The Nomadic Alternative – Page 88

fifths of the men either fall in war or perish of wounds received."

The cattlemen of Abraham quarrelled with the cattlemen of Lot.

Knowing neither could control the temper of their cowboys, the

two cousins agreed to separate and Abraham proposed the parting of

the ways. "Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I

pray thee, before me: If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will

go to the right: or if thou depart to the right hand then I will

go to the left." Genesis 13:9. Disputes of cattle pastures are

engraved on the oracle bones of Shang.

When a whole tribe erupts from its traditional migration route,

old agreements and boundaries topple like a house of cards. Some

historians have invoked a 'theory of climatic pulsations' - cyclic

phases of dessication in the Central Asian Steppe - to account for

those periodic upheavals which rained horsemen on China and Europe.

But the phases of sterile dryness, which might have triggered them

off, do not synchronize with these eruptions. Instead, what appears

to be true of an advanced Industrial society, applies to the nomads.

The periods of the greatest affluence and surplus are the periods

of the greatest unrest. Instead of forcing him to combat the elements,

affluence gives the nomad the leisure to raid.

"Raids are our agriculture." Nomads flourish by raids, for raids

are more glorious than work. Work degrades, devitalizes and depresses.

The nomad prefers to fight for his living than to earn it, and

keeps the weather eye open for short-term advantages - cattle-

rustling, sheep-stealing, protection rackets and the looting of

settlements. When he eats meat he prefers to eat it at others'

expense.[The Turkish title 'Beg' or 'Bey' means cattle-thief] Old

Nestor in the Iliad recalled with nostalgia a cattle raid of his

youth, and politicians consistently underestimate the determination

of a people to remain true to the ideals of its tribal past. "Since

I took my spear in my hand", boasted Conall Cernach, an Ulster

cattle-man, "I have not been without killing a Connaught man every

single day." Attitudes in Ulster have not changed, neither the

exaggeration, nor the killing. The Cattle-raid of Cooley is

perpetuated on the streets of Belfast.