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Secret History #14: Legacy of the Steppes | Predictive History | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Secret History #14: Legacy of the Steppes
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Core Theme
The traditional understanding of civilization as inherently superior to "barbarian" steppe cultures is fundamentally flawed. Historically, steppe peoples, characterized by their unique adaptations to their environment, have repeatedly demonstrated greater innovation, resilience, and military prowess, leading to their conquest of established civilizations.
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Okay. So today we are going to discuss
versus the steps.
The steps are the grasslands and you
people often refer to them as
barbarians. Okay. So in China we refer
to these people as like barbarians.
And in school you're taught that there
are major differences between
civilization and barbarians. Right? So
um the first major difference is that in
civilization you are allowed intellectual
intellectual freedom
freedom
because only by reading books only by
going to school only by learning how to
think can you be free to think. Okay. Um
and in a step we think of them as
emotional slaves.
They are unpredictable. They are violent.
violent. Okay.
Okay.
Second thing is that we think of civilization
civilization
We love knowledge. We seek to gain more
knowledge. Therefore
uh we are innovative. Okay.
Whereas the steps people, they are static.
static.
Okay. Because they are insular. They're close-minded.
Okay. And the last thing is that we
think civilization
Only can you be
only if you are civilized can you be
truly be happy okay and wealthy.
And we think that the steps people are
poor and therefore unhappy.
And that is the general understanding of
the difference between civilization and
the barbarians. Okay. The problem is that
that
this creates a misunderstanding
and we can't really explain why is it
that throughout human history the steps
people have been the greatest
conquerors. Okay. Okay. So the classic
example is Genghask Khan. How is it that
Genghask Khan was able to not only
conquer China, okay, which is one
consider one of the greatest
civilizations in the world, but also um
Baghdad, another great civilization.
Okay. But what's interesting is that
throughout human history, this has been
a consist consistent pattern where the
barbarians conquered the civilized
people. Okay, so this is a problem. How
is it that how is it that if in
civilization they're so free, they're so
smart, they're so open, they're so
curious, innovative, and so prosperous,
why is it that they keep on losing out
the steps people?
And the answer is because your
traditional understanding
is completely wrong. Okay? And I will
show you that it's the complete actually
the opposite. It is the steps people who
are open, curious, and innovative. And
it is the slicing people who are
close-minded, who are static, and who
are unhappy. Okay. So, that's my
argument to you
today. All right. So, let's go over um
some of my
uh points before I show you the PPT.
Okay. All right. So, let's discuss how
civilization starts. So last class we
understand that there's a major river
and on top of this major river you have
a city develop. Okay remember that we
come together for religious purposes. We
have settlements in order to celebrate
nature, celebrate God,
um celebrate our religion, our belief system.
system.
And over time what happens is that
um this system becomes unequal. it
becomes hierarchical
and therefore we leave. But there are
some places that are strategic for trade
purposes and therefore people don't want
to leave because you can generate a lot
of wealth and prosperity in these places
and so they become um major cities.
Okay. So the first city in world
civilization is Euro Eric. Okay.
And over time they become more more
prosperous. They build canals. Uh they
learn farming. They develop their own
mythology. Okay. And then what happens
is that as the population grows and
grows, they go off and colonize other
places along the trade route. Okay.
Maybe upstream and then downstream as
well. And then what happens is that the
city these city states
are now in competition with each other.
And they have a system of competition called
called open
open cooperative
cooperative competition.
competition. Okay,
Okay,
this is a very important concept because
this concept is what gives us
innovation. So if you have these three
things in place, open, cooperation,
competition, you'll be very innovative.
Open just means that you want to learn,
you want to grow, you want to learn from
others. Cooperation means that you are
in contact with others so you that you
are learning the best practices from
other people. Competition means that
you'll be better than they are. Okay? So
in this system of city states you have
massive innovation
and we see this throughout human
history. Okay. So think of China. When
was China the most innovative? It was
during the tun right the spring autumn
period. That's where we're getting
confusious from Danza. Okay. All the
great ideas came from this period of the
chunu. Okay, this is also true for
Mesopotamia. This is also true for Egypt
as well. Okay, and eventually what
happens is that these citystates um all
merge into an empire because during this
process of innovation,
one city will be more innovative than
the others and therefore they will
conquer the others. What's interesting
often is that it is a city that is most disadvantaged
disadvantaged
that conquers the other cities because
you're forced to be more innovative. So
in China, the classic example is
theQing, right? TheQing was in the
mountains. They had lower population.
They were poorer. They're more isolated.
And therefore that they have more
innovative than the Jao, the true the
way uh dynasties. Okay. Okay. And this
is true also in throughout human
history. And so now you have an empire.
And at first this empire is extremely
innovative. Why? For three reasons.
Okay. The first thing is that it now has scale.
scale.
Okay. It has size. Therefore, it's able
to draw in more resources. Second is the
idea of standardization.
St. synization just means that now
you're using the same monitor system,
you're using the same laws, you're using
the same uh communications network.
Okay, that allows for better use of
resources. The last is the idea of centralization,
meaning that you have one place
controlling all activities elsewhere.
