One Hyphen - One Hundred: Revisiting the Issue of Livestock Count among the Turko-Mongolian Peoples

Abstract

According to archaic beliefs of Central Asian nomads, there are things that may be counted and those that may not. The latter includes livestock. However, socio-economic requirements of the authorities - the Khan, zaisan (Kalm. ‘prince’) or any other ruler - that needed money for social amenities (i.e. taxes), and practices of customary law within a community (e.g. kalym, Turk. ‘payment for the bride’) forced nomads to count their livestock. Since earliest times to the present days Central Asian livestock breeders have been using the term bodo - denoting one big animal - for livestock count. Bodo is both an economic and financial term acting as universal equivalent. With evidence from diverse scholarly studies it may be concluded that the bodo-based count system had taken shape before the emergence of the Mongol Empire and evolved from the customary law of Central Asian peoples. It was the Great Yassa (Mong. Ikh Zasag ‘great code of laws’) introduced by Genghis Khan at the 1206 Kurultai (Mong. ‘assembly’) which proved a codified version of the ancient customary law of Turko-Mongols. Thus, ever since one can trace the quantity equivalent of one bodo in both written and oral Mongolian codes of laws. Throughout centuries the size of bodo varied which is understandable enough when viewed from the perspective of its position as universal equivalent, i.e. exactly like the case of floating exchange rates of modern supranational currencies. The article attempts to define the principle for the formation of bodo. The main conclusion is that a bodo comprises a number of small ruminants which are cheaper both in terms of marketable value and reproduction (this year’s lambs shall breed in just one year), and are equivalent to one cow, (saddle-)horse or (pack-)camel. Judging by the fact one camel stood for two bodos, camels were most valued due to the longest reproduction period. In other words, the bodo-based universal estimation system of medieval Turko-Mongols can be well compared to the present day universal equivalent - money: one ruble (sheep) - one hundred rubles (horse).