Historical Interactions between Multi-Cultural Societies and the Natural Environment in a Semi-Arid Region in Central Eurasia

kubota Jumpei RIHN

watanabe Mitsuko RIHN

uyama Tomohiko Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University matsuyama Hiroshi Faculty of Urban Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University takeuchi Nozomu Graduate School of Science, Chiba University fujita Koji Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University sugiyama Masaaki Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University funakawa Shinya Graduate school of Agriculture, Kyoto University sohma Hidehiro Faculty of Letters, Nara Women’s University konagaya Yuki National Museum of Ethnology yoshikawa Ken Graduate School of Environmental Science, Okayama University yoshida Setsuko Department of Applied Sociology, Shikoku Gakuin University kato Yuzo Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University chengzhi RIHN

This project examines the historical interactions of humanity and nature in the semi-arid region of Central Eurasia. Textual, archaeological and biophysical evidence is used to examine the effect of human boundaries on environments, ethnic groups, dominant patterns of subsistence, and relations between cities and their surroundings. The findings of this project will improve understanding of how past human activities cumulatively affected ecosystems in Central Eurasia, and how semi-arid regions can best be managed in the future.

Background and objectives

Nomads were once the principal inhabitants of semi-arid Central Eurasia. Following the rise and fall of various ethnic groups and empires, the Yuan Dynasty took nominal control of much of Eurasia in the 13th and 14th centuries. In the 18th century, however, a national border was drawn across the region, definitely distinguishing Russia from Qing China. The inhabitants of the area subsequently experienced a great change of lifestyle, as the border and national settlement policies forced nomadic peoples out of their traditional patterns of livelihood.

This project combines analysis of historical documents, archaeological remains and natural proxies such as ice cores, lake sediment samples, tree rings and windblown deposits in order to describe how nomadic peoples and nation-states affected the natural resources and climatic conditions in the Ili River watershed in Central Eurasia. Project researchers also investigate human activities on both sides of the Russia/China border in order to describe its potential effect on contemporary environmental conditions.

Research area and groups

Research centers on the Ili River watershed area extending from China to Kazakhstan, and surrounding areas, including Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Throughout human history, Central Eurasia has been a key site of interaction between individual ethnic groups inhabiting or passing through the area, and a longtime crossroads for the civilizations of East and West. In more recent times, the development policies of modern states have led to severe environmental degradation.

This project consists of two research groups. The first group uses historical documents and natural proxies to describe historical changes in both human and natural systems. The second group investigates current human activities and natural systems in order to interpret the long term significance of past human and environmental change.

Progress to date

Project researchers have used several proxies to reconstruct climate change in the area in the past 1,000 years. This reconstruction forms the basis of our understanding of historical interaction between human activities and the environment. Reconstructed temperature and precipitation, and estimated river discharge, indicated that the period AD 1000-1500 was warm and dry, while the Little Ice Age (LIA, AD 1500-1850) from 1500 to 1850 was cold and wet. After the LIA, the climate became wet and warm. This long-term trend corresponds well with the reconstructed level of Lake Balkhash, which was determined by analysis of the ratio of saline and planktonic diatoms, indicating a decreasing trend of lake level in the 10th to 13th centuries. After this significant regression, the lake level showed rapid recovery and remained relatively high. Results from other proxies, such as dust and retrieval of glaciers support this description.

A chronological database was developed to describe the rise and fall of settlements. In the northern piedmont of the Tian Shan Mountains, oasis cities, which were agricultural centres, and trading bases in the Syr Darya basin of western Turkestan, flourished from the 7th century; settlements in the Ili River basin were the next to be blessed with prosperity. Most of the settlements were not founded on agricultural bases, but were nomadic and trading posts with military utility. In medieval times, agricultural and nomadic peoples lived separately, making full use of environmental variation. Interactions between the two peoples were complementary in terms of natural resources use. Climate change had both negative and positive effects on agricultural and nomadic production. A warm and dry climate in early medieval times might have accelerated the development of agricultural and trading activities, and consequently contributed to the area’s flourishing, especially of oasis cities in the Syr Darya basin of western Turkestan. The cold and wet climate in the early LIA might have accelerated the decline of oasis cities and the increase of nomadic activities in the Ili River basin and Dzungaria.

Relocation and change in subsistence patterns were major adaptations of these periods. This adaptive capacity, and so the direct impact of longer term patterns of environmental change, was drastically altered following the division of the area between Russia and Qing China, however.

In Kazakhstan, several stages of subsequent change can be identified. After Russian expansion, there were attempts beginning in the late 19th century to settle pastoral nomadic peoples and make them agriculturalists. Collectivization of the agricultural sector beginning in 1929 triggered serious social confusion in Kazakhstan, resulting in the loss of a large number of nomadic populations. Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Programme determined that Kazakhstan would become one of the Soviet Union’s major crop production areas. The policy was conceived and implemented without regard for the area’s traditional inhabitants or environmental capacity, and both suffered its successes. The newly adopted production systems were based on strict divisions of labour and required emigration of skilled peoples from other lands to serve as leaders of collective farms. These systems therefore did not promote accumulation of agricultural knowledge, while simultaneously undermining traditional knowledge of pastoralism.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the terms of trade in the agricultural sector deteriorated, state subsidies and purchases decreased, and many farmlands developed during the planned economy were abandoned. Abandonment reduced the pressure on natural resources, resulting in ecosystem recovery. At the same time, people labouring in state farms were provided rather small farmlands after privatization, but their experience as agricultural labourers was not adequate to the task of whole farm management. The area suffered general economic crisis, making transition even more difficult.

In China, modern development did not start until the 1950s. While plains grassland was converted to cereals agriculture in a first development period in the 1960s, the traditional nomadic pastoral system and natural grasslands were well preserved in the mountains. A second stage of development emphasized conversion of cereals to other cash crops, again causing no serious damage to natural resources such as land and water. Industrial development since 2000 however, has been very active and is expected to increase demand for natural resources and pollution in the region.