Inner Mongolia Steppe Nomadic Origin Of Means Of Livelihood To Explore

The Nomadic culture is an important part of human cultures. The Nomadic culture and the farming culture are the two main cultures before the industrial civilization of mankind, which are created through long-term practice for adaptation to different ecological environment. The Nomadic livelihoods are the basis for the formation of nomadic cultures. Therefore, probing on the appearing time of the nomadic livelihoods can provide an important clue for the study of the origin of the Nomadic culture.In this paper, the author has probed on the problem of the origin of the Nomadic livelihoods in northern grassland of China, for which the author has drawn on social anthropology of nomadic societies of Western research achievements, from the theoretical perspectives of ethnology, cultural anthropology, archeology, history and sociology and by using historical documents, archaeological and ethnographic data. And for which by using multiple cultural theories of historical materialism and cultural ecology, through a new perspective, the author has reread the historical documents and archaeological materials.First, the author has qualified some concepts such as "Northern Prairie Belt", "zones along the Great Wall," "Animal," "nomadic", emphasizing the meaning and the referential scope of these concepts in this paper. After this, the author has overviewed the researches on the origin of nomad cultural done by the Chinese and foreign scholars. Then mainly from the relationship between the ecological environment of Inner Mongolia and the nomadic livelihoods, the domestication of animals and plants,the development of primitive agriculture and animal husbandry, the Neolithic archaeological information of central and southern regions of Inner Mongolia, the author has discussed the formation time of inner Mongolia steppe nomadic livelihoods.The author's main points are as follows:(I) Claim on the culture and ecological adaptation. Eco-environment plays a very important constraint role in the choice of means of livelihood. The livelihood of nomadic ways are directly related to the resource characteristics of grassland ecosystems, which are a set of cultural adaptation and effective manners created by the people living in the specific steppe regions of the grassland ecosystem. The author has stressed that the Strips along the Great Wall and the northern steppe zone are two different ecological and cultural areas. Thus, the conclusions drawn from the analysis to climate and environment changes of the Strips along the Great Wall merely have reflected changes of the economic life of the zone along the Great Wall, by which we can not tell when the nomadic livelihoods of steppe zone occurred.(II) To study the origin of nomadic livelihoods, the author advocates that we should take cattle, sheep and other herbivorous animals, livestock or domesticated success as a prerequisite for emerging nomadic animal husbandry. The importance of horses in nomadic society is mainly reflected in the emergence of riding technique and its application in traffic liaison, information, communication and social management and social management and control, which have improved the efficiency and characteristics of the link between the nomadic societies and have also promoted the nomadic society, making the nomadic culture develop to a higher stage. And the importance of horses is also reflected in the riding and shooting technology in military applications, which enables nomadic, with its excellent riding and shooting technology, surfed in the world stage, having affected the entire world civilization; therefore, its important is not reflected in the daily life of nomadic production activities. So domestication of horses and the appearance of riding there are not necessary conditions to explore the formation of the early nomadic livelihoods.(III) On the use of archaeological data, the author emphasizes on archaeological data of grassland marginal areas showing the economy with the livestock, nomadic livelihoods, as well as information about the interaction signs presented in the steppe zone along the Great Wall to reason the formation of the early nomadic livelihoods, rather than taking the archaeological materials in the Strips along the Great Wall (farming-pastoral zone) as direct evidence.(IV) The popular views about the origin of the nomadic culture in the steppe zone of northern China are, "the origin of the Bronze Age" and the "separation of Agriculture." The author believes that the status quo with the following aspects:Firstly, lack of early nomadic populations documented information; secondly, It is difficult to develop and survived nomadic mode of early nomadic populations remains, and the shape and decorative patterns in the performance of the nomadic culture, or the style of the grassland culture of metal objects can be left behind; Thirdly, researches are mainly based on the archaeological data in the Great Wall along the zone of; Fourthly, the awareness of the characteristics of nomadic culture; fifthly, It is thought that the nomadic economy is "dependent" or "non-self-sufficient".(V) The innovative conclusion of this dissertation is like the following. As the ecological basis for the livelihood of, the nomadic steppe landscape has existed in the late Pleistocene. The cattle, sheep, etc. had been successfully domesticated in the late Neolithic Age and provided basic means of subsistence for the nomadic populations of herbivorous animals, which were necessary conditions for nomadic livelihoods. On the archaeological analysis to the information of grassland areas along the Great Wall in the late Neolithic Age, have been equipped with the Marginal areas under of Neolithic of the information, especially from the analysis to the interaction signs in areas along the Great Wall from the late Neolithic site of the ancient city of Petra, we can say the main form of livelihood of nomadic populations had appeared in the steppe zone along the Great Wall in the late Neolithic Age in China's northern grassland area already, and the nomadic steppe zone means of livelihood had already been formed in the late Neolithic Age.