categories: games involving horses, military games, wrestling and fist-fighting, and individual and team competitions of various kinds.
The horse sports were particularly developed since the Eurasian Nomads were the history’s most prominent horse people, the true Centaurs. They included various types of horse races, such as speed, distance, and insurance races. There were team sports, such as kókpar (goat dragging), horseback wresting, and picking up small object from the ground on full gallop, chasing a girl on a horse, horseback polo, and many more.
The military sports included horseback and foot archery of many types, competitions with spears and lances, javelin throwing, jousting, and etc. The nomads invented knightly tournaments, where the competitors, armed with dull spears or lances, tried to knock each other off the horse. These and other types of jousting were played as duels or in teams, and served as training exercises for future combat use.
These nomadic tournaments migrated to Europe together with horse-riding culture, and became the foundation of the future European knightly tournaments; except for in Europe it was only the privilege of the wealthy, while in Eurasian Steppes every nomad could participate and win regardless of his or her status. In Kazakhstan these tournaments were popular among the population and existed until 1920s, when they were finally officially banned by the Soviets.
The foot military disciplines had a few types of fist-fighting and wrestling, one of which survived today as qazaqsha kures (Kazakh wrestling). Of course there was fencing, dueling, swordplay, spearplay, axeplay and other types of combat sports performed both on foot or horseback. The nomads were skillful warriors who knew their way with all types of weapons. This was a universal matter of survival.
And when the Eurasian Nomads weren’t busy moving, fighting, watching after their cattle, or partying, playing music, reciting poetry, playing sports or taking part in military competitions, they entertained each other by playing regular games. There was enormous amount of games that the nomads invented, borrowed, and helped to spread around the Afro-EuroAsia. There were riddles and puzzles, jokes and mockery, active games involving throwing objects, kids games such as hide and seek, tag, tug of war and its variations, and etc. There were even romantic and erotic games for young adults, and brain-stimulating games for seniors to help them to keep their memory sharp. And many, many more.
The nomads also tried to turn every work into a game. During the intense Kósh times, the EN wore their best clothes, garments, and accessories, and travelled merrily and loudly, while signing song, and bursting into horse races or chases. The youth used the Kóshes as occasions to meet new friends and make romantic connections. On the camping grounds, when the nomads had to perform some labor-intensive group tasks, such as felt-making, they would engage is games, specifically designed to make their work go faster and merrier; as opposed to dull everydayness routines of the SC farmers or craftsmen that performed repetitive tasks all their lives.
The nomads knew how to spend their time well, and they had the means for that: time and wealth. They lived in the world where every winter could be their last one: the nomads never had more than a few months-worth of food stores, so there could be hunger in the spring; where the enemies could strike at any time and there were no walls to hide behind, where the disease could wipe out the entire regions, as with the infamous Black Death in 14th century that started somewhere in Central Asia, got spread along the entire Silk Road and wiped around almost a half of the population of Eurasia.
Given all that, the nomads tried to value every living minute, and they did that by creating a vastly developed culture.
Nomadic society
Political system
The closest we can describe the EN society in SC terms would be a direct military democracy with strong remnants of matriarchy. All adult population took part in elections, and every voice was counted. In a nomadic version the leadership must have possessed extraordinary and universally accepted merits in order to be elected. The chief or chieftess must have been a great warrior/warrioress, be honest and honorable person, have political and economic wits, know traditions, be adequate and qualified for the job, have good orator skills, and etc.
Surely, it didn’t always exist in a pure form. In areas where the nomads came in close contact with SC nations or led a semi-nomadic lifestyle, they adopted many features of their settled neighbors. Also, there were a few periods in history, when there were native EN ruling dynasties, such as the Royal Scythians, the Ashina Turks, or the descendants of Genghis Khan called Tóre (Genghisids). These dynasties overruled the direct elections and passed their status to their heir. But even they had to listen carefully to what their freedom-loving subjects need. Otherwise, the rulers would’ve end up without their people, as the nomads could simply move away from their leaders, if they didn’t meet their expectations.
But there were also long periods of time in remote areas of the Great Steppe where the EN lived free in accordance with their own laws, and the ruling class was elected during direct voting among the most merited and distinguished members of the nomadic society, both male and female. In fact, most of the nomads didn’t like the idea of electing Khans, they preferred to stop the hierarchy at a tribal leadership level. Khans were usually needed only in times of war.
Being the EN Khan was no easy feat. The people knew their rights and powers, and they could deposit any ruler just as easy as they elected him or her. The leaders were held accountable for all their actions, and often were killed or sent to exile if they didn’t deliver. Therefore, competing for power in such societies was the best example of meritocracy of the elites.
Social structure
As for the structure, the nomadic society was built of a few families forming nomadic villages called Auls, which entered extended family clans called Ru, the Rus were part of tribes called Taipa, and tribal confederations were called Orda (order) known as Horde in English. Each of these had their own head, usually it was a man, but distinguished female leaders weren’t rare at all on all levels.
The leaders were full-scale military leaders, marshals and generals, and were personally leading all military campaigns. The tribal chieftains and Khans lost their lives in battles on regular basis, as it was a dangerous life. If a family lost their male leader, or if a Khan was killed at war, usually his oldest wife would take his place until his sons reach the age of maturity.
Men died in wars too often, therefore, there was always a lack of them in the nomadic society, leading to excess of single women. To offset this negative balance, the nomadic males would usually take a few wives and try to produce as many male offspring as possible, knowing that most of them won’t live long enough to mature. Even so, these measures could barely replace the male losses. So there was an institute of secondary marriage, where any widow would marry the remaining male relative of her killed husband, and he would adopt her children and raise them as his own. This was a far better option for most women than to be left alone in the Steppe with children and possessions to meet a certain death.
Other wives were not against it, because they knew that this tradition was developed over millennia as an insurance policy in women’s benefit. Any woman might end up needing it at any time. As for men, knowing that their children will be taken care of by their kin in case of their death made them braver warrior. This is why the nomadic warriors could afford to die for honor on the battlefield.
Military system
All males were considered warriors upon reaching the adulthood, and were attached to the tribal
