Of course there were singers too, who were able to play instruments and sing. Those were the skills that pretty much every single nomadic girl or a boy were expected to master at least to some degree in their free time, unlike that of the SC nations, where mostly the privileged class could afford a luxury to study and perform music.
Arts and crafts
The Eurasian Nomads were also proficient and prolific in arts and crafts. To put is simply, they tried to turn everything they touch into an art piece. Free of city walls and houses, not burdened by the need to cultivate the land or watch after the gardens, having only the most necessary possessions that their cattle can carry, most of the nomads didnt have hoarding addictions of the SC people. Plus, unlike the later, they had tons of free time on their hands, and also never developed the division of labor to such a degree as it was in the settled societies. Therefore, they were much freer to engage in artful activities.
Each EN was crafty and skillful, and able to perform most of handwork tasks. All nomadic women were taught to sew, weave, and make felt. And all of the men had basic woodworking, leatherworking, and metalworking skills. Of course, there were exceptionally gifted craftspersons who could specialize in certain narrow process-oriented trades, such as yurt making, bow making, smithcraft, and weapon making, and it was considered a blessing from the Skies. But even the least talented nomadic man or woman could equip and decorate their yurt and make their own clothing.
Even the neighboring SC nations noted this quality of the nomads, not without some envy. On the average, the EN were skillful, versatile, resourceful and imaginative. The Kazakh yurt, fully decorated and equipped, is a masterpiece of the highest grade. Every square inch of it is decorated with textiles, weaved patterns, ornamented felts, beautiful rugs, bedding items, linens, and etc. The dressing was also decorated with embroidery or applied patterns. And most men knew how to make good looking leather goods that could be embossed or stamped; wood carving; or even metal jewelry. Much effort was spent on decorating the horse equipment: saddles, saddle pads, stirrups, harness, and etc. And, of course, men would go out of their way to make their weapons look good too, as the weapon was a sign of manly status.
The nomads wanted to live beautiful lives in accordance with their aesthetical views. They wanted their mobile dwellings to look and feel like home, and spared no efforts to achieve that. The nomadic mentality was simple: I dont change the surrounding nature and I dont have much possessions, but I do carry my home and my belongings with me all my life, and I want them to look real good.
Sports and games
A big part of nomadic leisure time was spent in highly developed traditional sports and games. The sports always played a special role in the nomadic lifestyle. Every event, every celebration must have had sporting events. The EN invented myriad of sporting games and competitions, of which only a fracture survived and known today, but it was enough to establish the World Nomadic Games that first took place in Kyrgyzstan in 2014.
The EN games could be roughly divided into a few categories: games involving horses, military games, wrestling and fist-fighting, and individual and team competitions of various kinds.
The horse sports were particularly developed since the Eurasian Nomads were the historys most prominent horse people, the true Centaurs. They included various types of horse races, such as speed, distance, and insurance races. There were team sports, such as kókpar (goat dragging), horseback wresting, and picking up small object from the ground on full gallop, chasing a girl on a horse, horseback polo, and many more.
The military sports included horseback and foot archery of many types, competitions with spears and lances, javelin throwing, jousting, and etc. The nomads invented knightly tournaments, where the competitors, armed with dull spears or lances, tried to knock each other off the horse. These and other types of jousting were played as duels or in teams, and served as training exercises for future combat use.
These nomadic tournaments migrated to Europe together with horse-riding culture, and became the foundation of the future European knightly tournaments; except for in Europe it was only the privilege of the wealthy, while in Eurasian Steppes every nomad could participate and win regardless of his or her status. In Kazakhstan these tournaments were popular among the population and existed until 1920s, when they were finally officially banned by the Soviets.
The foot military disciplines had a few types of fist-fighting and wrestling, one of which survived today as qazaqsha kures (Kazakh wrestling). Of course there was fencing, dueling, swordplay, spearplay, axeplay and other types of combat sports performed both on foot or horseback. The nomads were skillful warriors who knew their way with all types of weapons. This was a universal matter of survival.
