; whose arrow hit the animal second - part of the entrails, etc.
While men were engaged in hunting, women were engaged in gathering. There is a sex-age (natural) division of labor. It should be emphasized that the skills of hunting and war, as well as the weapons of hunting and war, did not differ from each other, i.e. These types of activities were not yet differentiated and existed together (syncretically). The wars did not yet have an economic background (after all, the accumulation of property was not yet known) and were fought for the redistribution of territory, due to blood feud, for the abduction of women, for the defense of territory, i.e. were economically unattractive, since other people's prey was not yet a goal.
The transition to sedentarism and the formation of centralized empires
By the 3rd millennium BC. There is a transition to a producing economy through the development of slash-and-burn agriculture, which still left the possibility of migration. In fact, the development of the simplest technologies and the attempt to put the forces of nature at the service of man led to sedentarism. This transition to sedentism was the essence of the Neolithic (agricultural) revolution, which involved the growth and improvement of the plant and animal resources available to humans.
Beyond the 3rd millennium BC human communities were forced to switch to cultivating the same piece of land, because... this resource turned out to be limited. This is how settled life arose, and with it agrarian civilization. Naturally, agricultural civilizations formed in river valleys (they were also called river civilizations). It should be said that the spread of agricultural civilization dates back to 3000 BC. 1500 century AD This is the period of formation and development of empires and eastern kingdoms (agrarian states) on Ancient East both in America and feudalism in Europe.
Let us dwell on the following question: what significance does the system of withdrawals of surplus product have on the formation of the type of economic system, for one system of withdrawals contributed to the growth of the power of agrarian states, the other – to the flourishing of feudalism.
Sedentarism and centralization of withdrawals are the conditions for the formation of agrarian states.
Since settled peoples the land is the main and common factor production, then people need to know the boundaries of the cultivated plots, what part of the crop they can claim, how the land is assigned to the user, inherited, etc. This is how they appeared land relations, which influenced the social and then property differentiation of ancient settled communities and the resulting emergence of power relations. At their origins, power relations (relations of command and subordination) are built around knowledge about agricultural production and the bearers of this knowledge: knowledge about the beginning and end of agricultural work, their sequence, etc. This information was presented in religious rites. It is no coincidence that the first ruling elites were religious elites. And the first temples were located in river valleys. In accordance with the ritual, the community members cultivated the temple land, the harvest from which provided the needs of the clergy. This is how it arose temple economy - a set of economic activities related to the needs of the temple and its servants.
The second privileged group is the tribal leaders. They ruled in accordance with traditional norms. Such norms also included gifts to the leader, which constituted a fund for the performance of public functions: protection, ransom. Over time, the leaders began to strive to make donations regular, for which they had to resort to violence, but then the donations turned into taxes.
With the development of settled life, a third privileged group appears - the bureaucracy. The fact is that agriculture requires water. And farmers are forced to build their relationships not only about land, but also about water: the creation of an irrigation (or drainage) system - the construction of irrigation structures and its subsequent distribution across the fields. For this, in turn, you need special apparatus management, which organizes the construction of structures and control of water use. This is how centralization appears in the use of the most important resource - water, and at the same time - irrigated agriculture (Sumerians, Egypt). The bureaucracy - the water and construction bureaucracy - specialized in organizing construction, operating irrigation structures and withdrawing surplus product. The usual and widespread method of seizure is violence, and this is already a transition from the temple economy to the ancient kingdoms, in which the most authoritative or powerful headed the bureaucracy. Such economic and political systems are often called agrarian states. Thus, settled life determined the power differentiation of the population.
Since in agrarian states there was an early centralization of violence on the part of the bureaucracy, the main thing in the interaction of layers of society turned out to be the relationship between the bureaucracy and the population, and not the servant-master, which also exists, but they are secondary.
The stability of the withdrawal of the surplus product makes the agrarian state stable and prosperous, since the apparatus wants not only today, but also tomorrow to confiscate the product from its subjects, i.e. objective restrictions on seizures arose. At the same time, traditions of distributing confiscated goods were developing in agrarian states. So, for example, in Ancient India, half of the income should have been spent on the army, the twelfth on gifts and payments to officials, the twentieth on the personal expenses of the emperor (sultan), the sixth should have been reserved. Seizures gradually took the form of a capitation tax, then a land tax.
In the ancient kingdoms, property inequality increased between the bulk of the population and the elites, who actively used violence to seize part of the peasant product not only into the bins of the central government, but also into their own. Gradually, violence - robbery - spread to foreign populations, and raids to seize foreign products became the rule.
The stratified society of agrarian states differed in their territorial distribution. The bulk of the population lived in rural areas, where they were engaged in agricultural work. The ruling elite - the emperor, his retinue, the main part of the bureaucracy, the religious elite lived in the cities, from where the “tax web” stretched into the countryside. Therefore, the city remained an alien entity for the peasant.
Constant, systematic withdrawals of surplus product have given rise to the need for accounting: the tax base must be taken into account, taxes must be counted. This was a significant incentive for the development of writing and the spread of literacy, primarily among the bureaucracy.
Agrarian states were formed, as a rule, through the conquest of sedentary peoples by militant outsiders (Persians, Lombards, etc.). If the conquerors’ intentions to stay in the conquered territory were long-term, they were forced to form a special apparatus to manage the conquered population, collect tribute, taxes and other seizures, i.e. restore the destroyed system of constant withdrawals of surplus product.
Now we can formulate the most characteristic features of the centralized empires of antiquity:
· the presence of a minority that specializes in violence;
· stratification of society into groups (stratified society);
· a formed apparatus (bureaucracy) for collecting tribute and taxes (later taxes);
· spread of writing.
