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Political system

The closest we can describe the EN society in SC terms would be a direct military democracy with strong remnants of matriarchy. All adult population took part in elections, and every voice was counted. In a nomadic version the leadership must have possessed extraordinary and universally accepted merits in order to be elected. The chief or chieftess must have been a great warrior/warrioress, be honest and honorable person, have political and economic wits, know traditions, be adequate and qualified for the job, have good orator skills, and etc.

Surely, it didn’t always exist in a pure form. In areas where the nomads came in close contact with SC nations or led a semi-nomadic lifestyle, they adopted many features of their settled neighbors. Also, there were a few periods in history, when there were native EN ruling dynasties, such as the Royal Scythians, the Ashina Turks, or the descendants of Genghis Khan called Tóre (Genghisids). These dynasties overruled the direct elections and passed their status to their heir. But even they had to listen carefully to what their freedom-loving subjects need. Otherwise, the rulers would’ve end up without their people, as the nomads could simply move away from their leaders, if they didn’t meet their expectations.

But there were also long periods of time in remote areas of the Great Steppe where the EN lived free in accordance with their own laws, and the ruling class was elected during direct voting among the most merited and distinguished members of the nomadic society, both male and female. In fact, most of the nomads didn’t like the idea of electing Khans, they preferred to stop the hierarchy at a tribal leadership level. Khans were usually needed only in times of war.

Being the EN Khan was no easy feat. The people knew their rights and powers, and they could deposit any ruler just as easy as they elected him or her. The leaders were held accountable for all their actions, and often were killed or sent to exile if they didn’t deliver. Therefore, competing for power in such societies was the best example of meritocracy of the elites.

Social structure

As for the structure, the nomadic society was built of a few families forming nomadic villages called Auls, which entered extended family clans called Ru, the Rus were part of tribes called Taipa, and tribal confederations were called Orda (order) known as Horde in English. Each of these had their own head, usually it was a man, but distinguished female leaders weren’t rare at all on all levels.

The leaders were full-scale military leaders, marshals and generals, and were personally leading all military campaigns. The tribal chieftains and Khans lost their lives in battles on regular basis, as it was a dangerous life. If a family lost their male leader, or if a Khan was killed at war, usually his oldest wife would take his place until his sons reach the age of maturity.

Men died in wars too often, therefore, there was always a lack of them in the nomadic society, leading to excess of single women. To offset this negative balance, the nomadic males would usually take a few wives and try to produce as many male offspring as possible, knowing that most of them won’t live long enough to mature. Even so, these measures could barely replace the male losses. So there was an institute of secondary marriage, where any widow would marry the remaining male relative of her killed husband, and he would adopt her children and raise them as his own. This was a far better option for most women than to be left alone in the Steppe with children and possessions to meet a certain death.

Other wives were not against it, because they knew that this tradition was developed over millennia as an insurance policy in women’s benefit. Any woman might end up needing it at any time. As for men, knowing that their children will be taken care of by their kin in case of their death made them braver warrior. This is why the nomadic warriors could afford to die for honor on the battlefield.

Military system

All males were considered warriors upon reaching the adulthood, and were attached to the tribal militia forces. To be efficient, all boys without exception were trained to be warriors from the earliest possible age. This rule also included all girls too, because not only they were expected to be able to protect themselves, but the nomadic women were also default auxiliary cavalry reserve in times of war. Therefore, all nomadic children, boys and girls, were trained and proficient in handing the Five Weapons (Bes Qaru), the nomadic martial arts system which included weapons such as bow and arrows, lances and spears, sabers and swords, clubs, warhammers and battle axes, and daggers and knives. All of these Five Weapons were used both on horseback and on foot.