[snorts] And that allows you to build
canals that allows you to build temples
that allows you to to undertake massive
public works projects. Okay. So in the
beginning of the empire there's massive
consolidation of innovation which leads
to tremendous innovation. Okay. But over
time what happens is the empire becomes
the opposite of an open cooperative
competition system. Why? Well first of
all it come becomes insular.
Okay. Then it becomes secretive
That's what a bureaucracy is.
Hey, do you guys understand? Okay. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> All right. So when an empire reaches a
certain point of growth, it becomes a
bureaucracy and therefore it kills all
innovation. So this idea that
civilization leads to innovation is wrong.
wrong.
Okay. Civilization leads ultimately to corruption.
All right.
Now, um what's interesting is that even
though this is a general rule of human
development, it's not always true. There
are exceptions. Okay. So for example,
one civilization that we know that did
not work out like this is something
called the Indis Valley civilization
which is modern day Pakistan.
And we'll discuss this later on but they
were actually even though they had a
city-state system they were actually
peaceful, egalitarian and artistic.
Okay? They didn't go to war with each
other. They didn't create a hierarchy.
They didn't create a bureaucracy. And
we'll discuss later on why this is the
case. But this is something that you
need to understand. Even though there
are patterns to human history, there are
always exceptions to the rule. Okay? All
over time the empire breaks down. Okay.
Why? Because you have a hierarchy in
place. Okay? Hierarchy, a bureaucracy.
the people are at the bottom.
And if you are a person in empire, your
life sucks. Okay? It really sucks
because you're essentially a slave. Why?
Well, first of all, the empire goes to
war a lot in order to protect its advantages.
advantages.
Okay? So, they can at any time just take
you to war and you get killed. Okay.
Second is the problem of debt. It's very
easy if you
um are a peasant to fall in debt. You
owe rent to a landlord, then you have to
sell your children. Okay, so debt really
sucks. Um and the last problem is immob
immobility, which just means that you're
just stuck where you are. Okay, so the people
people
in the empire, their lives suck, but
they're stuck where they are because of
war, debt, and immobility. Okay. And as
we discussed last class, uh the
bureaucracy will develop a methodology
in order to just justify why they are
like this. Okay. But at the very top,
it's it's actually even more problematic
because what happens is at the top
you'll eventually have a problem of elite
elite
over production.
Okay, elite over production just means
that there are only a few limited spots
for the elite and the elite have too
many children and therefore they fight.
Okay, they break up into different factions
factions
and each faction competes against each
other for the right to be the elite.
And because of this conflict at the very
top, you usually have three results.
Okay, the first result is revolution
where one elite tells the people to
overthrow everyone else. Okay, so
remember what's really important to
understand is the people do not
um create the revolution.
>> The people themselves do not rebel. It's
always one faction of the elite help um
working with the people to overall the
other factions. Okay, that's what a
revolution is. Second possibility is
civil war. Okay, where the factions um
have different armies and they fight.
And the third possibility is just they
go to war with the empire. Okay, but uh
this is a common pattern in history.
Now, what's really interesting is that
as the empire falls,
the pastoral people come and take over
the empire. Okay, the step people or the
pastoralists. Pashu just means that they
don't farm for a living. They raise
sheep, goats, and cows for a living.
Okay? They come and they take over the
empire. Why is this the case? Because
these people are the best fighters in
the world. They have horses. They can
they have they have they're archers.
Okay? So, they're the best fighters in
the world. So what often happens is one
faction invites them to be mercenaries
in the struggle and eventually they re
recognize you know what we don't have to
fight for the prince we can take over
take over over ourselves. Another thing
that happens is the faction that invites
the mercenaries don't have enough money
to pay them off. So the mercenaries are
just like screw this we'll just take
over the empire ourselves. Okay. Um and
what's important to understand is that
throughout all this the pastoralists are
always in contact of the empire through
three things okay through trade through
uh pillaging. So the pastors come and
steal from the people and through being
mercenaries okay so this is a pattern
throughout human history. So now the
question we have to ask is why are the pastoralists
pastoralists
so different from people of civilization
and empire and the reason is geography.
What I will show you is that people who
are passionless grow up in a different environment
environment
than the people of civilization empire
and therefore they they de a different
economy as well as mythology as well as
culture. Okay. All right.
All right. Let's continue.
But we're clear so far, right? Okay. So,
um in the beginning, we had agriculture.
Why do we have agriculture? Because as
we discussed before, uh people came
together for religious purposes. They
built temples and now you have to
maintain the temples. Therefore, you
build farms around the temple and
develop agriculture. Okay. But because
of climate change
and overpopulation, people always
constantly forced to move to new places.
So agriculture was first up in the
Middle East and then it went over to Europe
and it went over to um other places as
well. Okay. So it spread around the
world. So when they went to Europe, they
could actually maintain their
agricultural practices because the
climate and the geography and the
terrain of Europe was conducive to
agriculture. And as a result, Europe
maintained the cultural practices of the
people of the Middle East. Okay? And so
[clears throat] and peaceful
civilizations. Okay. So why they were
peaceful is that first of all women were
in control. Okay. Remember it's the most
natural thing to have women be part of
the political class. Okay. So women were
in charge. So if there's any conflict
the women would just discuss it among
amongst themselves and come to a
harmonious conclusion. Okay. they
wouldn't have to fight.
