WW Chapter 11: Pastoral Peoples on the Global Stage : Pastoral Societies

     The chapter starts out with the mention of Chinggis Khan is Mongolia and how his soul was lost after being dead for seven centuries. His soul was contained in a spirit banner, which was made of strands of hair from the best horses attached to a spear. The Communists at the time of 1937 destroyed his banner when the time came. In Mongolian tradition this means that Chinggis Khan's was destroyed with the banner. The intro goes on to state how 2006 marked eight-hundred years since the Mongol Empire was founded.
     The chapter goes on to talk of the economies that focused on livestock production. They emerged at around 4000 B.C.E. They were extremely dependent of livestock such as horses, camels goats, sheep, cattle, yaks, and reindeer. These sorts of pastoral societies developed in many various parts of the world such as Arabian and Saharan deserts, the Tibetan plateau, and across the Grasslands of Eurasia. However, this kind of lifestyle did not take shape in the Americas due to the fact there were not many large animals that they were capable of domesticating.
     Pastoral societies were, for the most part, less productive than agricultural societies. Since they were domesticating many large animals to use them in their advantage, they required very large grazing areas. In addition to this, Pastoral societies consisted of populations that were much smaller than the populations that took up space in agricultural societies. During this time clans emerged and they gathered as tribes. They were open to letting people into their clans. They were also very nomadic peoples and liked to travel.
     Women had a higher status than in other types of societies. They had fewer restrictions as to what they could and could not do. They had a much bigger role in public activities around their societies. The work that they did was a lot more productive than the work that women in other various societies were doing.
     Although they had cultural differences, Pastoral societies seemed to have good, strong connections with Agricultural societies. Forming nomadic states was difficult. I think this was partly due to the fact that they were nomads. It seems kind of hard to control people that keep moving. However, Chinggis Khan, for example, could create strong states and as a result, the entirety of the males and some females became warriors.
     As a result of the interaction with agricultural lands, many Eurasian nomads were exposed and adopted religions. They adopted Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Manichaeism.
     They also managed to survive in environments that were not suitable for agriculture.