There is a term "Neolithic revolution". When you hear it, you imagine a mass of bearded, disheveled people in skins, armed with primitive axes and spears. This mass runs with warlike cries to storm the cave, where a crowd of exactly the same people, bearded, disheveled, with primitive axes and spears in their hands, is holed up. In fact, this term refers to a change in economic forms - from hunting and gathering to agriculture and cattle breeding. The Neolithic Revolution was a consequence of the transition from nomadism to sedentism. That’s right, at first man began to lead a sedentary lifestyle, then he mastered agriculture and domesticated some species of animals, he simply had to master it. Then the first cities, the first states appeared... The current state of the world is a consequence of the fact that man once switched to settling down.
The first permanent human settlements appeared about 10-13 thousand years ago. Somewhere they appeared earlier, somewhere later, depending on the region of the world. The oldest, the earliest - in the Middle East - about 13 thousand years ago. One of the first of those found and excavated by archaeologists is Mureybet in Syria, on the banks of the Euphrates. It originated about 12,200 years ago. It was inhabited by hunter-gatherers. They built houses like nomadic rented dwellings - round, 3-6 meters in diameter, but much more solid: they used pieces of limestone and held them together with clay. The roof was made of reed stalks. The reliability of their homes is the only thing in which the inhabitants of sedentary Mureybeta were superior to the nomads. More important factor- food. The food in Mureybet was poorer than that of the nomads. It depended on the case - wild beans, acorns and pistachios would be produced this season, or the harvest would be insignificant, not enough for the tribe; whether a herd of gazelles will pass nearby or not, whether there will be enough fish in the river. Domestication (or “domestication”, in scientific language) of plant foods in Mureybet occurred a thousand years after the settlement appeared: they learned to independently grow wheat, rye and barley. The domestication of animals occurred even later.
In short, there was no food reason for creating a settlement on the banks of the Euphrates. Permanent settlement, on the contrary, created regular food difficulties. The same is true in other regions - the inhabitants of the most ancient sedentary villages ate more poorly than their nomadic contemporaries. If we take all the regions where the transition from nomadism to sedentary life took place earlier than others - the Middle East, the areas on the Danube and Japan - it turns out that between one and three thousand years passed between the appearance of sedentary settlements and the traces of the first domesticated plants (that is, in Syrian The residents of Mureybete relatively quickly figured out how to grow their own grain). Currently, most paleoanthropologists believe that the inhabitants of the first stationary settlements lived significantly poorer and ate less varied and abundant food than wandering hunters. And food security, food supply is one of the main reasons for the movement of human civilizations. This means that food is no longer needed - it is not because of it that people began to live sedentary lives.
An important point is that the dead were buried in residential buildings of ancient settlements. The skeletons were first cleaned - the corpses were left on trees, birds pecked at them, or the meat and soft tissues were cleaned off the bones themselves - then they were buried under the floor. The skull was usually separated. The skulls were kept separately from other bones, but also in the dwelling. In Mureybet they were displayed on shelves in the walls. In Tell Ramada (Southern Syria) and Beisamun (Israel), skulls were placed on figures sculpted from clay - stands up to a quarter of a meter high. For people 10 thousand years ago, it was probably the skull that symbolized the personality of the deceased, which is why there was so much reverence, so much respect for him. Skulls were used in religious ceremonies. For example, they were “fed” - they shared food with them. That is, dead ancestors were given every possible attention. Perhaps they were considered indispensable assistants in the affairs of the living, they were always in touch with them, they were approached with prayers and requests.
Based on the finds of burials in ancient settlements, historian and religious scholar Andrei Borisovich Zubov develops the theory that humanity began to settle down because of its religious beliefs. “Such attention to ancestors, forefathers, who continue to help the living in their temporary, earthly, and eternal, heavenly needs, such a sense of interdependence of generations could not but be reflected in the organization of life. The graves of ancestors, sacred relics of the family, had to be brought as close as possible to the living, to be made part of the world of the living. Descendants had to be conceived and born literally “on the bones” of their forefathers. It is no coincidence that burials are often found under those adobe benches of Neolithic houses on which the living sat and slept.
The nomadic way of life, characteristic of the Paleolithic, came into conflict with new religious values. If the graves of ancestors are to be as close to the house as possible, then either the house must be immovable or the bones must be moved from place to place. But the veneration of the birthing element of the earth required stationary burials - the embryo of a new life, a buried body, could not be removed from the womb as needed. And therefore, the only thing that remained for the proto-neolithic man was to settle on the earth. The new way of life was difficult and unusual, but the spiritual revolution that took place in the minds of people about 12 thousand years ago required a choice - either to neglect family and community with ancestors for the sake of a more well-fed and comfortable wandering life, or to bind oneself forever to the indissoluble graves of ancestors bonds of the unity of the earth. Some groups of people in Europe, the Near East, Indochina, and the Pacific coast South America made a choice in favor of the family. They laid the foundation for the civilizations of the new Stone Age,” Zubov concludes.
The weak point of Zubov’s theory is, again, food shortages. The ancient people, who stopped nomadic, it turns out, believed that their ancestors and gods wished them a half-starved existence. In order to come to terms with their food disasters, food deficiency, they had to believe. “The ancestors-skull-bones blessed us for fasting, for a thousand years of fasting,” parents taught their children. This is what follows from Zubov’s theory. This couldn't have happened! After all, they prayed to the bones for the bestowal of great benefits: to save them from attacks by predators, from thunderstorms, so that the upcoming fishing and hunting would be successful. Rock paintings from this period and earlier - many wild animals on the walls and ceilings of caves - are interpreted as prayers for a successful hunt, abundant prey.
“Paleolithic Venuses” - they were used to receive support from the forces of Life. It is incredible, impossible, that in the most different regions of the world people decided that the gods, the higher powers, want them to settle down and starve. Rather, it’s the other way around: a settled tribe, having buried the bones of their ancestors under the floors of their homes, realizes that their diet has decreased, and decides that this is a punishment from their ancestors - because they violated the way of life, nomadism, accepted by their ancestors, thousands of generations of ancestors back in time. No tribe would settle voluntarily if it led to food problems. Voluntarily - no. But if they were forced, forced - yes.
