Socially Integrative Facilities and the Emergence of Societal Complexity on the Mongolian Steppe

Houle, Jean-Luc

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511605376.020

Cited by 35 publications

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“…successors, without the same level of practical networks and connections that make contemporary nomadic pastoralism so robust. Material culture from this earlier period shows that though there are syncretic elements and contacts across the cultural landscapes of these early nomadic pastoralists (Anthony 2007;Erdenebaatar 2002;Frachetti 2008;Gorynova 1983;Houle 2009), these may not represent the range or depth of assistive networks that are so important to the economic survival and long-range political organization of pastoral nomads. Living as part of less robust networks, the people of the Bronze and Early Iron Age may not have been as able to adapt and recover from crises and reverses as well as their successors, and thus would have great incentive to create new and stable systems of economic security and political organization to increase their chance of survival as mobile pastoralists.…”

Section: The Organizational Challenges Of Early Pastoral Nomadismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The loss of members diminishes the original community's chances of success as pastoralists. Thus, the maintenance of networks of mutual support, local social cohesion, and statements of access control in nodal regions of the pastoralist economic landscape are critical to nomadic pastoralist communities (see also Houle 2009). This scenario is not one that requires chiefs; much of the decision making could be done by individual herders or ad hoc collectives (Mearns 1996;Murphy in press).…”

Section: The Organizational Challenges Of Early Pastoral Nomadismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Though Mongolia lacks the extensive archaeological dataset that underlies the study of monuments in northern Europe, there is growing recognition that monuments in Mongolia are more than simple burial markers, so their analysis would be enlivened by a more interpretative approach (Houle 2009;Wright 2007Wright , 2012. I am also working within a contextual view of the archaeology of pastoral nomadism in Mongolia (Honeychurch and Amartuvshin 2006;JacobsonTepfer et al 2010) and Central Asia (Anthony and Brown 2007;Frachetti 2008;Krader 1957;Nomokonova et al 2010;Popova 2009) in which human ecology and the interrelationships of spatially associated classes of different archaeological data are central to interpretations of ancient society.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Other archaeological evidence comes from the Hovsgol region (Frohlich et al 2009), the Middle Ider valley and Khanny valley in the Khangai Mountains (Houle 2009;Houle and Erdenebaatar 2009), the Southern Altai of Mongolia, South Siberia (Tsybiktarov 1995), and Qinghe County, Xinjiang, China (Fig. 3).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Landscapes of Inequality?: A Critique of Monumental Hierarchy in the Mongolian Bronze Age

Wright¹

2014

asi

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Khirigsuurs are stone monuments of variable scale and complexity that dominate the archaeological landscape of the Mongolian Bronze Age. Though there are countless typical-sized monuments, there are a few very large structures suggesting that a chiefly hierarchy directed their construction. Using measurements of size and formal complexity to compare these mega-monuments and khirigsuurs within fully surveyed areas this article argues that these monuments are not primarily tombs built to represent the social hierarchy of early nomadic pastoralists. Instead, they are monumental places created for living communities to communicate their organization and enduring nature to others and themselves. This communication was essential for early pastoralist communities to become established and survive.

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Section: The Organizational Challenges Of Early Pastoral Nomadismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Organizational Challenges Of Early Pastoral Nomadismmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Landscapes of Inequality?: A Critique of Monumental Hierarchy in the Mongolian Bronze Age

Wright¹

2014

asi

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“…This knowledge includes ways to navigate both environmental landscapes and social networks. These modern day herders provide a useful ethnographic analogy, when applied cautiously, for the semi-nomadic nature of the early herders of Mongolia [12,17,18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining Social Adaptations in a Volatile Landscape in Northern Mongolia via the Agent-Based Model Ger Grouper

Clark

Crabtree

2015

Land

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Abstract:The environment of the mountain-steppe-taiga of northern Mongolia is often characterized as marginal because of the high altitude, highly variable precipitation levels, low winter temperatures, and periodic droughts coupled with severe winter storms (known as dzuds). Despite these conditions, herders have inhabited this landscape for thousands of years, and hunter-gatherer-fishers before that. One way in which the risks associated with such a challenging and variable landscape are mitigated is through social networks and inter-family cooperation. We present an agent-based simulation, Ger Grouper, to examine how households have mitigated these risks through cooperation. The Ger Grouper simulation takes into account locational decisions of households, looks at fission/fusion dynamics of households and how those relate to environmental pressures, and assesses how degrees of relatedness can influence sharing of resources during harsh winters. This model, coupled with the traditional archaeological and ethnographic methods, helps shed light on the links between early Mongolian pastoralist adaptations and the environment. While preliminary results are promising, it is hoped that further development of this model will be able to characterize changing land-use patterns as social and political networks developed. OPEN ACCESSLand 2015, 4 158

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Analysis of mitochondrialDNAhaplogroup frequencies in the population of the slab burial mortuary culture of Mongolia (ca. 1100–300 BCE)

Rogers

Kaestle

2022

American Journal of Biological Anthropology

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Recent research has shown evidence of ancient admixture from both eastern and western Eurasian genetics in the human populations of Mongolia going back to at least the Eneolithic Afanasievo archaeological culture (ca. 3000 BCE). Eastern mtDNA lineages found in ancient and living Mongolians in the past and present have greatest affinity with Neolithic populations from the Transbaikal region of southern Siberia, suggesting that people from this region were likely the first to colonize northern and eastern Mongolia after the last glacial maximum (ca. 24,500-17,000 BCE), while western Eurasian groups probably migrated to the steppe in association with the earliest forms of pastoralism. While some studies suggest the contribution of these ancient western lineages to the modern populations in Mongolia was minimal, this research demonstrates that western mtDNA lineages were particularly prominent among the burial populations of the Early Iron and Iron Ages in the region. This is most notable among the burial population associated with slab burials and the burial population of their successors, the people associated with the Xiongnu polity . Similarities between mtDNA haplogroup frequencies of the slab burial and Xiongnu burial populations also strongly support the proposal that the builders of the slab burials were the principal ancestors of the Xiongnu people. Objectives: The objective of this research is to increase understanding of human population change on the Mongolian steppe during the first millennium BCE and how it may be associated with cultural change and the creation of early eastern steppe empires. It examines the mtDNA haplogroup frequencies of the burial population from slab burials in Mongolia and compares it with frequencies from various other populations to determine population affinities. Methods: This study was primarily based on Sanger sequencing the HV1 of the mtDNA of ancient individuals from Mongolia during the Early Iron Age for haplogroup determination and then comparing mtDNA haplogroup frequencies with previously published data including 110 ancient and modern populations. The 21 samples used in this study were selected based on region, dating, and availability.

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Socially Integrative Facilities and the Emergence of Societal Complexity on the Mongolian Steppe

Cited by 35 publications

References 0 publications

Landscapes of Inequality?: A Critique of Monumental Hierarchy in the Mongolian Bronze Age

Landscapes of Inequality?: A Critique of Monumental Hierarchy in the Mongolian Bronze Age

Examining Social Adaptations in a Volatile Landscape in Northern Mongolia via the Agent-Based Model Ger Grouper

Analysis of mitochondrialDNAhaplogroup frequencies in the population of the slab burial mortuary culture of Mongolia (ca. 1100–300 BCE)

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