The Rivalry Between Nomads and Settled People in Asia

The Rivalry Between Nomads and Settled People in Asia The relationship between settled peoples and nomads has been one of the great engines driving human history since the invention of agriculture and the first formation of towns and cities.  It has played out most grandly, perhaps, across the vast expanse of Asia. North African historian and philosopher Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) writes about the dichotomy between townsfolk and nomads in The Muqaddimah.  He claims that nomads are savage and similar to wild animals, but also braver and more pure of heart than city dwellers.   Sedentary people are much concerned with all kinds of pleasures.  They are accustomed to luxury and success in worldly occupations and to indulgence in worldly desires.   By contrast, nomads go alone into the desert, guided by their fortitude, putting their trust in themselves.  Fortitude has become a character quality of theirs, and courage their nature. Neighboring groups of nomads and settled people may share bloodlines and even a common language, as with Arabic-speaking Bedouins and their citified cousins.  Throughout Asian history, however, their vastly different lifestyles and cultures have led to both periods of trade and times of conflict. Trade Between Nomads and Towns Compared with townspeople and farmers, nomads have relatively few material possessions.  Items they have to trade may include furs, meat, milk products, and livestock (such as horses).  They need metal goods such as cooking pots, knives, sewing needles, and weapons, as well as grains or fruit, cloth, and other products of sedentary life.  Lightweight luxury items, such as jewelry and silks, may have great value in nomadic cultures, as well.  Thus, there is a natural trade imbalance between the two groups. Nomads often need or want more of the goods that settled people produce than the other way around. Nomadic people have often served as traders or guides in order to earn consumer goods from their settled neighbors.  All along the Silk Road that spanned Asia, members of different nomadic or semi-nomadic peoples such as the Parthians, the Hui, and the Sogdians specialized in leading caravans across the steppes and deserts of the interior. They sold the goods in the cities of China, India, Persia, and Turkey.  On the Arabian Peninsula, the Prophet Muhammad himself was a trader and caravan leader during his early adulthood.  Traders and camel drivers served as bridges between the nomadic cultures and the cities, moving between the two worlds and conveying material wealth back to their nomadic families or clans. In some cases, settled empires established trade relations with neighboring nomadic tribes.  China often organized these relationships as a tribute. In return for acknowledging the Chinese emperors overlordship, a nomadic leader would be allowed to exchange his peoples goods for Chinese products.  During the early Han era, the nomadic Xiongnu were such a formidable threat that the tributary relationship ran in the opposite direction: the Chinese sent tribute and Chinese princesses to the Xiongnu in return for a guarantee that the nomads would not raid Han cities. Conflicts Between Settled People and Nomads When trade relations broke down, or a new nomadic tribe moved into an area, conflict erupted.  This might take the form of small raids on outlying farms or unfortified settlements.  In extreme cases, entire empires fell.  Conflict pitted the organization and resources of the settled people against the mobility and courage of the nomads.  The settled people often had thick walls and heavy guns on their side.  The nomads benefited from having very little to lose. In some cases, both sides lost when the nomads and city dwellers clashed.  The Han Chinese managed to smash the Xiongnu state in 89 CE, but the cost of fighting the nomads sent the Han Dynasty into an irreversible decline.   In other cases, the ferocity of the nomads gave them sway over vast swathes of land and numerous cities.  Genghis Khan and the Mongols built the largest land empire in history, motivated by anger over an insult from the Emir of Bukhara and by the desire for loot.  Some of Genghiss descendants, including Timur (Tamerlane) built similarly impressive records of conquest.  Despite their walls and artillery, the cities of Eurasia fell to horsemen armed with bows.   Sometimes, the nomadic peoples were so adept at conquering cities that they themselves became the emperors of settled civilizations.  The Mughal emperors of India were descended from Genghis Khan and from Timur, but they set themselves up in Delhi and Agra and became city dwellers.  They did not grow decadent and corrupt by the third generation, as Ibn Khaldun predicted, but they did go into a decline soon enough. Nomadism Today As the world grows more populated, settlements are taking over open spaces and hemming in the few remaining nomadic peoples.  Out of about seven billion humans on Earth today, only an estimated 30 million are nomadic or semi-nomadic.  Many of the remaining nomads live in Asia. Approximately 40 percent of Mongolias three million people are nomadic. In Tibet, 30 percent of the ethnic Tibetan people are nomads.  All across the Arab world, 21 million Bedouin live their traditional lifestyle.  In Pakistan and Afghanistan, 1.5 million of the Kuchi people continue to live as nomads.  Despite the Soviets best efforts, hundreds of thousands of people in Tuva, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan continue to live in yurts and follow the herds.  The Raute people of Nepal also maintain their nomadic culture, though their numbers have fallen to about 650. At present, it looks as though the forces of settlement are effectively squeezing out the nomads around the world.  However, the balance of power between city-dwellers and wanderers has shifted innumerable times in the past.  Who can say what the future holds? Sources Di Cosmo, Nicola. Ancient Inner Asian Nomads: Their Economic Basis and Its Significance in Chinese History. The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 53, No. 4, November 1994. Khaldun, Ibn Ibn. The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History - Abridged Edition (Princeton Classics). Paperback, Abridged edition, Princeton University Press, April 27, 2015. Russell, Gerard. Why Nomads Win: What Ibn Khaldun Would Say about Afghanistan. Huffington Post, April 11, 2010.