Violence. Some tribes forced others to settle. So that the vanquished would guard the sacred bones. One tribe won, beat another, and forced the vanquished to guard the skulls and skeletons of their dead ancestors as indemnity. Bones in the ground, skulls on shelves - the defeated, oppressed “feed” the skulls, hold holidays for them - so that the dead fathers would not be bored in the next world. Where is the safest place to store your most valuable things? At home, yes. Therefore, bones are under the floor, skulls are on the shelves of round dwellings.
Probably, the victors used the vanquished not only to guard the dead. In the oldest settled settlement in Europe - Lepenski Vir, in Serbia, on the banks of the Danube, it appeared about 9 thousand years ago - the oldest part of the settlement was seasonal. The beaten tribe, or the weakest of the tribe, were forced to settle down for a few months of the year to do some work in the interests of the strongest. They made axes or spears and were involved in harvesting wild plants. They worked in the interests of the strongest.
Over time, the victors, the strongest, also switched to settling down - most likely when they realized that with the help of the vanquished they could solve all their needs. Of course, special dwellings were built for the owners of the settlement: larger in area, with altars, and additional rooms. Among the remains of one of the oldest settlements of Jericho, they found an 8-meter-high tower with a diameter of 9 meters. The age of the tower is about 11,500 thousand years. Ran Barkai, a senior lecturer at the Department of Archeology at Tel Aviv University, believes that it was built to intimidate. Vyacheslav Leonidovich Glazychev, a professor at the Moscow Architectural Institute, has the same opinion: “The tower is also a kind of castle, dominating the entire town and contrasting its ordinary inhabitants with a power isolated from them.” The Tower of Jericho is an example of how the strongest also began to settle down and control those whom they forced to work for themselves. The subordinates, the exploited, probably rebelled and tried to get rid of the rulers. And the rulers came up with the idea of sitting in a powerful tower, hiding in it from an unexpected attack, from a night uprising.
Thus, coercion and violence are at the root of the emergence of settled life. A sedentary culture initially carries a charge of violence. And in its further development, this charge increased, its volumes grew: the first cities, states, slavery, the more and more sophisticated destruction of some people by others, the deformation of religious thinking in favor of submission to kings, priests, and officials. The root of settled life is the suppression of human nature, the natural need of man - nomadism.
“No settlement could be founded without Coercion. There would be no overseer over the workers. The rivers would not overflow,” a quote from a Sumerian text.
Feb 16, 2014 Alexander Rybin
The relevance of the problem of the transition of nomadic peoples to settled life is due to the tasks put forward by life, on the solution of which further progress in social development countries where a nomadic way of life still exists.
This problem has repeatedly attracted the attention of ethnographers, economists, historians, philosophers and other researchers.
Since the 1950s, international organizations - the UN, the ILO. FAO, UNESCO, as well as progressive scientists from many countries began to study the situation modern nomads and look for ways to improve it.
Soviet scientists made a great contribution to the development from a Marxist-Leninist perspective of issues related to the history, culture, economy and life of nomads. The history of nomadic life, the peculiarities of the culture and life of nomads, the patterns and prospects for the development of their economy and culture, ways to solve the problem of settling down - all this was illuminated in the works of S. M. Abramzon, S. I. Vainshtein, G. F. Dakhshleiger, T. A. Zhdanko, S. I. Ilyasova, L. P. Lashuk, G. E. Markov, P. V. Pogorelsky, L. P. Potapov, S. E. Tolybekova, A. M. Khazanova, N. N. Cheboksarov and others.
Even during the Neolithic period, a complex settled agricultural and cattle-breeding economy arose in a number of regions of Eurasia. At the end of the 2nd - beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. at its base in some mountain-steppe regions there was a transition of individual tribes to nomadic cattle breeding.
G. E. Markov and S. I. Vainstein believe that the transition to nomadic life was caused by landscape and climatic changes, the development of the productive forces of society, socio-economic characteristics, political and cultural conditions.
Before the victory of the Mongolian People's Revolution, the Mongols were typical nomads. They adapted to their extensive nomadic economy and their family life, morals, and customs depended on it. However nomadic peoples never during their entire historical development were they isolated. They were in close economic and cultural contacts with neighboring settled tribes. Moreover, as K. Marx noted, in the same ethnic group there was a certain “general relationship between the sedentism of one part... and the continuing nomadism of the other part. The process of settling of Mongolian nomads was observed throughout historical eras either as a mass phenomenon, or as a departure from the nomadic clans of certain groups of the population who began to engage in agriculture. This process was also noted among other nomads of Eurasia.
A massive transition to a sedentary lifestyle can take two paths. The first is the forced displacement of nomads and semi-nomads from the pasture territories they have developed, while maintaining private ownership of the means of production and deepening property inequality, legal and actual national discrimination. This is how this process goes in capitalist countries. The second way - voluntary settlement - is possible with the establishment of national and social equality, a developed economy, and with targeted material and ideological assistance from the state. The psychological preparedness of the masses for the transition to settled life and their active participation in breaking up archaic forms of property and economy are also necessary. This path is typical for socialist countries.
The victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution opened such a path for the previously nomadic peoples of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tuva. Simultaneously with the voluntary cooperation of individual farms, the problem of the transition of nomads to a sedentary lifestyle was solved.
As a result of the victory of the people's revolution, favorable economic and ideological conditions were created for solving the problem of settlement in Mongolia. The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party has outlined a realistic program for the gradual and systematic implementation of the transition to sedentism over a certain period. The first stage of its implementation was the cooperation of individual Arat farms. By the end of the 50s, certain successes were achieved in the development of the economy, social relations, culture, and the living standards of the working people were again strong. Thanks to the selfless assistance of the fraternal socialist countries, especially the Soviet Union, the Mongolian People's Republic began to complete the construction of the material and technical base of socialism. At this time, the transition of livestock breeders to a sedentary lifestyle began. The promotion of this task is a natural and objective phenomenon in the process of progressive development of the country. Its solution is of great theoretical and practical importance, since the experience of Mongolia can be used by other countries where nomadic and semi-nomadic livestock farming still exists
The famous Mongolian scientist N. Zhagvaral writes that the transfer of hundreds of thousands of Arat farms to settled life is not an end in itself. Solving this problem will make it possible to more widely implement Agriculture mechanization, achievements of science and advanced experience to sharply increase the production of products, strengthen agricultural associations (hereinafter - Agricultural Associations) and on this basis raise the material standard of living of the arats.