Second thing is there was no money
because there was no property.
Okay, the agriculture is something that
you work on together and you share. You
don't there's no such concept as private property.
property.
Okay, so in other words, no war, no
conflict. So these are the three
distinct characteristics of early human
society. In an agricultural society,
women are usually in command. There's no
sense of private property. Everyone
shares everything together and there's
no conflict in no war. People just
discuss things and trade in order to
reach a harmonious conclusion. Okay. So,
um what this changes is that the city
grows and grows and then you have a
large city and so you need a
bureaucracy. Okay. But in Europe, what's
really important to understand about
Europe is that unlike China
and Egypt and most of Britannia, it does
not have a large river and therefore you
cannot grow a big city in Europe. Okay?
So that allows them to maintain a pretty
good life. Okay? So when they go to
Europe, they're able to maintain the
same cultural practices, but then they
go to the steps. Okay?
And the problem with steps is you cannot grow
grow
food because it's all grass land. Okay?
You cannot farm. So now you have to
change your cultural practice. So what
was happening is that these people in
the steps they started to trade with
people of agriculture. Okay. Also you
have people in in the agriculture who
moved to the steps and they brought with
them cows and sheep
and this changed everything because you
as a
person you can't eat grass but cows and
sheep can. So now what you can do is you
can base your entire economy
around animals as opposed to
agriculture. Okay. Well, there's certain problems
problems
with cows and sheep. Okay. The first
problem is that they're expensive. So,
now you have a concept of private property
property money.
And this concept didn't really exist before.
before.
Okay? And so, if I see someone with a
cow, I don't I don't have a cow. What do
I do? I want to go steal it. Right? So
this leads to conflict now war and conflict.
And because you have private property
and war and conflict, you can't have a
system run by woman. You need a system
run by men. This creates a patriarchy. Okay?
So this is a very important principle in
human history. These three things go
together. Okay? Patriarchy,
money and war. Okay, these three three
things always go together. Patriarchy,
money and war. Okay,
so um this is changing the economy of
the steps and it's d in and it's and
it's becoming different from
agricultural societies. Okay. And now so
now they need innovations
in in order to deal with a new economy.
Okay. So let's go over some of their
major innovations.
The first major innovation that's very
important is the idea of lactose tolerance.
tolerance.
You may not know this, but most humans
cannot drink milk naturally.
>> Okay? So you need to develop the enzymes
to drink milk naturally. And so they
were able to do that because they were
forced to rely on cows and sheep for
their food. They had to learn how to
drink milk. But when they learned how to
drink milk, when they learned how to eat
when when they started eating meat,
guess what? They became stronger and
taller. Okay? So for most of you in
history, the people of the steps were
the tallest people in the world. They
were the strongest
in the world. Okay? That's the first
major innovation that changed their
history. The second major innovation is
horse riding. Why? because the steps are
a huge area and it's flat so you can so
you need to move around it a lot. Also
remember cows and sheep eat grass. So
when they eat this in this pasture and
they finish all their grass they have to
move somewhere else. Okay. So the only
way to protect your cows and sheep from
other people is to be mobile. And so
they learn how to domesticate horses.
Okay, which is a major invasion and it
took a long time. And you can imagine
how hard that is to do because if horses
see you, what do they do? They run away.
>> So how do you train a horse to not run
away and let the horse ride you? Well,
it takes a lot and lot of effort. But
because they had to do it, they managed
to do it. Okay? And so with the horse
riding now, you can have another
invention which is the wheel and the wagon.
wagon.
Wheel and wagon. Now you can put all
your stuff in a wagon and move from camp
to camp. Okay, you can cover the
entirety of the steps. Okay,
Okay,
does that make sense? >> Yes.
>> Yes.
>> Okay, and because of these three major innovations,
innovations,
you now have a different culture. Okay,
so let's go over what makes their
culture distinctive from other places.
Okay, the first is the idea of patriarchy.
where um men are in control and the
reason why they're control is because in
the steps war is a constant thing. Okay.
So the culture becomes very masculine,
very aggressive. It rewards aggression.
It rewards courage. Okay. Um the other
thing is that when you have a patriarchy
in place, you can have more children.
Okay. When women are in charge, women
tend to practice birth control because
they want to make sure that every child
is healthy and every every child lives
to adulthood. Okay? They want to avoid
the risk of dying in child birth. They
want they want to avoid the risk of
their of their child dying young. Okay?
But with men are in charge, they
basically get women to have as many kids
as possible. Okay? Also remember in this
world there's a lot of conflict. So you
need as many uh boys to fight as
possible. Okay? But then you have a
problem then if you have a lot of children
children
what is what what you have a problem of
inheritance like when you die your cows
go to who
>> right now let's assume you have 100 cows
you have like 10 boys if you give if you
if you are fair and you give 10 cows to
one boy well very quickly your family is
going to be poor and because in the
steps the weather is bad your cows are
very likely to die Well then your entire
family could be extinct in two or three
generations. So they invented a new
Primogenature. Primogenature just means
that the eldest boy inherits everything
that ensures that the family can stay
can stay wealthy. Okay. All right. Now
but now your problem is wait a minute.