And when the Eurasian Nomads werent busy moving, fighting, watching after their cattle, or partying, playing music, reciting poetry, playing sports or taking part in military competitions, they entertained each other by playing regular games. There was enormous amount of games that the nomads invented, borrowed, and helped to spread around the Afro-EuroAsia. There were riddles and puzzles, jokes and mockery, active games involving throwing objects, kids games such as hide and seek, tag, tug of war and its variations, and etc. There were even romantic and erotic games for young adults, and brain-stimulating games for seniors to help them to keep their memory sharp. And many, many more.
The nomads also tried to turn every work into a game. During the intense Kósh times, the EN wore their best clothes, garments, and accessories, and travelled merrily and loudly, while signing song, and bursting into horse races or chases. The youth used the Kóshes as occasions to meet new friends and make romantic connections. On the camping grounds, when the nomads had to perform some labor-intensive group tasks, such as felt-making, they would engage is games, specifically designed to make their work go faster and merrier; as opposed to dull everydayness routines of the SC farmers or craftsmen that performed repetitive tasks all their lives.
The nomads knew how to spend their time well, and they had the means for that: time and wealth. They lived in the world where every winter could be their last one: the nomads never had more than a few months-worth of food stores, so there could be hunger in the spring; where the enemies could strike at any time and there were no walls to hide behind, where the disease could wipe out the entire regions, as with the infamous Black Death in 14th century that started somewhere in Central Asia, got spread along the entire Silk Road and wiped around almost a half of the population of Eurasia.
Given all that, the nomads tried to value every living minute, and they did that by creating a vastly developed culture.
Nomadic society
Political system
The closest we can describe the EN society in SC terms would be a direct military democracy with strong remnants of matriarchy. All adult population took part in elections, and every voice was counted. In a nomadic version the leadership must have possessed extraordinary and universally accepted merits in order to be elected. The chief or chieftess must have been a great warrior/warrioress, be honest and honorable person, have political and economic wits, know traditions, be adequate and qualified for the job, have good orator skills, and etc.
Surely, it didnt always exist in a pure form. In areas where the nomads came in close contact with SC nations or led a semi-nomadic lifestyle, they adopted many features of their settled neighbors. Also, there were a few periods in history, when there were native EN ruling dynasties, such as the Royal Scythians, the Ashina Turks, or the descendants of Genghis Khan called Tóre (Genghisids). These dynasties overruled the direct elections and passed their status to their heir. But even they had to listen carefully to what their freedom-loving subjects need. Otherwise, the rulers wouldve end up without their people, as the nomads could simply move away from their leaders, if they didnt meet their expectations.
But there were also long periods of time in remote areas of the Great Steppe where the EN lived free in accordance with their own laws, and the ruling class was elected during direct voting among the most merited and distinguished members of the nomadic society, both male and female. In fact, most of the nomads didnt like the idea of electing Khans, they preferred to stop the hierarchy at a tribal leadership level. Khans were usually needed only in times of war.
Being the EN Khan was no easy feat. The people knew their rights and powers, and they could deposit any ruler just as easy as they elected him or her. The leaders were held accountable for all their actions, and often were killed or sent to exile if they didnt deliver. Therefore, competing for power in such societies was the best example of meritocracy of the elites.
Social structure
As for the structure, the nomadic society was built of a few families forming nomadic villages called Auls, which entered extended family clans called Ru, the Rus were part of tribes called Taipa, and tribal confederations were called Orda (order) known as Horde in English. Each of these had their own head, usually it was a man, but distinguished female leaders werent rare at all on all levels.
The leaders were full-scale military leaders, marshals and generals, and were personally leading all military campaigns. The tribal chieftains and Khans lost their lives in battles on regular basis, as it was a dangerous life. If a family lost their male leader, or if a Khan was killed at war, usually his oldest wife would take his place until his sons reach the age of maturity.
