Humans, Horses, Tattoos, and Time Response
The aspects of the Pazyryk culture that really interest me are their severe reverence for horses shown through the tattoos and how that relates to them sacrificing their horses for burials. For the culture around tattoos, they âserve to bring into consciousness images and ideas that are culturally or personally importantâ (188). For the Pazyryks specifically, the tattoos were âmeant to be protectiveâ and had a broader significance âto the community as a whole.â (188). That is why the multitude of horse tattoos were so prevalent in their society - the horses protected the humans and were highly valued by the community as a whole. I am interested in the fact that when a human dies, their horse is sacrificed and buried with the human, yet when a horse dies, they are commemorated on the humanâs body as a tattoo. This is interesting to me when I think of how equal both humans and horses seemed in their culture, yet they were treated so differently in death. It is stated that the Pazyryk thought of the horse ânot as objects or sets but as individual, relational beingsâ (190). How then, can they justify sacrificing the horse when their human dies? It seems that as the society deems horses as equal partners, either both parties should be sacrificed no matter who dies first or both parties should be tattooed to remember their fallen brother until they should join them in death.Â
Great post! You bring up some interesting points that Iâm honestly confused about as well. I do think though that this culture still acknowledged the differences between horses and humans, even though they are viewed as much more similar to humans than we would ever agree with today. Ultimately, their role was still to serve and protect human beings, like you said, which signifies the actual importance of humans in this relationship. Horses would be meaningless without people, but people wouldnât be protected without people. Both depend on the other in a way, but the relationship still revolves around the human beings.




