If the eldest boy inherits everything,
what do the other boys do? Well, they
have to go and steal other cows. Okay?
And to do that, they form secret societies.
societies.
Okay? Secret societies are just like
basically just gangs. Okay? These gangs
of young men who get together to do
what? Well, they go steal cows and
sheep. And what else do they do? They
steal woman. Right. Because
Right. Right? I mean like what's the
most most valuable commodity in the
steps? Well, cows and woman. So that's
what you steal. Okay. So this creates a
culture of war and conflict constantly.
All right. And the third innovation is
something called the patron client relationship.
And this is actually how or patronage.
And this is what
allows for the construction of society
in the steps. So remember in a
civilization you have bureaucracy. You
have centralization. But in the steps
you can't have that because you can't
have that many people. So you have a
patron client relationship. And all that
means is that uh it's like a mafia,
right? I'm the big brother, you're the
little brother. So maybe I have 100 cows
and you need cows. So I lend you 10
cows. But now you're you are loyal to
me. Okay? I'm the big brother, you're
the little brother. And this creates the
idea of tribes.
Okay? Does that make sense? What's
really important here is that in civilization,
civilization,
um, bureaucracy maintains control over
people over debt. And so you become a
slave, but in the steps there's no
concept of slavery.
Okay? You're still a free and
independent person, but you just pay,
you're just loyal to your big brother.
So your big brother needs you to do
something, you go do it for him. Okay?
So there's still a level of freedom in
the steps that you don't have in
civilization. And that's why they're
such good fighters. Okay?
All right. So these three things are
major um innovations.
But now that you have these innovations,
you need a new methodology
to justify or explain these innovations.
Okay. And so what they had was a they
went from the mother goddess. Okay. So
mother goddess again is the religion of
agriculture people to the sky god. And
the mother goddess wants you to be
harmonious. Okay. To be kind and compassionate.
compassionate.
What does the sky go want you to do? The
sky god wants you to conquer
and exploit. Okay? It wants you to
destroy. It wants you to kill. It wants
you to conquer, to steal. Okay?
Okay?
And um also in this religion, horses and
cows are very important. But as we
discussed last class here, grain
and nature are very important. Okay. So
you see how this works, right?
Now what's important to understand is that
that because
because
um this system does not allow for the
creation of a bureaucracy, the steps
always practice open cooperative competition.
competition.
And it's a system
that forces you to be aggressive. It
forces you to be independent. Okay? And
it forces you to work hard.
And that's why people the steps are the
greatest warriors in human history. And
that's why when the steps people
encounter the empire civilization, they
usually are able to conquer the empire.
Okay? Does that make sense? Okay. So the
steps are like a training ground for fighters
fighters
and over time the fighters just become
more and more fierce and what's ironic
is those fighters who are the most
fierce can stay in the steps. Those
fighters who are forced out the steps
they go conquer the empire. Okay.
All right. It's a constant pattern in
human history. All right. Is that clear?
All right. Any questions, guys, before I
do the PPT? Great.
>> Yes.
>> So, sorry. Can can you speak to the mic,
please? So earlier you said that um uh
these these people they inherit their uh
to their oldest son right? So, so my
question is uh like is it like necessary
for or
um so they must inherit their
inheritance to the oldest son or is it
like they have some kind of a system to
uh determine what which son can have the
best of their inheritance.
>> Okay. Yeah. So their general principle
is always the eldest son. Okay. That's
to avoid conflict because if you open up
to say okay well who's whoever is most
brave whoever is most um noble whoever
who is most wise that means that they'll
just fight each other okay and this is
what happened after the death of
Genghask Khan right so the general rule
is you always give it to the eldest son
>> but what if the eldest son has been
manipulated by his uh siblings
>> it doesn't matter it does not matter
okay all right so legacy of the steps
all All right. So, as I discussed,
what's happening is that Europe
um at first was just hunter gatherer and
they were spread out. They did paintings
in caves. They had a pretty easy life.
Okay? Not an easy life, but it was a
free life. And over time, what would
happen is that agriculture would develop
in the Middle East and it would spread
to Europe. Okay? Okay. And you can see
the genetic change where the blue is
hunter gatherer and the orange is
farmers. Okay. But then what happened um
in about 2500 B.CE is the steps people
who we call the Yamna actually. So
there's different names. They're protoindo-uropeans.
protoindo-uropeans.
The Yamnia you can refer to them as any.
Okay. Steps, Yamnia, Portal
Indo-Uropean, it doesn't really matter.
But they go to Europe as well and they
start mixing with the um farmers. What's
really important for our purpose purpose
to understand is this. When the farmers
went to Europe, they went as families,
husband, wife, children.
And so they integrated into Europe
pretty peacefully. Okay. But when the
pastoralists, the Yamaya went to Europe,
they went mostly as young men.
Therefore, that they kill the local men
in order to marry their wives. Okay? And
so basically um from DNA research, we
know that it was a genocide. Okay. The
uh European farming men were eliminated
by the pastoralists. Okay.
Okay.
And we have always remember that the
pachlist, they were stronger. Okay. They
were taller
um and they're more aggressive. Okay.
