The results of an international study on how climate change affected the fate of nomads were presented at Altai State University
On January 19, at the Institute of Geography of Altai State University, Anna Egorina, a visiting foreign professor, presented the monograph “The Mongol-Siberian Anticyclone in the Fate of Nomadic Civilizations of Eurasia,” which describes the results of a long-term study of how climate changes in the Altai-Sayan mountainous country affected the migration of nomadic ethnic groups.
The authors of the book are:
Egorina Anna, professor of East Kazakhstan University named after. S. Amanzholova and visiting foreign professor of the Department of Economic Geography and Cartography of INGEO of Altai State University, Doctor of Geographical Sciences, climatologist, ecologist, member of the Russian Geographical Society, Chairman of the Ust-Kamenogorsk branch of the Kazakh Geographical Society, Academician of the Academy of Natural Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. Author and co-author of more than 200 publications, including 9 monographs.
Revyakin Viktor Semenovich (1936–2020), founder of the Faculty of Geography of Altai State University, Doctor of Geographical Sciences, glaciologist, ecologist, specialist in the field of mining environmental management, professor, academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. In 1989-1993 Deputy of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, member of the Presidium and Chairman of the Committee on Ecology and Natural Resources. Honorary member of the Russian Geographical Society. Honorary worker of higher professional education of the Russian Federation. Author and co-author of more than 200 publications, including monographs, maps and atlases.
The monograph summarizes the results of a 20-year study of the influence of the powerful seasonal center of action of the atmosphere of the Mongol-Siberian anticyclone on the weather regimes of the steppe geosystems of the Altai-Sayan mountainous country. Changes and rhythms of climate directly affected the fate of nomadic ethnic groups, and climatic transformations had a significant impact on the nature of the economic and cultural activities of nomads and required them to correspondingly restructure the entire system of life activity. Of scientific interest is the study of the representation of understanding of modern socio-economic civilizational aspects of the nomadic peoples of Eurasia in space and time in organic interaction with the characteristics of the geographical environment.
The main goal pursued by the authors was to show the organic interaction of natural and climatic factors, features of the geographical environment with the system of material production and social relations of the nomadic peoples of Eurasia, to reflect the evolution of climate on the fate of nomadism, and to provide an explanation for the migration of nomadic ethnic groups.
The scientific significance of the study is due to the fact that nomadic cattle breeding continues to exist in the modern world in more than 30 countries.
To characterize the geoecological models of the geosystems of the Kazakhstan Altai and their meteorological complexes, the monograph provides statistical characteristics and descriptions of the spatiotemporal features of the distribution of the main climatic elements and weather phenomena in time and space; materials from climate reference books, data from Kazhydromet of the East Kazakhstan region, and literary sources were used.
The monograph consists of 6 chapters:
1. Socio-economic transformation of nomadic civilizations;
2. Model of cattle breeding and the annual cycle of nomadism in different parts of the Great Steppe;
3. Mongol-Siberian anticyclone and Altai-Sayan mountainous country;
4. The role of the Mongol-Siberian anticyclone in the regional weather regimes of Eurasia;
5. Mongol-Siberian anticyclone and geosystems of the Altai-Sayan mountainous country;
6. Evolution of climate and the fate of nomadism.