15 Comments
Apr 9, 2021Liked by Razib Khan

Wonderful piece! Can't wait to read the full series. I've come to believe that one cannot even understand something like Indian history without understanding the steppe. But your article also made me realize how great settled civilizations are. Testosterone gets big things done, but apparently doesn't get you into the history books as much as the written word, philosophy or monuments.

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I too have bene haunted by the steppe from high school. But I grew up in an ancient small town in India filled with temples and a sense of 'glorious in the past but a dump today". I read too much. I too was writing my own steppe thesis in college. But i gave up because evolutionary biology got hold of me. I now sit by your feet like they say in Upanishad, and yearn to go back to my old times.

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Pretty exciting field, Razib. I accept that none of this is going to be easy but, if I had one request, it would be for a geography of the steppe. Most all the resources I've consulted focus on other priorities (national boundaries, place names, mountain ranges, etc...) and leave the steppe as an afterthought.

For sure, thanks for this great intro.

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I too am haunted by the steppe. In fact, I have resolved to do something about the wistful longing to see it with my own eyes that has gripped me since childhood. Later this year I intend on journeying overland from Europe to Steppelandia, in a sort of reverse migration, and to document it on my Substack. Planning on going through all your suggestions above as part of my background reading. This was first posted a couple of years ago so wondering if you have an extra suggestions since then?

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Just finished the 9-part series. Incredible journey, thank you.

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Thank you for this wonderful article on the Stepps. I have also been interested in It's history & as you state not that much available, so much thanks for this article.

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Steppeson would make a nice T-shirt statement for razib to wear

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founding

"The centuries-long Tatar oppression under which Muscovy suffered and against which they rebelled, haunts Russian historiography. Tatars are cruel and barbaric, Russian resistors heroic."

I take it that you realize Russian historiography is garbage.

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founding

I guess Clubhouse not accessible by those of us who are not part of the Apple ecosystem.

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Great article, very illuminating

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This seems like a cool idea. That said....it this gonna ultimately go in a "race realist"/"human biodiversity" direction? Or more like a history/guns germs and steel direction?

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