The Nomad as State Builder: Historical Theory and Material Evidence from Mongolia

摘要

Theory on nomadic political complexity has largely been based on twentieth century ethnography and numerous historical accounts of the military confederations of pastoral nomads. Over the past two decades, archaeologists have increasingly used material evidence to evaluate ideas about nomadic polities and have added indigenous and local-scale perspectives to an understanding of nomadic political process in many regions across the Old World. One of these is Mongolia, a major center of nomadic state and empire formation, where archaeologists have recently focused attention on an early regional polity that arose at the end of the first millennium BC and is known as the Xiongnu (also Hsiung-nu) state. This paper synthesizes the latest archaeological research on the Xiongnu state in order to evaluate historical models that explain state emergence among nomads on the far eastern steppe. The material record from Mongolia adds the detail and resolution needed to refine existing explanations for Xiongnu state emergence. Keywords Mongolia Xiongnu Hsiung-nu Pastoral nomads Complexity Conflict State emergence Page %P Close Plain text Look Inside Reference tools Export citation EndNote (.ENW) JabRef (.BIB) Mendeley (.BIB) Papers (.RIS) Zotero (.RIS) BibTeX (.BIB) Add to Papers Other actions Register for Journal Updates About This Journal Reprints and Permissions Share Share this content on Facebook Share this content on Twitter Share this content on LinkedIn Related Content Supplementary Material (0) References (181) ReferencesAlizadeh, A. (2010). The rise of the highland Elamite state in southwestern Iran: ‘Enclosed’ or ‘enclosing’ nomadism? Current Anthropology, 51, 353–383.Allard, F., & Erdenebaatar, D. (2005). Khirigsuurs, ritual and mobility in the Bronze Age of Mongolia. Antiquity, 79, 547–563.Amartuvshin, Ch., & Galdan, G. (2013). 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Miller (Eds.), Xiongnu archaeology: Multidisciplinary perspectives of the first steppe empire in Inner Asia (pp. 261–274). Bonn: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität. About this Article Title The Nomad as State Builder: Historical Theory and Material Evidence from Mongolia Journal Journal of World Prehistory Volume 26, Issue 4 , pp 283-321 Cover Date2013-12 DOI 10.1007/s10963-013-9069-2 Print ISSN 0892-7537 Online ISSN 1573-7802 Publisher Springer US Additional Links Register for Journal Updates Editorial Board About This Journal Manuscript Submission Topics Archaeology Anthropology Keywords Mongolia Xiongnu Hsiung-nu Pastoral nomads Complexity Conflict State emergence Authors William Honeychurch (1) Author Affiliations 1. Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA Continue reading... To view the rest of this content please follow the download PDF link above.