178 CHAPTER 4
by seasonal migrations. In a semi-sedentary society stock-breeding represents
a separate sector (which is tended to by herdsmen), equal in importance or
subordinate to agriculture.37
According to A. Khazanov, agriculture plays a dominant role in a semi-
sedentary economy. Seasonal migrations of individual stock-breeding groups
or families can occur. However, their advances are shorter in distance compared
to the migrations of a semi-nomadic society, exposed to the same environmental
conditions.38
Another type of a stock-breeding economy, where the majority of the popu-
lation leads a sedentary way of life, is the migratory grazing (transhumance),
during which the pastures and cattle are tended by herdsmen. Occasionally,
the pastures are remotely located from the settlements. Stock-breeding contin-
ues to be an important sector of the economy, which in turn can be described
as mixed. A version of this type of pastoralism is mountain grazing (transhu-
mance or yayla-type stock-breeding). In summer, herds graze in high mountain
pastures, moving to the lowlands in winter. Such a type of stock-breeding can
exist together with semi-nomadism or nomadism.39
According to A. Khazanov, the nomadic economy is unstable and is affected
by climate changes and diseases which affect cattle. It therefore rarely pro-
duces the necessary surplus for trade with sedentary communities, thus mak-
ing the nomads dependent on their contacts with them. The development
of a nomadic state is determined by its ability to provide a regular supply of
agricultural and handicraft products.40 These can be obtained through plun-
der or taxes (tributes), taken from subordinate agricultural societies that have
retained their economic and socio-political structure. There is also direct taxa-
tion on the subordinate agricultural society whose lands have been acquired,
the conquerors inheriting the system that existed prior to the land acquisition.
Another possibility is the creation of agricultural and handicraft sectors by the
nomads themselves, but usually only after they have moved an agricultural
and artisan population on their territory.41
37 Markov 1976, 9–10.
38 Khazanov 1994, 21.
39 Khazanov 1994, 22–24. It is impossible to describe all the various types of nomadic pas-
toralism in this book. It is however important to bear in mind that often one community
could have different practices that can be attributed to both a semi-sedentary and a semi-
nomadic economy. The literature concerning these issues is extensive; see for instance
Erdélyi 2000; Kradin 2001a, 74–91; Kal’onski 2007, 230–245.
40 Khazanov 1994, 203–206.
41 Khazanov 1994, 224–225.