What Role did horse breeding play in Kazakh Nomadic culture over the centuries?
At the conference dedicated to the World Nomad Games, Alima Bisenova, Associate Professor of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Nazarbayev University, spoke in detail about the revival and transformation of traditional horse breeding in Kazakhstan, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
One of the main ideas of the speech was that traditions always adapt to new conditions. Modern horse breeding is different from what it was before, and its transformation is an example of the reinvention of traditions.
The importance of horses for Kazakhs
Horses and horse breeding have always played an important role in the nomadic culture of the Kazakhs. Due to the peculiarities of their way of life, the Kazakhs regularly had to move from place to place and drive small cattle to other pastures. Without horses, this was very difficult.
Bisenova notes that in oral Kazakh folklore, horses were considered the most important and noble of the four types of domestic animals: horses, cows, sheep and camels. Horses were considered one of the two main types of wealth for a nomad, the second main wealth being sheep.
“There are still such surnames as Zhylkybay (rich in horses) and Koylybay (rich in sheep), as well as numerous proverbs and sayings related to horse breeding and sheep breeding,” says Bisenova.
The Kazakhs even compared people to horses. Thus, a person with the character of a horse is considered independent and strong, firmly standing on his feet and having his own opinion, and a person with the character of a sheep meant that he loves order.
For centuries, the wealth of nomads was measured by the number of horses, and taxes were often paid in horses. It is also known that the widespread use of horses in campaigns gave nomads an advantage over sedentary peoples, for whom horseback riding was an activity only for the military-aristocratic class.
Reduction in the number of horses
During the Soviet era, the number of horses dropped sharply, and horse breeding was supplanted by other forms of farming. This was the end of the traditional economy that had existed for a thousand years and had developed accordingly on the basis of its traditional culture. Livestock farming continued to be an important branch of agriculture, but it was no longer the basis of the economy. Not only did the Kazakhs finally cease to be nomads, but most of them also ceased to be cattle breeders.
However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, horse breeding began to develop again, especially in private farms, in villages, former collective and state farms. Cattle breeders returned to traditional herd horse breeding, because this type of farming did not require investment in infrastructure. All that was needed was knowledge of grazing, the local landscape and, in fact, the land itself as a means of production.
Bisenova notes that Kazakhstan currently ranks seventh in the world in terms of horse population, and the number of horses is predicted to only increase.
Problems of today's horse breeding
Today's horse breeding faces a number of challenges, one of which is its attachment to cities. If earlier this type of economy was an integral part of nomadic life and was based on traditional methods, today it has become more urbanized and linked to the market economy.
On the one hand, the city provides a market for horse breeding products, but on the other hand, there is a shortage of pastures, which complicates the development of this sector. At the same time, despite the huge areas of pastures in Kazakhstan (about 180 million hectares), almost half of them remain undeveloped.