Soviet scientist V.V. Grayvoronsky traces two main ways of settlement of nomads in the Mongolian People's Republic. The first involves the transition from traditional forms of economic activity, in particular nomadic animal husbandry or reindeer herding, to new ones - agriculture, work in industry, construction, transport, etc. This path usually requires a relatively short period of time. The second way is based on the transformation, modernization and intensification of nomadic animal husbandry while maintaining the traditional type of economy.
Currently, in the Mongolian People's Republic, a pastoral nomadic lifestyle is characteristic of more than 50% of arats. Mongolian researchers define the concept of “nomadism” differently.
Soviet and Mongolian scientists were engaged in typologizing Mongolian nomads. Thus, A.D. Simukov identified the following six types: Khangai, steppe, Western Mongolian, Ubur-Khangai, Eastern and Gobi. N.I. Denisov believed that, in accordance with the traditional division of the country into the Khangai, steppe and Gobi zones, there are only three types of nomads. However, if A.D. Simukov, in his too detailed classification, classified the usual change of pastures, characteristic of limited areas, as nomads, then N.I. Denisov did not take into account the specifics of nomads in the steppes of Eastern Mongolia. N. Zhagvaral, based on a thorough study of the characteristic features and traditions of the Mongolian economy, its natural conditions, changing pastures in different areas of the country, he came to the conclusion that there are five types of nomads: Khenteisk, Khangai, Gobi, Western and Eastern.
The migrations of Mongolian arats, methods of breeding livestock - all this characterizes the features of cattle breeding. The entire material culture of pastoralists, due to tradition, is adapted to nomadism. However, since the arats roam in small groups consisting of several families, this way of life makes it difficult to introduce price elements of culture into their era and the formation of socialist features in the life of members of agricultural associations.
At the same time, migrations also play a positive role, since they allow all year round graze livestock on pastures and, with relatively little labor input, obtain significant products. Both of these opposing tendencies are constantly at work as livestock farmers transition to a sedentary lifestyle.
Changing camps during migrations in the Khangai zone is called nutag selgekh (selgegu) (literally “to step aside”), in the steppe - tosh (tobšigu) (literally “change the nomads”). These names and the corresponding methods of migration have been preserved to this day.
In the USSR, three main types of migrations are known: 1) meridional (from north to south and back); 2) vertical (from valleys to mountains, to alpine meadows); 3) around pastures and water sources (in semi-desert and desert areas).
To typologize nomadic movements in the Mongolia, as well as in other regions of the globe, in addition to geographical conditions, it is important to take into account the methods of nomadism and equipment of the arats, their way of life, and the geographical location of enterprises for processing agricultural raw materials.
As field studies show, the direction of pastoralist migrations in certain regions of the Mongolian People's Republic depends on the location of mountains and springs, soil characteristics, precipitation, air temperature, meteorological conditions and grass stand. In each area, certain directions of migrations predominate.
The most typical migrations for the Mongols are from the northeast to the southwest or from the northwest to the southeast, that is, in the meridional direction; these are migrations of the Khangai or mixed zone, most pastoralists in the steppe zone graze cattle in the Khangai zone in the summer, and in the steppe zone in the winter.
In the steppes of Eastern Mongolia, in the basin of the Great Lakes, in the Mongolian Altai region, the population migrates from west to east, that is, in the latitudinal direction.
The classic form of Mongolian migrations, depending on their length, is divided into two types: close and long-distance. In the mountain and forest-steppe zone (Khangai, for example) they migrate over a short distance, in the valley of the Big Lakes they migrate relatively far; they are even longer in the Gobi zone. Agricultural enterprises in the Mongolian People's Republic are distributed over five zones: about 60 are assigned to the high mountain zone, over 40 to the forest-steppe zone, 60 to the steppe zone, 40 to the Great Lakes basin, about 40 to the Gobi zone. In total, there are 259 agricultural enterprises and 45 state farms in the country. On average, one agricultural enterprise now accounts for 452 thousand hectares of land and 69 thousand heads of public livestock, and one livestock and agricultural state farm has 11 thousand hectares of crop area and 36 thousand heads of livestock.
In addition to the above-mentioned nomads of the classical form, agricultural organizations of all five zones also use a lightweight type of nomadism, which allows one to switch to a semi-sedentary lifestyle.
About 190 agricultural organizations already make only short and ultra-short migrations. Approximately 60 agricultural enterprises roam long and ultra-long distances.
Analyzing the migrations of members of the association in Khangai and Khentei over four seasons, we found that in mountainous areas livestock breeders migrate twice a year over distances of 3-5 km. Such migrations are characteristic of a semi-sedentary lifestyle. In some steppe and Gobi regions, migration over a distance of 10 km is considered short-range. In the Eastern Steppe, in the basin of the Great Lakes, in the Gobi belt, they sometimes migrate over long distances of 100-300 km. This form of migration is characteristic of 60 agricultural enterprises.
In order to determine the nature of modern migrations, we divided the livestock breeders - members of the agricultural cooperatives into two main groups: those raising cattle and breeding small livestock. Below is a summary of some data collected during field research in the Eastern and Ara-Khangai aimags.
Livestock breeders raising small ruminants unite in groups of several people and quite often change their camp sites, since their herds are much more numerous than herds of cattle. For example, the shepherd of the first brigade from the Tsagan-Obo soum of the Eastern aimag, Ayuush, 54 years old, together with his wife and son, are responsible for herding more than 1,800 sheep. He changes pastures 11 times a year, carrying pens for livestock with him, and goes to the pasture 10 times. The total length of its migrations is 142 km; it stays at one site from 5 to 60 days.