European knighthood takes its roots from the EN tradition of the Great Steppe’s knights called Batyrs (bahadurs, baatars). It is a well-known fact among the Eurasian nomadologists. The Batyrs were the elite tribal warriors who rose to their ranks only due to their military accomplishments. The Batyrs were noble by the nomadic standards, extraordinary warriors and military strategists, also were well-educated, accomplished in arts, poetry, and music. The status of Batyr was not passable to their children and could only be earned in battles. Sometimes even Khan’s were given the status of Batyr. In some respects, the title of Batyr was higher than the status of Khan.

Leadership

The decision-making process in EN society was also unique. The family heads (Aul-Bas) would elect the clan head (Ru-Bas), and the assembly of the Ru-bases would elect their tribal leader (Taipa-Kósem). The Taipa-Kósems would form constituent assemblies of tribal confederations. These assemblies were to hold democratic leadership meetings called Qurultai, where they would discuss the ongoing matters, such as coordinate their seasonal migration routes, solve any possible disputes, and etc. Each of the Taipa-Kósems had a voice and the decisions were made by voice count.

In times of war or famine, the Qurultai could have decided to appoint a marshal or even elect a Khan. At this, in order to elect a Khan, the circumstances must be extraordinary, such as long war with an adversary state or another nomadic tribal confederation, because the nomads never liked the idea of concentrating too much power in one hand. The marshals would usually be appointed from the ranks of the most experienced and accomplished Batyrs. Sometimes, the Qurultai could even combine both roles and elect a Khan with marshal’s privileges.

For the most part of history, nomadic Khans had limited powers. First of all, the elected Khan would have to give out all of his cattle (main wealth) to the tribes that elected him. So overnight a Khan and his family became poor, fully dependent on his subjects. A Khan was allowed only a small personal guard and enough cattle to sustain his family. This was a symbol of his surrender to his peoples’ interests and an insurance against his greed and corruption.

Now the newly elected Khan had to earn his peoples’ trust and find new wealth by taxations, or in war or by trade. Nomadic taxation system was called yasak/yasaq/jasaq (tribute), and it was rather simple: each tribal unit had to annually supply Khan with a certain amount of livestock or other goods, such as felt, leather, furs, ropes, tools, and etc.

A war-time marshal or Khan could request the tribes to provide their militia when needed. Each tribe would supply the requested amount of battle-ready warriors, fully equipped and armed. Each military unit consisted of kin warriors with their own elected leaders, and could act independently or as a part of a large unit. Under the martial law, all warriors were obliged to abide the marshal’s orders, and refusal to comply could be punished by death.

At the same time, the relatives of an executed warrior could openly complain after the martial law was lifted and question the marshal’s decision. If the marshal was found to exceed his powers, he would either pay the compensation fee per generally accepted rate, or could even be reelected. If the insulted party wasn’t happy with the ruling, they could take upon themselves to carry on bloody vendetta and seek to kill the said Khan or marshal, often successfully. The life of a nomadic Khan was dangerous.

In case of successful military raids or campaigns, the spoils of war were divided among the nomads honestly and democratically. The Khan would receive the biggest part, since he carried the most risks in case of a failure and because he had to feed his own guardsmen and their families. The tribal militia would receive parts of the spoils proportional to their quantitative input. Ideally, all of the participants would get their fair share, even if they didn’t play a decisive part in the overall success. But the honor and glory would go to those who did, and this is why everybody tried hard.

Judicial system

Courts didn’t exist in nomadic society in the same form as they did in SC nations. Instead, the nomads had arbitrary judges, who were among the most honorable and distinguished members of EN society. In order to become a judge, one must have had a life-long impeccable record of honest behavior and good judgement. If one didn’t meet these requirements, he simply would never see any clients, as they would choose to go to somebody with a better reputation.

If there was a dispute between two parties related to murder, theft, or pastures, and they couldn’t come to an agreement on their own, they could come to a judge they trusted, and he or she for a percentage of the settlement amount would listen to both sides, counsel them, and offer a solution to their dispute. If both parties were satisfied, the judge’s reputation grew, and he would find more clients.