Medieval Christmas Traditions

Medieval Christmas Traditions Among the Pagan traditions that have become part of Christmas is burning the yule log. This custom springs from many different cultures, but in all of them, its significance seems to lie in the iul or wheel of the year. The Druids would bless a log and keep it burning for 12 days during the winter solstice; part of the log was kept for the following year when it would be used to light the new yule log. For the Vikings, the yule log was an integral part of their celebration of the solstice, the julfest; on the log, they would carve runes representing unwanted traits (such as ill fortune or poor honor) that they wanted the gods to take from them. Wassail comes from the Old English words waes hael, which means be well, be hale, or good health. A strong, hot drink (usually a mixture of ale, honey, and spices) would be put in a large bowl, and the host would lift it and greet his companions with waes hael, to which they would reply drinc hael, which meant drink and be well. Over the centuries some non-alcoholic versions of wassail evolved. Other customs developed as part of Christian belief. For example, Mince Pies (so called because they contained shredded or minced meat) were baked in oblong casings to represent Jesus crib, and it was important to add three spices (cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg) for the three gifts given to the Christ child by the Magi. The pies were not very large, and it was thought lucky to eat one mince pie on each of the twelve days of Christmas (ending with Epiphany, the 6th of January). Food Traditions The ever-present threat of hunger was triumphantly overcome with a feast, and in addition to the significant fare mentioned above, all manner of food would be served at Christmas. The most popular main course was goose, but many other meats were also served. Turkey was first brought to Europe from the Americas around 1520 (its earliest known consumption in England is 1541), and because it was inexpensive and quick to fatten, it rose in popularity as a Christmas feast food. Humble (or umble) pie was made from the humbles of a deer the heart, liver, brains and so forth. While the lords and ladies ate the choice cuts, the servants baked the humbles into a pie (which of course made them go further as a source of food). This appears to be the origin of the phrase, to eat humble pie. By the seventeenth century, Humble Pie had become a trademark Christmas food, as evidenced when it was outlawed along with other Christmas traditions by Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan government. The Christmas pudding of Victorian and modern times evolved from the medieval dish of frumenty a spicy, wheat-based dessert. Many other desserts were made as welcome treats for children and adults alike. Christmas Trees and Plants The tree was an important symbol to every Pagan culture. The oak, in particular, was venerated by the Druids. Evergreens, which in ancient Rome were thought to have special powers and were used for decoration, symbolized the promised return of life in the spring and came to symbolize eternal life for Christians. The Vikings hung fir and ash trees with war trophies for good luck. In the middle ages, the Church would decorate trees with apples on Christmas Eve, which they called Adam and Eve Day. However, the trees remained outdoors. In sixteenth-century Germany, it was the custom for a fir tree decorated with paper flowers to be carried through the streets on Christmas Eve to the town square, where, after a great feast and celebration that included dancing around the tree, it would be ceremonially burned. Holly, ivy, and mistletoe were all important plants to the Druids. It was believed that good spirits lived in the branches of holly. Christians believed that the berries had been white before they were turned red by Christs blood when he was made to wear the crown of thorns. Ivy was associated with the Roman god Bacchus and was not allowed by the Church as decoration until later in the middle ages when a superstition that it could help recognize witches and protect against plague arose. Entertainment Traditions Christmas may owe its popularity in medieval times to liturgical dramas and mysteries presented in the church. The most popular subject for such dramas and tropes was the Holy Family, particularly the Nativity. As interest in the Nativity grew, so did Christmas as a holiday. Carols, though very popular in the later middle ages, were at first frowned on by the Church. But, as with most popular entertainment, they eventually evolved to a suitable format, and the Church relented. The Twelve Days of Christmas may have been a game set to music. One person would sing a stanza, and another would add his own lines to the song, repeating the first persons verse. Another version states it was a Catholic catechism memory song that helped oppressed Catholics in England during the Reformation remember facts about God and Jesus at a time when practicing their faith could get them killed. (If you would like to read more about this theory, please be warned that it contains graphic descriptions of the violent nature in which Catholics were executed by the Protestant government and has been refuted as an Urban Legend.) Pantomimes and mumming were another form of popular Christmas entertainment, particularly in England. These casual plays without words usually involved dressing up as a member of the opposite gender and acting out comic stories. Note:Â  This feature originally appeared in December 1997, and was updated in December 2007 and again in December 2015.