Re: [tied] Re: Why India?

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 13365
Date: 2002-04-19

It used to be thought that the "natural way" was from savage through barbarian to civilised, the nomad being regarded as something between the hunter-gatherer and the agriculturalist in the natural order of things. Actually, nomadic pastoralism is a highly specialised mode of subsistence which appeared fairly late in history. Classic mounted nomadism developed during the first millennium BC and its historical heyday in Central Asia is a still more recent affair (culminating after AD 1000). It derived from farming cultures (in which livestock became more important than other elements) and has always been dependent on trading contacts or symbiotic relations with agricultural societies. However, I wasn't talking of "Reiternomadismus" but rather of semi-nomadic transhumant herding, combined with some complementary resources (including plough agriculture on a limited scale). The line between that and "sedentary farming" is thinly drawn and easy to cross.
 
Piotr
 
 
From: ravichaudhary2000
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 9:39 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Why India?


Why would you expect to go from farming to nomadism ? Is the other
way not more natural ?