Another example of the organization of livestock breeders’ nomads in the east of the country is R. Tsagandamdin’s sur. R. Tsagandamdin herds sheep, making a total of 21 migrations a year, 10 of them he does together with his entire family, housing and property, and 11 times he goes alone to drive away the cattle. These examples already show that at present there have been changes in the nature of migrations. If previously livestock breeders roamed all year round with their families, housing and farming, now about half of the migrations per year are spent on transhumance.
In Khangai, there are nomadic herders grazing cattle. Khangai cattle breeders are currently switching to a semi-nomadic lifestyle, which is manifested in the organization of livestock suras and farms, the nature and form of rural-type settlements. Thus, workers of the farms of the Ikh-Tamir somon put their yurts in one place in the summer.
Although the migrations of all herders engaged in cattle breeding have many common features, they also have their own characteristics in different areas. For comparison with the above-mentioned farms of the Ikh-Tamir somon of the Ara-Khangai aimag, we can take the nomadic herders engaged in cattle breeding in the steppe zone of Eastern Mongolia. Based on a combination of the experience and working methods of arat-pastoralists and the recommendations of specialists in the Tsagam-Obo soum of the Eastern aimag, a schedule of migrations of livestock breeders has been compiled, who change pastures depending on weather conditions.
The appearance of electricity on winter roads, the construction of economic and cultural facilities, residential buildings - all this convincingly indicates that fundamental changes have occurred in the life of the arats and stationary points have emerged around which nomads are settling. The transition to sedentarism, in particular, can already be observed in the example of 11 cattle breeding farms of the “Galuut” agricultural enterprise in the Tsagan-Obo soum of the Eastern aimag. During the year, these farms make only two small migrations (2-8 km) between winter roads located in the areas of Zhavkhlant, Salkhit and Elst, and summer pastures in the valley of the river. Bayan-goal.
In places where individual livestock surnas and farms are located, red corners, nurseries and gardens, cultural and community facilities are built jointly, which gives the arats the opportunity to spend their leisure time culturally, and also helps to overcome their traditional disunity. When creating such cultural and community centers, the prospects for their development are taken into account: the presence of nearby cattle shelters, water sources, the possibility of harvesting hay and feed, and the characteristics of various types of economic activities engaged in by residents of the area. Be sure to select the most densely populated areas (winter roads, summer roads) and accurately determine the wintering sites, as well as the duration of the nomads’ stays. Similar processes were noted by K. A. Akishev on the territory of Kazakhstan.
In this regard, there is no need to travel long distances. The main natural factor that determined the emergence of nomadic cattle breeding as a specific form of economy and constant migration routes is the frequency of consumption of sparse vegetation by livestock, unevenly (distributed over vast areas of steppes, semi-deserts and deserts, and seasonal alternation of grass stand. In accordance with the state of the grass stand in one or another region, as well as the time of year, the nomad is forced to periodically change camping sites, move from already depleted pastures to still unused ones. Therefore, the arats, together with their families and herds, were forced to constantly move throughout the year.
So, we can conclude that the direction of migrations depended primarily on natural features of the given area, and then from its socio-economic development. The directions of migrations in mountain forest areas with rich vegetation and good pastures can be traced more clearly compared to migrations in the steppe and desert zones.
The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party and the government of the Mongolian People's Republic devote great attention strengthening the material base of agriculture in order to intensify agricultural production. First of all, this is strengthening the food supply, storing hay and watering pastures.
During the years of the fifth five-year plan, the state invested 1.4 times more funds in strengthening the material and technical base of agriculture than in the previous five-year plan. A large biological plant, 7 state farms, 10 mechanized dairy farms, 16.6 thousand livestock buildings for 7.1 million heads of small cattle and 0.6 million heads of cattle were built and put into operation. 7 thousand watering points were also built for additional watering of more than 14 million hectares of pastures, and 3 large and 44 small engineering-type irrigation systems were erected in a number of aimags.
With the complete victory of the socialist industrial relations In the agriculture of the Mongolian People's Republic, the material well-being and cultural level of agricultural association members began to grow rapidly. This is also facilitated by the continuous process of transition to sedentarism. Since the beginning of the 60s, this process has become more intense, which is associated with the spread of the transhumance method of livestock farming. At the same time, a search began for ways to transition all livestock breeders to a settled state. This takes into account that nomads are forced to adapt to the sedentary population.
Until 1959, the transition to settled life took place in an unorganized manner. In December 1959, the IV Plenum of the Central Committee of the MPRP was held, which determined the tasks of further organizational and economic strengthening of the agricultural enterprise. Currently, the process of settlement presupposes, on the one hand, the transition of livestock breeders to a sedentary life, and on the other, the development of a sedentary method of animal husbandry.
The nature of the subsidence process changes depending on the stages of the socialist transformation of agriculture. It includes such interrelated and interdependent moments as staying in one place, “light” type nomadism, using pastures as the main food supply and driving away livestock.
Differences in the degree and pace of the process of settlement of pastoralists in different regions of the country are manifested, firstly, in the provision of settled settlements with cultural and consumer services; secondly, in the appearance, along with the central points of settlement - the estates of agricultural cooperatives - the beginnings of the transition to sedentarism in the locations of livestock farms and suryas. Both factors are determined by the organizational and financial capabilities of agricultural organizations.
In most agricultural enterprises of the country, livestock farming is currently combined with agriculture, as a result of which a new type of economy has emerged. The party and government are striving to develop local industry based on the processing of agricultural, livestock and poultry products. In this regard, recently there has been an increase in the specialization of livestock farming and the emergence of industries designed for its sustainable development.
The majority of agricultural enterprises and state farms are faced with such important issues as the specialization of the main production, the development of those industries that best correspond to the specific economic conditions of a given zone, and the creation of a strong and sustainable foundation for their further development. Right choice and the development of the most profitable sectors of the economy will help solve the problem of settled life on the basis of the current level of economic and cultural development of society.