But judges’ role wasn’t just to be arbiters for disputes. Best judges were so influential because of their practical wisdom that they became advisors to tribal leaders or even Khans. Some judges even were asked to take over the leadership of entire tribes or tribal confederations, which almost equaled them to the status of Khans. A status of a judge wasn’t passable to their children, it could only be earned by a person’s own merits and deeds. No wonder Ancient Greeks called the EN «the most decent of men».

In traditional ENC law, the criminal penalties never contained long-term imprisonment. In traditional society there were only two ways of dealing with criminals: material penalty and death. For each type of the crimes there was a universally agreed fee. Injuring a person cost a certain amount of cattle or money, killing a person would cost much more, and etc. And if, on rare occasions, the affected party didn’t accept the penalty for their killed member for some reason, they could choose «death for death» penalty instead. The execution of this sentence was up to the affected party, who would try hunting down and killing the violator.

Healthcare, education, and pensions

Of course, no society could exist without some form of healthcare system. The nomads never had hospitals, clinic, or medical schools. Instead, every nomads since the childhood was taught basic medical literacy. The parents were the doctors in their family, capable of curing most of the common ailments by themselves, using homemade remedies, such as sheep far, herbs, warms, horse milk, and etc.

In case if the disease was serious, they could visit or invite a tribal medicine man or a woman, who was a person of particular aptitude and knowledge in curing people. There were a few types of these nomadic «doctors», some specializing in herbal medicine, others in injuries and surgeons, some could fix broken bones and dislocations, and correct skeletal problems, and some could even cure the non-physical and mental illnesses, similar to shamans. These skills could be passed from generation to generation.

It must be noted that historically the EN were very healthy, comparing to the SC nations, as it was noted by European and Russian travelers in Modern Era who visited the nomadic tribes of Kazakhstan and Mongolia. They reported that the nomads don’t have any diseases, except for those caused by traumas, poisonous bites, infections, or age. Therefore, the traditional EN medicine was mostly geared towards treating these conditions.

The EN did not have formal education institutions with proper courses, syllabuses, and degrees. Instead, the entire adult population of the Great Eurasian Steppe was faculty, and all of the youth were students. The process of education took place «on the job» as the children grew older, learned new skills and with their increasing knowledge could take up on more responsibilities.

In day time adult nomads taught their youth practical skills: feeding, watching after, and milking the cattle; sewing, weaving, fixing clothes, making household objects; as well as riding horses, shooting bows and fighting with and without weapons. And by night the most knowledgeable adults would tell their children amazing educational stories of the past, fairy tales with moral twists, or share common knowledge in geography, natural sciences, math, astronomy, and etc.

The EN never had pensions or social security systems. Instead, their elders relied on help of their children. Basically, it was universally accepted that if parents did a good job raising their children, left them good material inheritance, brought them up as good, decent people, and taught them to fend for themselves, then they would be automatically rewarded by having a secured golden age, provided by their offspring.

At the same time the elders weren’t useless dead weight enjoying a free ride. They were busy till their last breath: they picked up the slack after busy and inexperienced young parents in rearing and educating their grandchildren and helping with the house chores. The elders usually lived with the youngest son till their death, and in return he inherited all their main estate, including the emblematic father’s yurt.

The nomadic elders were actively involved in social life: advised the active adult population on matters of Kóshes and wars, formed an elderly assembly called aq-saqaldar (the white beards) which was so vital that for many common questions people went directly to them first for answers. Very often the aq-saqaldar were able resolve small disputes, consul the couples, convince youth to avoid making rushed decisions, and even prevent inter-tribal conflicts. At the same time, their voice could be decisive in times of wars and conflicts, and make adult population take weapons in their hands.

The social status of elders was elevated and they played a significant integral part in EN societies in all times.

Distribution of wealth and religions

One of the most interesting and incredible features of the EN society was the absence of sharp stratification and the poor.

The former was due to a fact that every man and woman were warriors and had a right to defend their honor with weapons in their hands. This was a society of free men and women after all. And they could unite and protect their rights quite remarkably, so any leader would have to think twice before trying to instill unjust ruling. And in case if the disagreed party was too small to use force, they could simply pack their yurts and kósh to another place or join another leader to avoid exploitation.

