The development of cultural and social complexity in mongolia

Abstract

Pastoral nomadic peoples are not usually thought of as architects of complex political organization. Most anthropological and historical literature on nomads repeats a common theme when it comes to their organizational potential-due to their mobility, lack of economic surplus, and fierce independence, herders tend not to organize politically, or do so only on a small-scale or temporary basis. Not surprisingly, such theories have difficulty accounting for the empires of Mongolia which were large, complex, powerful, and numerous. Yet, the dominant explanations for polities of the Asian steppe suggest that they must have been dependent on sedentary neighbors for critical resources and models of organization. This historically embedded concept of nomadic raiders along the frontiers depending on and appropriating the resources of neighboring states is still alive and well in twenty-first century scholarship. Archaeological approaches, however, are changing these stereotypical ideas about nomadic societies in many parts of the Old World and have generated new conceptions of nomads and their complexity. The material record left behind by ancient herding peoples in Mongolia tells a very different story of their lifeways and organization. I review recent archaeological research in Mongolia beginning with the earliest adoption of herd animals and ending with the rise of the first nomadic state. During this time span of more than 3000 years, archaeology has documented sophisticated cultures, advanced technologies, and experiments with many kinds of political formations. These early precedents produced the organizational foundations that underwrote the subsequent empires of Mongolia.