All right. Yeah. So, this is another map
that shows the same thing. What you need
to understand is this. This movement is
global. Okay. So, the farmers went to
Europe, but they also went to India and
Iran. Okay? They basically went wherever
they could go. Same thing with the
Yamaya. Okay, so this this is the Yamaya
people. They went to Europe, but they
also, look at this, they also went to
Iran and India. And we know because when
we study the languages, uh, Persian,
okay, Hindi and European languages,
they're basically the same languages.
So, we know there had to be one common
mother language to them.
Okay. So there's another map showing you
the Yaya again. Um they went to Europe
but they also went to in India. Okay. As
well as Iran and by mixing with local uh
customs and religion they created new
religions that had tremendous impact on
world civilization. So in um Iran they
will give birth to Zorashianism which
we'll discuss later on. Okay. And the
these are the Avestas which is the Bible
of of Zarastrianism
and uh India they uh of course gave
birth to Hinduism
um and these are the vidas which is a
bible of Hinduism we'll discuss this
later on in the semester but I want you
to be aware of this okay so again we
know that this happened at first because
of linguistic studies when we looked at
different languages we discovered there
are common words to them so look let's
look at father okay when Latin is patar
Greek, patus, Persian, Padar, Hindi, Pitha.
Pitha.
Pretty similar. Okay. Similar mother,
mother, matar, mitra, madar, mad. So we,
so from different lingu linguistic
studies, we know they had to be a common
language to all of them. And that's why
we hypothesize about the protoindo-uropeans.
protoindo-uropeans.
Um, this is even more stark example
where the protoindo-uropean
2 is dual. Okay. And you can see how it
spreads to other languages in the
protoindo-uropean family. So that you go
from uh dua to tua to two in English.
Okay? So all these languages are
interrelated. That's why if you speak
one like English, it's pretty easy for
you to learn the other languages as
well. Whereas if you speak Chinese, it
doesn't really help you when you go
learn other languages. Okay. All right.
Now linguist linguists have done studies
of words that are distinct to
protoindouropean and these are the words
that they discovered. Okay. B cow, ox,
ram, eel, dog, grain, cauldron,
wrestling, wealth, households, families,
clans. These words are unique to their
culture. And therefore, we're able to
group these words together and discover
there are four characteristics. Okay,
first of lots of words for wheel. They
have words for uh dairy. They don't have
farming terms and they have words for
horse. Okay? That's why we're able to
figure out that these are nomadic
pasturalists. Therefore, they must be
from the steps. Okay? And then through
archaeology and DNA DNA studies, we're
able to have a better understanding of
who they are.
Okay? And as I said, they have to be
past. Okay? Because of the way they use words.
words.
Um, so let's about old Europe before the
Yami come and conquer them. Okay, so
this is Maria Gmbhutas who is an
American Lutheranian anthropologist
and she's the first to hypothesize that
old Europe must have been conquered by
these people because she did a lot of
archa archaeology and discovered that
their culture was primarily
uh peaceful. It honored women and it
exposed egotarinism. Okay, this is
exactly what I said previously and the
Yama people were completely different.
They were a patriarchy, quite a part of
property and which was very aggressive. Okay.
Okay.
Um she wrote many books um the language
of the goddess and she like her work is
amazing. Okay. So if you have a chance
please do study her work and um so let's
write let's read what she wrote. Okay.
So this is a mother god of civilization.
Something that we we thought we've
discussed a lot in this class. The
goddess in our manifestations was a
symbol of the unity of all life in
nature. Her power was in water and stone
in tomb and cave in animals and birds,
snakes and fish, hills, trees and
flowers. Hence the holistic and
mythopoic perception of all the
sacredness and mystery of all there is
on earth. Okay. So again this is a
religion that practice balance and
harmony because everything is sacred.
Therefore, you cannot destroy life
without first getting permission from
the mother goddess. Okay. This culture
took deep delight in the natural wonders
of this world. Its people did not
produce lethal weapons or build forts in
inacceptable places as her successors
did even when they were acquainted with
metallurgy. Instead, they built
magnificent tombs, shrines, and temples,
comfortable house in moderatelysized
villages, and created superb pottery and
sculptures. This was a long-lasting
period of remarkable creativity and
stability and age free of strife. Their
culture was a culture of art. Okay, so
this is a very nice place. They don't
fight. They're egalitarian. They
practice art. Okay. And what's really
important for us to understand is they
had writing systems. They had m they had
technology. They just chose not to use
it for war because it was against their religion.
religion.
Um so they they also had writing systems
and they had symbols. Okay. And this is
something that u Mares has done a lot of
research in. Okay. I won't go into their
writing system. Um so when the came they
basically completely invert the culture.
So for example the Europeans the old
Europeans believed that the snake was
symbol of life energy and regeneration.
A most benevolent non evil creature. It
was a Y who introduced the idea that the
snake is a devil. Okay. All right. And
that's where we get the B and that's
where we get the concept in the Bible
from. Um, black to them is a good color.
White is a bad color. Why? Because black
symblies life. White symbolizes death.
Right? Black did not mean death or the
underworld. It was a color of fertility.