The absence of poor was because the nomadic lifestyle is only possible with a certain minimal amount of wealth. As minimal requirement, any nomadic family needs a yurt or two, a certain amount of horses and camels to carry the people, their yurts and possessions from one seasonal camp to another, and, of course, enough meat cattle to sustain the entire family with nutrition.

If a nomadic family had lost their cattle, horses, camels, and yurt, it automatically meant that they are no longer fit to carry on with the nomadic lifestyle. Hence they became jataqs, which literally translates as «lying in one place» meaning that a person or a family became settled. Other nomads looked down at these unfortunates, who would dream of ways to acquire the necessary amount of nomadic wealth to get back into nomadic game. Clearly, falling as low as to become jataq and lose the status of a free nomad was considered one of the worst misfortunes that any nomad could think of.

The Eurasian Nomads had interesting attitude towards religions. Here is an incomplete list of just a few religions that various groups of EN have practiced during different periods of time: many forms of Shamanism, Vedic religions, Tengrism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. That’s pretty much every single Afro-EuroAsian religion.

The main and original religions of the EN were Shamanism, Paganism, and Tengrism. The proper term that I prefer to use is natural philosophy, because the nomads worshiped what they perceived as essences, entities, substances of surrounding nature: the Sky, Earth, and Water (Tanir, Jer/Yer, and Su), and the spirits of nature or certain geographic location.

These beliefs were consistent throughout the entire existence of the ENC and was never fully replaced even after the nomads adopted other religions. The EN «priesthood» was rather basic and permeated the entire nomadic society: all regular parents were considered «family shamans» and could conduct common ceremonies and rituals; for special occasions there were «specialist shamans» who devoted their lives to spirits; the tribal leadership and Khans sometimes had their own «court shamans» whom they consulted on political and personal matters.

At the same time, the nomads almost never waged on any religious wars. Quite opposite, for the most part the EN were extremely tolerant towards all religions and faiths. They never allowed the differences in beliefs or rituals obstruct the common humane values.

When the nomads forged their mighty empires by the edges of their sabers, they almost never persecuted any religious groups, nor have they tried to force everybody into some one religion. Instead they allowed all subjects practice their own. Their motto was: just obey the law, send the troops, and pay the taxes, and nobody will bother you.

Women’s role in EN society

The shift from the Matriarchy to Patriarchy, which happened in the majority of the SC nations world-wide after the Agrarian Revolution, lead to an ever-decreasing social role and status of women. Within a couple of thousand years women went from worshiped Goddesses of Fertility and Nature to their lowest point in the medieval Witch Hunt, when women were openly discriminated, demonized, and prosecuted.

None of that ever happened to such extend within the ENC. Traditional role of women in EN society was the highest in human history during the Patriarchal Era. For a long time the nomads didn’t even fully transfer to the Patriarchal model. The Ancient Greeks wrote that the Scythian men and women had equal status. And traces of that equality survived to this day in most of post-EN societies.

Most scholars of today agree that the mythical nation of Amazon women who were fierce fighters and could best all-male armies was, in fact, based on the historical tradition of the ENC female warriors. The phenomenon of historical Amazons existed in the EN societies throughout the entire history.

There are famous female queens in the Saka society in the first millennium BC, such as Tomiris, Amaga, Zarina, and others. They were more than just administrative leaders: nomadic queens were required to assume military leadership roles just as male leaders. So powerful were these queens, that their status regarded as high as the famous SC rulers’ of the period, such as the Persian Achaemenid king Cyrus and the Macedonian Alexander the Great.

In my nation of Kazakhstan and neighboring Karakalpakistan there still exist a tale of Qyryq Qyz (forty maidens) who fought their way and saved their country from invaders. There are historical records of famous female military leaders among the Kazakh women in the past few centuries who fought along their men with invading Zunghars, Persians, Uzbeks, Manchu, and Russian.