Men died in wars too often, therefore, there was always a lack of them in the nomadic society, leading to excess of single women. To offset this negative balance, the nomadic males would usually take a few wives and try to produce as many male offspring as possible, knowing that most of them wont live long enough to mature. Even so, these measures could barely replace the male losses. So there was an institute of secondary marriage, where any widow would marry the remaining male relative of her killed husband, and he would adopt her children and raise them as his own. This was a far better option for most women than to be left alone in the Steppe with children and possessions to meet a certain death.
Other wives were not against it, because they knew that this tradition was developed over millennia as an insurance policy in womens benefit. Any woman might end up needing it at any time. As for men, knowing that their children will be taken care of by their kin in case of their death made them braver warrior. This is why the nomadic warriors could afford to die for honor on the battlefield.
Military system
All males were considered warriors upon reaching the adulthood, and were attached to the tribal militia forces. To be efficient, all boys without exception were trained to be warriors from the earliest possible age. This rule also included all girls too, because not only they were expected to be able to protect themselves, but the nomadic women were also default auxiliary cavalry reserve in times of war. Therefore, all nomadic children, boys and girls, were trained and proficient in handing the Five Weapons (Bes Qaru), the nomadic martial arts system which included weapons such as bow and arrows, lances and spears, sabers and swords, clubs, warhammers and battle axes, and daggers and knives. All of these Five Weapons were used both on horseback and on foot.
European knighthood takes its roots from the EN tradition of the Great Steppes knights called Batyrs (bahadurs, baatars). It is a well-known fact among the Eurasian nomadologists. The Batyrs were the elite tribal warriors who rose to their ranks only due to their military accomplishments. The Batyrs were noble by the nomadic standards, extraordinary warriors and military strategists, also were well-educated, accomplished in arts, poetry, and music. The status of Batyr was not passable to their children and could only be earned in battles. Sometimes even Khans were given the status of Batyr. In some respects, the title of Batyr was higher than the status of Khan.
Leadership
The decision-making process in EN society was also unique. The family heads (Aul-Bas) would elect the clan head (Ru-Bas), and the assembly of the Ru-bases would elect their tribal leader (Taipa-Kósem). The Taipa-Kósems would form constituent assemblies of tribal confederations. These assemblies were to hold democratic leadership meetings called Qurultai, where they would discuss the ongoing matters, such as coordinate their seasonal migration routes, solve any possible disputes, and etc. Each of the Taipa-Kósems had a voice and the decisions were made by voice count.
In times of war or famine, the Qurultai could have decided to appoint a marshal or even elect a Khan. At this, in order to elect a Khan, the circumstances must be extraordinary, such as long war with an adversary state or another nomadic tribal confederation, because the nomads never liked the idea of concentrating too much power in one hand. The marshals would usually be appointed from the ranks of the most experienced and accomplished Batyrs. Sometimes, the Qurultai could even combine both roles and elect a Khan with marshals privileges.
For the most part of history, nomadic Khans had limited powers. First of all, the elected Khan would have to give out all of his cattle (main wealth) to the tribes that elected him. So overnight a Khan and his family became poor, fully dependent on his subjects. A Khan was allowed only a small personal guard and enough cattle to sustain his family. This was a symbol of his surrender to his peoples interests and an insurance against his greed and corruption.
Now the newly elected Khan had to earn his peoples trust and find new wealth by taxations, or in war or by trade. Nomadic taxation system was called yasak/yasaq/jasaq (tribute), and it was rather simple: each tribal unit had to annually supply Khan with a certain amount of livestock or other goods, such as felt, leather, furs, ropes, tools, and etc.
A war-time marshal or Khan could request the tribes to provide their militia when needed. Each tribe would supply the requested amount of battle-ready warriors, fully equipped and armed. Each military unit consisted of kin warriors with their own elected leaders, and could act independently or as a part of a large unit. Under the martial law, all warriors were obliged to abide the marshals orders, and refusal to comply could be punished by death.