Re: [tied] The Kurgan Tradition.

----- Original Message -----

From: Mark Odegard

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2000 2:54 AM

Subject: [tied] The Kurgan Tradition.

 

First, to speak of "PIE nomadism" is an unwarranted idealisation. The early IEs had a mixed economy, as even linguistic palaeontology makes clear. The "steppe nomads" were partly agriculturalists; as pastoralists, they were semi-sedentary or transhumant rather than fully nomadic. Pure nomadism (as epitomised by some Iranian or Altaic ways of life) is a pretty late development, and where it occurs it requires regular contact or even symbiosis with farming communities. This is something that many "palaeoeconomists" have commented on.

 

Secondly, pastoralism is not an exclusively steppe institution, though grassland conditions require certain adaptations and a good deal of specialisation. The first European farmers kept sheep and cattle, and if necessary could place more emphasis on the pastoral aspect of their economy. Typically pastoralist cultures developed in NC Europe as well. Remember that although lay people tend to imagine the landscape of early Europe in Wagnerian terms (the impenetrable primaeval oak forests of Germania), towards the end of the Neolithic much of the northern plain was actually occupied by forest-steppe.

 

Piotr

 

 

I have lots of questions, most of which cannot be answered. If one accepts a North Central European homeland, you have to explain how IE-speaker steppe-nomadism developed, and how they developed their toolkit.