The nomadic women were so strong and independent, that a courting ritual actually included a real wrestling match or a full-scale duel between the bride-to-be and the contender bridegroom. This wasn’t just an orderly bridal ritual: it was a real fight, and if a man lost, which happened sometimes, he would either become a lady’s slave, or would have to pay a ransom to free himself from the prisoner’s status. Not to mention that his honor would be permanently stained, because there were not secrets in the Great Eurasian Steppe.

By the Middle Age the Patriarchal trend has gradually reached the Eurasian Nomads and most rulers were male. However, even then the women remained influential in politics, and basically acted as gray cardinals, directing their royal husbands from behind the scenes. Great nomadic leaders like Genghis-Khan had multiple wives, but their position was different from that of the Islamic or Chinese harems. In the harems, the wives were basically living in one palace, with a strict hierarchy of senior, middle tier, and junior wives, and the eunuch who were serving/supervising them.

In EN society, each of wives had her own nomadic Aul consisting of a few or more yurts, cattle herds, herdsmen and servants, and sometimes even her own guards. Basically, each of wives had her own small nomadic state within a state, where she was a full master. Even in less rich families with two or more wives being a part of one Aul with shared cattle, each of wives had her own yurt where she lived with her children, and other wives had no direct control over her possessions.

But even in the middle ages sometimes noble women forwent the behind-the-scenes routine and ruler openly. This happened more than once in the so-called Mongol Empire. One of the ancestor of Mongols is Alan-Gua, a mythical pra-mother. In Genghis-Khan’s own life there was an array of important women: his mother Hoelun, his first and senior wife Borte, his relative Altani who received the title of Baatar for being a brave warrior, his junior wives, sisters Yesugen and Yesui, among many others. They played significant roles at certain moment during the forging of empire. Finally, the wife of his third son, the Great Khan Ögedei, named Töregene Khatun was a direct ruler of the empire for a few years until her son Güyük Khan became the next Great Khan.

The Patriarchy never reached the same heights in the Great Steppe as it did in Europe, Middle East, Central Asia, or China. Even in the 19^th century, after the majority of the Eurasian Nomads were converted to Islam, the status of women remained comparatively high. Even when under the Islamic law, nomadic women never wore full-veil or were as separated from men as they were in the SC Islamic nations.

The high social status of women in the ENC could be traced from the religious beliefs. In the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age times, the female goddesses were treated as equal to male gods. A good chunk of Scythian/Saka pantheon is made of female deities. Many of them lost their prominence, but one goddess name have survived till today and is still regarded among the Kazakhs: the Goddess Umai. She was one of the highest-ranking ancient goddesses of fertility, matron of all mothers and wives. Some modern-day Kazakhs still conduct millennia-old Umai rituals when the new babies arrive.

Another sign of equality between men and women in the nomadic society is in the very base of all Turkic languages. There are about half a hundred live and extinct Turkic languages, but they all share the same feature: there are no words for «he» or «she» in all of them. Instead, all Turkic languages refer to persons of both genders equally as «ol» or «o». If a Turkic-speaking person wants to specify gender of a person, he or she just have to use words «this/that man» (mynau/anau erkek) or «this/that woman» (mynau/anau qatyn). This is a major detail that tells us a lot about how the nomads traditionally viewed men and women.

Traditional nomadic family

The Eurasian Nomads managed to keep and preserve a very old human social construct known as Tribalism which traces back to late Stone Age and Bronze Age. In a simplified form, the EN tribes (Taipa) consisted of smaller units, such as family clans (Ru), which in turn were formed by families (Otbasy, Janúya). A few of Otbasy would form an extended family that physically manifested itself in a form of a nomadic village called Aul.

Of course, extended families in EN societies were much larger than those of the SC nations, and could incorporate dozens or even hundreds of people. That is because the meaning of the word «blood relatives» included the genetic kin up to seven generations back, a principle knows as Jety Ata (Seven Male Ancestors).