Each agricultural enterprise has main and auxiliary sectors of the economy. In order to select the most profitable ones, further increase production efficiency and specialize it, it is necessary:
- to ensure conditions under which all sectors would comply with these natural and economic conditions;
- to target agricultural organizations at the development of only the most suitable sectors of the economy;
- streamline the species structure of the herd;
- develop livestock farming in combination with agriculture;
- clearly establish the direction of specialization of the economy;
- improve basic techniques and methods of livestock farming.
Pasture-nomadic cattle breeding in Mongolia is successfully combined with transhumance, a more progressive method of livestock farming that meets new social conditions. Centuries-old folk experience and data from modern science, complementing each other, contribute to the gradual and successful introduction of this method into the country's economy.
There is still no consensus on what transhumance livestock farming is: some authors classify it as a sedentary type of farming; others consider it one of the varieties of nomadic animal husbandry; some believe that this is new method livestock farming; a number of scientists claim that the basis of the transhumance method is the centuries-old experience of cattle breeders, which is being creatively used at the present time. Transhumance livestock farming creates favorable conditions for the population's transition to sedentary life and provides the opportunity to take the first steps in this direction. Transhumance is one of the old traditional progressive methods of livestock farming, which allows, on the one hand, to ease the work of cattle breeders, and on the other hand, to get a good feeding of livestock. During the transition to sedentary life, in principle, two development paths are possible: 1) transition to livestock keeping in stalls and 2) improvement of methods of using pastures as the main source of feed. Depending on factors such as the natural and climatic conditions of a given area, the state of the livestock feed supply, the nature of the economy, traditions, level of socio-economic development, for a certain period within the framework of one state farm or agricultural association, they can simultaneously exist. various shapes both nomadism and sedentary life. During this period, nomadic, semi-nomadic, semi-sedentary and sedentary lifestyles will be preserved to one degree or another.
Our observations and collected materials allow us to identify differences in the lifestyle of pastoralists involved in breeding large and small livestock. The former are characterized by a semi-sedentary lifestyle, while the latter are dominated by a pastoral-nomadic form of farming, combined with transhumance. Nowadays, the majority of Mongolian pastoralists are engaged in breeding small ruminants. They, as a rule, combine “light” migrations with the transhumance method of grazing livestock, which is becoming increasingly widespread. “Lightweight” migrations are one of the ways of transferring the arats - members of the agricultural association - to sedentary life.
The central estates of state farms and agricultural enterprises are becoming increasingly urbanized. These are administrative, economic and cultural centers in rural areas; their task is to provide all the needs of the population who have switched to a sedentary lifestyle.
Considering that about 700 thousand people currently live in the cities of the Mongolian People's Republic, we can say that the lifestyle of Mongolian workers has changed radically; 47.5% of the population completely switched to a sedentary lifestyle. The process of transition of pastoralists to a sedentary lifestyle has acquired completely new features: traditional material culture is enriched, new socialist forms of culture are spreading.
Electrical appliances have become widely used in households ( washing machines, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, televisions, etc.) and various kinds furniture made abroad, as well as yurts, all parts of which - the pole, walls, haalga (door), felt - are manufactured at industrial enterprises of the Mongolian People's Republic.
The rural population uses household items along with traditional furniture and household utensils industrial production, which improves the living conditions of the arats, promotes the development of a culture that is socialist in content and national in form.
Currently, Mongols wear both national clothes made of wool and leather, and clothes of European cut. Modern fashion is spreading in the city.
Both in the city and in rural areas, food includes sausages, canned meat and fish, various vegetables, industrial flour products produced by the food industry, the range of which is constantly increasing. Food industry MPR produces various semi-finished products and finished products, which facilitates women's domestic work. Urban and rural population uses bicycles, motorcycles, and cars more and more widely. The introduction of urban culture into the life and everyday life of the arats leads to a further increase in the material well-being of the people.
Thus, the general trend in the development of the daily production and home life of pastoralists is to reduce the proportion of its specifically nomadic components and to increase such elements of cultural behavior that are more characteristic of a sedentary lifestyle, leading to it or associated with it.
The process of settlement of pastoralists has a generally positive impact on the overall development of agriculture. When transferring agricultural workers to settle down, it is necessary to take into account the division of the country into three zones - western, central and eastern and each of them into three subzones - forest-steppe, steppe and Gobi (semi-desert). Only by taking these factors into account can we finally solve the problem of the transition to sedentarization of members of agricultural associations, which will lead to the complete elimination of the negative impact of nomadic specifics on life, the final introduction of working pastoralists to the benefits and values of a sedentary lifestyle.
CERTAIN FEATURES OF THE TRANSITION TO A SEDENTARY WAY OF LIFE IN THE MONGOLIAN PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC
The paper deals with certain features characterizing the transition of nomads to a sedentary way of life in the Mongolian People’s Republic. The author distinguishes several types of nomadism according to geographical zones, with corresponding types of transition to sedentary life. He dwells upon both favorable and unfavorable features of nomadism and then shows how some of the former can be made use of in the development of modern animal husbandry.
The paper takes into consideration all those innovations in the life of sheep and cattle breeders that have accompanied the completion of co-operation and the intensive process of urbanization in the steps.
___________________
* This article was written based on the author’s study of the forms and characteristics of the nomadic and sedentary life of livestock breeders of the Mongolian People’s Republic. Materials were collected during 1967-1974.
T. A. Zhdanko. Some aspects of the study of nomadism in modern stage. Report at the VIII International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnographic Sciences. M., 1968, p. 2.