The color of damp caves and rich soil of
the womb of the goddess where life
begins. White on the other hand was the
color of death of bones. Okay. And again
when the come they will invert this. Um
what's really important to understand is
in this society women are in control.
They have power and agency. And why?
Well it turns out that um this book Sex
and Dawn Sex at Dawn. Okay. It turns out
that women are just
um better at man managing social
relationships than men are. Okay. So
this is Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan.
And um he tries to show us that for most
of human history, women had sexual
agency. And one piece of evidence is the
fact that human men have larger penises.
In fact, the largest penises of all
primates. Okay? So gorillas are much
bigger than we are. We have bigger
penises. Why? Because
um we have to compete in order to put
our semen into women, right? Because
women have multiple sexual partners. So
that's one major advantage of sexual
freedom for women. Men have bigger
penises. Okay. All right. Um
even when women had long-term intimate
partners, husbands, they had se sexual
partners. Okay. So the idea is that for
most of human history, love and sex were
not the same thing. Love is intimacy.
Sex is just fun. Okay. Um in some
societies, women would have many
husbands, usually brothers. Okay? That's
a way to maintain peace and harmony in
your society. Okay. If a woman is
allowed to marry many brothers together.
Okay. [snorts]
All right. So, um the book looks at
the mill million people where they practice
practice
um sexual freedom for women and the
explanation is that semen was essential
to human growth and development. Okay.
So, so if a bride got married, then all
the men would come and impregnate her
because the idea is that semen is sacred
and they want to give her as much life
as possible. Okay.
All right. Now, you may be disgusted by
this, okay? But I think there's a very
good counter-argument. Okay. So, the
argument is that I is that it's not
honorable for a woman to love anyone
except her husband. and that this evil
being among them, he himself was not
sure that his son who was there present
was his son. Okay, so the system sucks
because if you're a guy, how do you know
that that person is your son? And the
natives respond by saying
you French people, okay, so he's talking
about the French missionary, you French
people love only your own children, but
we all love all the children of our
tribe. Okay. So that's what what humans
can do. We can love each other. There's
no limit to our love. So in the system
that we have today, a patriarchy, we
only love our own children. But in their
system, the agent system, everyone loved
each other's children. Okay? Everyone
loved all children. And quite honestly,
in this system, it's better to be a a
child, right? And in this system, you
would never ever develop depression. Okay?
Okay?
All right. Again, women are just better
politicians than men because women are
more willing to cooperate. Women have
more emotional intelligence and women
can use sex and gossip as mechanism of
control. Okay? So, this is all pretty
common sense, right?
All right. But then question then is if
this world is so wonderful, why did it
collapse? Well, there are three major
issues with agriculture societies. Okay.
The first major issue is that it's
static. It does not innovate. Second
major issue is climate change. If the
weather changes on you, you're screwed.
The third problem is disease, right?
Because you're living close to animals.
You're living close together. So if a
disease hits you, you're all screwed.
Okay? And that's very different from the
p from the seps people who live far
apart from each other. Okay? All right.
So we know that in Europe the farmer
communities uh the population went
collapsed. Okay. So so this is the level
of carbon dioxide in the air. We can
measure the level of carbon dioxide in
the year. We know that in about the year
3000 BCE the population collapsed. Okay.
All right. It collapsed everywhere in
Europe. Why this happened? The plague
guys. Okay. That's a problem with being
a farmer. You are always susceptible to
the plague. So we know that maybe you
know um 4,000 5,000 years ago a plague
broke out. Okay. The black death
basically by rats. Okay. And remember in
this world we trade with each other. So
the black death was able to go
everywhere and wipe out farming
communities. Okay, even spread as far as
China. Okay, but but the thing though is
the the steps people are not as impacted
because they live far apart from each
other. So if one got the disease, you're
not going to spread it to your entire
family or sorry your entire community
whereas a farmer community they will.
Okay, so there's this huge drop in the
population because of black death in
Europe. Okay, that's number one. Number
two is climate change. So we know that
um now and then there's this huge
climate change and that destroys our
culture forcing people to migrate and
this is what we suspect happened in old
Europe as well. Okay. And so what's
happening now is that because your
society is static because of disease
because of climate change the population
in Europe went all the way down leaving
the MI opportunity to come invade. Okay.
And they did come invade. So as you can
see uh when the agricultural people came
they came as families okay so the so the
blue is the man the red is the woman
okay so uh one to one they go into
Europe but when the yama come they come
as young men okay so it's mainly blue
okay and of course what do young men do
they come and they
>> steal your woman okay that's what young
men guy do do guys all right and over
time what they will do is slowly
establish new cultures because what's
happening is that their culture is
blending with other cultures as well and
why this is happening is the geography
is different right so in the steps they
have a certain culture but when they
move to our culture they now have to
combine their culture with the local
ones and this happens in um everywhere
producing different cultures and
okay so all of Europe was radically
transformed be because of this migration
and again this migration it was
basically a genocide. So you look at
Britain, okay, the people who built
Stonehenge are gone. This is a farming
agricultural community worship the
monoliths, okay? And all this wonderful
scientific technology that's now lost to
us because what would happen is the Mi
would come and kill everyone. Okay? So
this the blue is the farmer people, the
red is Na total genocide. Okay guys, men
and women were all killed. Why? Because
maybe they chose the men and women chose
to fight together. Okay?
