40 chapter one
I.2. About freedom and otherness and the signs and images of usness
and othernessTh e human factor studied through the prism of “Pax Nomadica”—
‘sedentary world’ could be also related to the problem of freedom and
the nomads’ attitude towards it. It is key to the process of developing
images of the Other.
In contrast to Byzantium, for example, where freedom was inter-
preted through the prism of Christian doctrine and true freedom
meant that the individual was free from sins, freedom in the above-
mentioned nomadic/semi-sedentary type of societies was not so much
related to the Self but rather to the community, to we and our lifestyle,
notions, and values. Th is was the life of the free rider who was a mem-
ber of a particular clan/tribe and was loyal to his leader until death.
In the tribal system we can be completed only in the presence of its
antithesis—they,^84 the sedentary societies. Th e marks of our freedom
and our values among the nomads were numerous: steppe, fresh air,
herds, yurts, lack of artifi cial borders, dynamics and bellicosity, tribal
solidarity and, perhaps, meat and milk.^85 According to their ideas, the
only way of life for the dignifi ed free man was that typical for the war-
rior and the herdsman; and the basic social structure (at least accord-
ing to the traditional concept)—the tribal organization with its highly
developed military hierarchy and subordination. Th ere the tribes were
united by the power of the Heaven’s representative on earth—the
khagan.^86
For the nomad, the sedentary world was marked by signs and quali-
ties (semi-dug in dwellings and overcrowded houses, stuff y air, backs
bent over the rice or corn fi elds, strenuous taxes, perfi dy/treachery,
lust, and indolence),^87 part of which he read as non-freedom and
others, such as perfi dy/treachery, lust, and frailness,—he defi ned as
femaleness, marked a priori by obedience, i.e. non-freedom again.
However, in the nomad’s mind there were some more name-and-
images of the sedentary otherness such as ‘richness’, ‘luxury’, ‘gold’,
‘literacy’, ‘silk’, ‘baths’, i.e. things and qualities that the nomads (espe-
cially in the sixth century) still did not oft en possess. Th e written
(^84) Sagalaev and Oktiabr’skaia 1990, 14.
(^85) Sagalaev and Oktiabr’skaia 1990, 22.
(^86) Bazen [Bazin] 1986, 353 f.
(^87) Jagchid 1991, 64; Kardini [Cardini] 1987, 38.