The nuclear families, consisting of primary parents and their biological children, could also include adopted relatives’ children, older parents, or other relatives. These nuclear families were parts of extended families, which included siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, once-removed relatives, twice-removed relatives, and fourth-generation relatives, and so on till seventh-generation relatives, both on paternal and maternal sides, as well as the children and relatives of father’s other wives (polygyny).

The marriages within these seven paternal generations were strictly prohibited to avoid interbreeding. Why seven? Since we’ve learned about genes in 20—21^st centuries, some calculated that the chances of genetic mutations due to interbreeding decrease every passing generation, as shown in a table below. Back down seven generations, and the risk of it becomes as low as between 0 to 1%. How did my ancestors figured out the exact amount of generations of Y-chromosome needed to weed out the risk of genetic mutations? I don’t know exactly. But this explains why the nomads had superior genes and were famous for their health and endurance.

Table showing the distribution of Y-chromosome within seven generations

The extended families of seven-generation relatives could be as large as a few dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of members, because of the added polygynic families. A few of such extended families, formed a clan (Ru). A few dozens or hundreds of clans, still considered related, would belong to a single tribe (Taipa), usually all stemming from the same ancestor. Sometimes new Rus could be added either through marriage or war, or for political reasons.

Most of possessions and wealth within EN families were shared, including livestock, yurts, equipment, weapons, and etc. The notion of private property was weak. A friend or relative could ask for pretty much anything, and it was considered impolite to refuse. Even to this day some of the post-EN nations are known for their generosity and selflessness.

At the same time, the families, clans, and tribes were sensitive about matters of honor, therefore, insulting, injuring, or killing a member of another tribe, even not a very important one, would be considered an assault on the entire clan or even a tribe, and the revenge would follow. Sometimes it led to lengthy bloody vendettas that lasted for generations. But this was a good crime preventing policy in a nearly-stateless society, for one had to think twice before doing something bad.

A simplified structure of Eurasian Nomadic Tribalism

The relationships within families, clans, and tribes were warm, trustful, and cooperative. Every member of the tribe could travel within all of its Auls and receive the same treatment in every yurt. If a family had to adopt children of a diseased of killed relative, these children would be equaled to own children and treated with the same level of respect and attention. Growing up, adopted children would consider themselves as part of an adoptee family/clan, and view adoptive parents as their own.

Aul members would gather together and provide collective help if someone needed it; for example, in a process of shearing sheep wool or making felt. In times of sorrow, if someone died, which happened too often, the whole clan would come to help and be around at all times for a few weeks, a tradition still called Kóńil Aitu (expressing sympathy) among the Kazakhs. This was and still is a great family therapy, which much more efficient and affordable that hiring a therapist for money.

Today, in a Post-Industrial world, the tribalism is often viewed negatively as something archaic and outdated. It is considered that it leads to suppression of individual freedoms (arranged marriages), women rights (polygyny), as well as nepotism, clan wars and revenge, and sometimes even bloody vendettas. Indeed, when put in a foreign urban environment, with overcrowded population and nowhere else to go, the nomadic tribalism might manifest itself that way. But when it exists in its natural element, such as pastoral nomadic society living in the open Steppe, it makes most sense.

For example, the seemingly cruel and bloody tradition of revenge in practice is meant to combat crimes when there is no police or centralized governments. The arranged marriages yielded low rate of divorces and spouses living together till death parted them. Polygyny gives some single women a chance to start a family with father, when there are no free men available. The «nepotism» in nomadic pastoral economy means common interests, trust, and quality cooperation. The Jety Ata principle means that the risk of interbreeding and resulting mutations is almost zero. Added to this the emotional stability and comfort from knowing that you are never along when you need help or support, and that the entire clan or tribe is behind you at all times.

All together this system, which evolved naturally over the millennia, produced resilient social fabric, capable to resist the harsh life conditions and endless wars that the Eurasian Nomads were forced to lead.