Um in Spain it's a different story because
because
um what happened is that all the men
will be replaced. Okay. So the white
chromosome is the male chromosome. So
before the year 2000 BCE uh you had a
lot of blue, right? But as you can see
if you move further it's all gone. They
killed all the men in Spain. Okay. When
they went to India it's a different
story because India Indians in that time
were more peaceful. So they came to a
settlement where the new conquerors
would be at the top society and the
people would be and the locals would be
at the bottom. Okay. So there wasn't
that much of a genocide but we can we
had a cast system created because of
that. Okay. And we know because if you
look at the upper cast they all spoke
Indo-Uropean. If you look at the lower
cast people they spoke the local
language Dravenian.
>> Okay. Does that make sense? So depending
on the circumstance uh the result is
different. All right.
Okay. This is a wonderful book called
The Horse, the Will and Language written
by David Anthony who's a Harvard
anthropologist and he explains to us the
Naya culture and why they were so
dominant. Okay. So, one thing um that is
unique to the Amnia is their mythology.
It's a mythology of violence, of
struggle, of dominance, of conquest.
Okay? And how the mythology works is in
the beginning there were two brothers,
twins, one named man and the other named
twin. They go around by the world and
they're accompanied by a great cow.
Eventually man and twin decided to
create the world we now inhabit. Due to
this man had to sacrifice twin. Okay, he
had to kill his own brother, the person
he loved in order to create the world.
And the gods thanked him for that. The
gods blessed him for that. Okay, so this
is a world that is pretty violent. Okay.
Um, [snorts] after world was made, the
sky gods gave cattle to third men. But
the cattle were stolen by a three-headed
six-eyed serpent. Okay. The snake. Third
men entreat intreated the storm. Got to
help get the cattle back together. They
went to the cattle um of the monsters
killed it and freed the cattle. Okay.
So, this is a mythology of struggle.
Okay. And what's really interesting is
that this mythology becomes the the
mythology of all new uh protoindo
European civilizations including the
Romans and the Mongolians. Okay. So this
is Genghask Khan. His mythology is what
he kills his best friend to become the
leader of the Mongol people. And what's
the Roman mythology? Ramlas kills his
twin brother to found Rome. Okay.
All right. So that shows you that the
Mongols and the Romans, they come from
the same culture. Okay? A culture based
on violence and exploitation.
All right. So now Anthony talks about
the economy. Domesticated cattle and
sheep started a revolutionary change in
how humans exploited the pontiac caspian
step environment. Because cattle and
sheep were cultured like humans, they
were part of everyday work and worry in
a way never approached by wild animals.
Humans identify with their cattle and
sheep, wrote poetry about them, and use
them as currency in marriage gifts, debt
payments, and the calculation of social
status. Okay? Now, we have the beginning
of money and property, right?
And they were grass processors. They
converted plains of grass, useless, and
even hostile to humans into wool, fed
clothing, tents, milk, yogurt, cheese,
meat, marrow, and bone. The foundation
of both life and wealth. Cattle and
sheep herds can grow rapidly with a
little luck. Vulnerable to bad weather
and theft. They can also decline
rapidly. Hurting was a volatile boom
bust economy and required a flexible
opportunistic social organization. So
they live in a world of tremendous
volatility because the entire world was
a cattle. If the cattle died because of
a bad storm or because of bad luck, they
were completely screwed. Okay. Okay. So
they they were very aggressive people
and they um were opportunistic as well.
That's different from farmers who can
just afford to sit back and relax
because nature will grow the food for
The connection between animals, brothers
and power was a foundation on which new
forms of male-centered ritual and
politics developed among Indo-Uropean
speaking societies. This is why the cow
and brothers occupied such a central
place in Indo-Uropean myths relating to
how the world began. Okay. So this is a
deeply patriarchal society. All right.
All right. All right.
All right.
Participation in long-d distanceance
trade give exchange and a new set of
cults requiring public sacrifices and
feasting became the foundation for a new
kind of social power. Stock breeding is
by nature a volatile economy. Herders
who lose animals always borrow from
those who still have them. The social
obligations associated with these loans
are institutionalized among the world's
pastoralists as a basis for a fluid
system of status distinctions. Those who
loan animals acquired power over those
who borrow them and those who sponsored
fees obligate their guests. Early
protoindouropean include a vocabulary
about verbal contracts bound by oath
used in later religious rituals to
speify the obligations between the weak
and the strong. Okay. All right. So the
idea here is there's no slavery in the
system. Okay. But there is obligation.
There is loyalty. If I take you out for
a meal, guess what? Now you owe me a
meal. If I take you out for a meal, you
now I'm now your big brother. Okay? And
that's what keeps the society cohesive.
And this is important because if no
one's a slave and everyone's free, then
everyone is a great warrior because
you're fighting for yourself. Okay?
You're not fighting because someone
asked you to. That's why in wars between
empires and these people, these people
usually win. Okay? Because they're much
more motivated.