See: V.V. Grayvoronsky. Transformation of the nomadic way of life in the MPR. - “Peoples of Asia and Africa”, 1972, No. 4; N. Zhagvaral. Aratism and Arat farming. Ulaanbaatar, 1974; U. Nyamdorzh. Philosophical and sociological patterns of development of settled life among the Mongols. - “Studia historical, t. IX, fasc. 1-12, Ulaanbaatar, 1971; G. Batnasan. Some issues of nomadism and the transition to sedentary life of members of an agricultural association (on the example of the Taryat somon of Ara-Khangai, the Uldziit somon of Bayan-Khongor and the Dzun-Bayan-Ulan somon of the Uver-Khangai aimag). - “Studia ethnographical, t. 4, fasc. 7-9, Ulaanbaatar, 1972 (in Mongolian).
T. A. Zhdanko. Decree. worker, p. 9.
S. I. Vainshtein. Problems of the origin and formation of the economic and cultural type of nomadic pastoralists of the temperate zone of Eurasia. Report at the IX International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnographic Sciences. M., 1973, p. 9; G. E. Markov. Some problems of the emergence and early stages of nomadism in Asia. - “Sov. ethnography”, 1973, N° 1, p. 107; A. M. Khazanov. Characteristic features of nomadic societies of the Eurasian steppes. Report at the IX International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnographic Sciences. M., 1973, p. 2.
G. E. Markov. Decree. worker, p. 109-111; S. I. Vainshtein. Historical ethnography of Tuvans. M., 1972, p. 57-77.
S. M. Abramzon. The influence of the transition to a sedentary lifestyle on the transformation of the social system, family life and culture of former nomads and semi-nomads (using the example of the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz). - “Essays on the history of the economy of the peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan.” L., 1973, p. 235.
By lightweight migration, the author understands migration over a short distance, on which the herder takes with him only the most necessary things, leaving the property in place with one of the adult family members.
Sur is the primary form of production association of livestock farmers in Mongolia.
G. Batnasan. Some issues of nomadism and the transition to sedentary life..., p. 124.
K. A. Akishev. Decree. worker, p. 31.
Ya. Tsevel. Nomads. - “Modern Mongolia”, 1933, No. 1, p. 28.
Yu. Tsedenbal. Decree. worker, p. 24.
V. A. Pulyarkin. Nomadism in the modern world.- “Izv. Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Ser. Geogr", 1971, No. 5, p. thirty.
V. A. Pulyarkin. Decree. worker, p. thirty.
§2. The transition to sedentarism and the beginning property stratification society
Stories of the transition to sedentarism and
A huge amount of literature is devoted to the formation of agrarian civilizations. A detailed discussion of these processes is beyond the scope of our topic. What is important for us are the systematic changes that occur in the organization of social life at this stage.
The transition to agriculture does not immediately lead to a settled life. The first step, slash-and-burn agriculture, leaves room for community migration. However, as population density increases, such opportunities become fewer and fewer. We have to cultivate the same plots of land. This encourages sedentarism, the permanent life of the entire community and each family in the village, which remains in the same place for many generations19.
Hunter-gatherer societies are mobile. The consolidation of hunting grounds, if it occurs, is not associated with strict technological necessity. The wild animals and birds living in these areas are only potential prey, but not property. In settled agriculture everything is different. Before plowing and sowing, a family cultivating the land must know the boundaries of its allotment and the harvest from which it can count. Hence the need for certain relations of land ownership: land is a key production factor of agrarian civilization. This property can be redistributed within the community, assigned to large families, inherited or not, but in any case there must be land relations established by custom and a procedure for resolving disputes. This pushes agrarian society to create more developed forms of social organization than in the previous era20. Problems associated with land ownership relations are aggravated with the arrival of agriculture in the valleys of large rivers. Here, the settlements of farmers are not separated from each other by large tracts of uncultivated land, but are located nearby. Their residents communicate with their neighbors. New relationships emerge, including those related to the coordination of joint activities.
Irrigated farming technologies are labor-intensive. For land reclamation, irrigation and watering of fields, and organization of water use, many workers are needed, which may simply not be found in one village. But neighboring farmers also need water, and they unite and coordinate their efforts, introducing agricultural technologies that were advanced at that time all over the world. It is not surprising that developed civilizations - not just settled agricultural communities, but civilizations - arose in areas of irrigated agriculture - in Sumer, Egypt.
Even C. Montesquieu noted that the strengthening of central power is associated with irrigated agriculture. This same point of view is shared by many modern researchers21. K. Wittfogel, considering the specific features of eastern despotism, reduced everything to land reclamation and irrigation22. However, the foundations of the Chinese centralized bureaucracy were formed when the vast majority of the Chinese population lived on rain-fed lands. Only many centuries later did the center of Chinese civilization shift to the south, to areas of irrigated agriculture. Undoubtedly, irrigated farming technologies contributed to the formation of a centralized bureaucracy in agrarian societies, but were not the main and only reason for it.
The authors of some works devoted to the consequences of the Neolithic revolution note that the formation of an agrarian society with its characteristic problems associated with the regulation of property relations, primarily land ownership, involves increased stratification, the allocation of specialized functions that are little compatible with regular labor in agriculture economy. Hence the need for redistribution, i.e. mobilization of part of the resources of the rural community to carry out these tasks. general functions, to ensure the circle of those who control this flow of resources and its distribution. The costs of maintaining those who exercise general management of the economy - economic, administrative, ideological - are one way or another institutionalized and become habitual23.
For settled agriculture, it is important to know exactly the time when to start sowing and harvesting. This is especially important for the Middle Eastern center of civilization, where there is no change of seasons set by the monsoon cycle. Hence the need to accumulate and systematize astronomical knowledge and train people capable of performing this function. Such activities were associated with religious rituals. The first privileged groups that we find in the history of agrarian civilizations are the religious elites. A characteristic feature of many early civilizations is the location of temples in river valleys.
Initially, the administrative hierarchy in sedentary rural communities is not very noticeable, similar to the institutions characteristic of the era of hunting and gathering. Chiefdom is generally considered to be the first form of social organization with centralized management and a hereditary clan hierarchy, where there are property and social inequalities, but there is no formal repressive apparatus24.
