Yamnaya and their western neighbours: opposing cultures of conflict?

This article explores how the invasive Yamnaya culture may have been able to assert itself against the established Neolithic populations in southeast Europe. We argue how a clash between a culture of consent – dominant among the local agrarian populations – and a culture of confrontation – prevalent in the Yamnaya culture – may explain the process. The assumption draws on organizational sociology, conflict and resilience theory, and approaches of symbol analysis to argue that the Yamnaya’s self-sufficient and adaptable approach to societal self-organization gave them an advantage in critical situations of upheaval, whereas the farmers’ interdependent community structures made them more vulnerable. We show that their probably opposing types of conflict management became a crucial factor with regard to resilience and assertiveness. Resilience theory shows that social systems that are geared towards dynamic flexibility are particularly resilient, which made the Yamnaya’s culture of confrontation more successful in a clash of conflict cultures. We conclude that the rapid spread of steppe culture and population was a consequence of several factors; this article provides a fresh approach arguing that one of the most influential reasons to Yamnaya’s cultural success would have been its different societal outlook and behaviour.