All right? Wealth, military power, and a
more productive hurting system probably
brought prestige and power to the
identities associated with
protoindouropean dialects. After 33 BC,
the gas host institution extended the
protections of old bound obligations to
new social groups. An Indo-Uropean
speaking patron could accept and
integrate outsiders as clients without
shaming them or assigning them
permanently to submissive roles as long
as they conducted the sacrifices
properly. Praise posture of public feast
encouraged patrons to be generous and
validated the language of the songs as a
vehicle for communication with the gods
who regulated everything. Okay. So
another way of saying this is that even
though there are wealthy people and poor
people, they are still treated with
respect. Okay. Okay, it's a very
egalitarian society.
Okay, and what keeps the system in place
is the belief in the gods. Okay, the
belief that if I do you a favor, then
you owe me the favor. We have a contract
now. The gods oversee the contracts. And
what's really important is that this is
an open-ended system. So, it's easy for
me to bring in more people into this system.
system. Okay.
Okay.
Okay. Okay. And that's how and that's
why again they were such an innovative,
cohesive and open society.
Okay. The last thing we'll talk about
are these um young men who enter secret
societies. Okay. And enter secret
societies and become um you know like
this mafia gangs. Okay. The institution
of the Morabon, the warrior brotherhood
of young men bound by oath to one
another and to ancestors during a
ritually mandated raid has been
reconstructed as a central part of
protoindouropean initiation rituals.
Okay. It's a very important part of
society because these young men
otherwise have no place to go. Okay. And
if you if you want to know who they are,
they're basically the Vikings. Okay. So
the Vikings are the direct um
descendants of these people.
Okay. All right.
All right. So, let's talk about the the
Mongols. The Mongols conquered the
world, most of the world. And they and
the question is how do they do it? Okay.
And I've already told the answer. Okay?
Because the steps people have always
been good at conquering empires. Um
these are the Mongols. Uh the secret
weapon of course is a horse archer. This
is like the ultimate weapon for most of
human history. You could you could
[laughter] not defend against a horse
archer. They were fast. they were strong
um and these were the best warriors in
the world. So um this has been
considered a pattern in human history.
First the Yamaya came and conquered
Europe, India and Iran. But then you
have the cythians. Okay, same place,
same people, same culture. Um guys, this
is not a race of people. This is a
culture of people. Okay, because
remember at this time in human history,
genetic exchange is very common. Okay,
the cyians were dominant. Then you have
the medians who would later on give rise
to the Persian Empire. Okay, sorry. Oops.
Okay. Sorry. Okay. Then you had So, can
can you see this?
>> Okay. So, now what's going to happen is
is this. You're gonna have
you're gonna so the steps people are all
around the grassland. Now China emerges
as an empire and this is the Han Empire
and this is really the last Chinese
dynasty. Why? Because they are
ethnically Chinese and they're proud of
who they are. So what they're going to
do is they're going to try to destroy
the Sepsible once and for all. Okay? So
they move a huge army into the steps to
try to limit the threat. And what what
happens now is it forces a cascade
effect where these people are now forced
to go westwards which which forces them
with people over here. Okay. And so you
have this huge migration all the way to
the Roman Empire. Okay.
Okay. So this is what the map shows us.
Okay. China forces the Huns the Shunu
westwards which then forces these other
groups to go elsewhere. Okay. So again
the strongest people stay in the steps.
The weakest people go and conquer
empires. Okay this is a process of
Um the the Han Empire. Okay
Han. Then you have the Turks emerge. Um
uh this is the Mongol Empire and as you
can see they conquered basically most of
the world. Okay.
Um and because they conquer most of the
world and the world is is unified then
you have the black death. Okay, which
wipes out most of Europe as well. About
a third of Europe is wiped out in the
black death. Okay. And the last great
conqueror is Timberlane. Okay. Timber
the lane. The great last great conqueror
of the from the steps um and he conquers
most of the world. Okay. So this is
really important principle. Remember the
steps people are the most innovative,
the most open, the most aggressive, the
most courageous and that's why they're
the greatest conquerors in history.
Okay. But eventually what happens is
we develop gunpowder. Okay? And now the
steps will be conquered by civilization.
But this was the turning point in
history, the event of gunpowder. And so
now what's going to happen is that
civilization will now attack the steps
people and reduce the step people
culture. Okay. And that is it. Right.
Um so so I was wondering like uh so the
bombarians the steps are they're capable
of developing uh re religions like
because they are all conquering all
around the world so it's difficult for
them to like build up temples right
okay so religions don't require temples
religion is just collective belief so as
I say as I keep on saying in this class
all humans have a religion
Okay, a religion is just a worldview,
understanding of how the world works.
That answers three questions. Where do
we come from? Why are we here? Where are
we going? Okay, even today, even though
we're atheists, we're still religious.
Okay, but we worship money, materialism, science.
science.
So these people the steps they worship
the horse, the sky god, the cow, they
worship war, they worship um courage and
bravery. Okay. So every culture, every
person has a religion of some sorts
because because you because it's
impossible for you to understand the
world and operate in the world without a
religion. Okay? Especially for groups.
Okay, any more questions?
Okay, great guys. So we'll so we'll
continue our discussion of human history
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