The first cases recorded in extant sources in which the resources of agricultural communities were pooled to perform specific tasks facing sedentary temple households are found among the Sumerians. They allocated land for joint cultivation. The harvest went to the needs of the clergy. Examples of proto-states (chiefdoms)25, where regular taxation does not yet exist, and public functions are performed through gifts to rulers and are not of a fixed and regular nature, are Sumer of the Lagash period, China of the Shan period, India of the Vedic period.
Community work on fields belonging to the entire community is not yet perceived as a duty, but as part of a religious ritual26. Over time, it becomes possible to seize and redistribute part of the harvest, which exceeds the minimum necessary to feed the farmer’s family. And if so, someone will try to specialize in confiscation and redistribution, using violence for this27.
Thus, the transition to settled agriculture introduces an important aspect for subsequent history into the organization of society: the balance of incentives to use violence changes. If there is a large non-militant sedentary population that produces significant volumes of agricultural products over time, sooner or later an organized group will appear willing and able to redistribute part of these resources in their favor - to take away, rob, impose an irregular tribute or an orderly tax. This phenomenon has been well researched, and is not what we are talking about now. What matters to us is what this leads to. An abyss of inequality arises between the majority of the peasant population and the privileged elite, ready to forcibly appropriate part of the products produced by the peasants. This is an important feature of an agrarian society. It was during its formation that predatory raids for loot became widespread23.
Unlike hunting, where men's production skills are close to military skills, farming by its nature is a peaceful activity. Initially, as already mentioned, it was generally feminine29. In the early stages of the transition to agriculture, men hunt. Women, traditionally engaged in gathering, are beginning to master hoe farming. Only gradually, with the growing role of agriculture in food production, with the advent of tools that require great effort, primarily the plow, the role of male labor in agriculture increases.
If collective hunting requires organizational interaction, sedentary agriculture does not require anything like that. It allows you to significantly increase the food resources obtained from the same territory. The seasonal nature of farming makes it necessary to accumulate food reserves. The further agriculture develops, the more funds are required for land improvement, irrigation, outbuildings, equipment, housing, and livestock30. The peasant has something to take away. Relocation is associated with serious costs for him; it is easier for him to pay off a warlike neighbor than to flee from his home. The use of violence to appropriate the results of peasant labor becomes profitable, and therefore becomes widespread31.
This begins the transition from temple farms in river valleys, characteristic of early civilizations, to kingdoms and despotisms. The mechanisms of this transition are conquest or resistance to conquerors. Any rigid scheme used to describe the process of socio-economic evolution is poorly compatible with the realities of the historical process. According to F. Engels, the emergence of a state is certainly preceded by the stratification of society32. According to K. Kautsky, first in wars and conquests a state arises and only then does social stratification begin33. In reality, these processes are intertwined. Agricultural production develops, the agricultural population settles on the land and concentrates, the need arises to regulate land ownership rights, organize public works, the preconditions for the appropriation and redistribution of surplus product are created, groups specializing in violence are formed, and privileged elites not engaged in agriculture are formed states. All this does not happen one by one, in some given sequence, but simultaneously, in parallel34. Specialization in violence, and the associated right to have weapons, is usually the prerogative of the elite35. In agrarian civilizations, confiscation of weapons from peasants was often practiced36.
Violence and its forms, the redistribution of material resources are the subject of special historical research. Sometimes the formed proto-state structures of the early agrarian period come into conflict with their neighbors. This brings them war booty, slaves, tribute. It happens that an aggressive proto-state entering into conflict with its neighbors creates a snowball effect: other communities have only one choice - to submit and pay tribute or to become equally strong and aggressive. Often the role of tribes specializing in organized violence is played by nomadic pastoralists37. Unlike settled farmers, their production and military skills are practically inseparable, so a nomadic tribe can field more trained warriors accustomed to joint combat operations than (with the same number) a tribe of farmers. The raids of nomads became perhaps the most important element in the formation of agrarian states38.
An illustrative example is the barbarians who lived near the centers of agricultural civilizations. They could borrow technical innovations, primarily in the field of military affairs, from their more developed neighbors; they had incentives for conquest (the wealth of the same neighbors) and the advantages of the old, uncivilized structure of life, where every man is a warrior. We are talking about the first civilization known to us from reliable historical sources - Sumerian. Unlike Egypt, Mesopotamia did not have natural, easily defended borders and was open to raids. The flourishing of the cities of Mesopotamia created incentives for the barbarians to forcibly seize wealth and plunder. At the same time, the entire social order of the Sumerian settlements was shaped by the clergy, and not by the violent structures of the state. This prevented full-fledged defense from barbarian raids.
The kingdom that arose in Mesopotamia as an organizational form differed from the evolutionary agricultural society that was governed by the clergy. This is due both to the influence of neighboring Semitic shepherds and to the Semitic conquest of the sedentary Sumerians. The founder of the Akkadian Empire, Sargon, is one of the creators of the ancient state known to us from written sources, who took advantage of the favorable geographical location of the lands and the ethnocultural characteristics of their inhabitants and neighbors39.
The conquerors, having established control over settled farmers, became a new elite, rallied around power, and contributed to its strengthening. Being strangers to the locals, they imposed high taxes on the population40. Without a foreign elite, the formation of the state proceeded more slowly: in the emerging social structures, elements of tribal kinship remained for a long time, the authorities in their actions were limited by ideas about the rights and freedoms of their fellow tribesmen.
Similar articles
The best amulets against the evil eye and damage Amulet against the evil eye with hands for children
How to read the Psalter correctly
Delicious dishes with sausages
A glimpse of Bella. Romantic chronicle. A glimpse of genius. Messerer about Akhmadulina Boris Messerer glimpse of Bella romantic chronicle
I dreamed that I was sailing on a boat on the river
How to cook beef entrecote in a frying pan
About the company Foreign language courses at Moscow State University
Which city and why became the main one in Ancient Mesopotamia?
Why Bukhsoft Online is better than a regular accounting program!
Which year is a leap year and how to calculate it