--- #TODO these dates are almost certainly wrong - **“Unplowable” soils:** Thin topsoils and erratic rainfall on the step left herders no choice but grazing; this geographic constraint froze pastoral communities into lightly stratified warrior orders rather than peasant classes. - **Meritocratic tumens:** Lacking rigid priestly hierarchies, steppe armies organized by tribal confederations and proved merit rule—Genghis Khan’s decimal tumen system pre-adapts to modern corporate divisions. - **Proto-social division** (Quigley, _The Evolution of Civilizations_) Carroll Quigley notes that as herds grew, a loose stratification emerged: successful clan-leaders commanded more labor and tribute, planting the seeds of the stark warrior/priest/peasant divisions that define 5HE’s “Plow and Division.” - **Old-son inheritance crystallizes:**  The heavy plow required male cooperation and sparked clear divisions of labor—and of inheritance.  The “authoritarian family” (oldest son takes all) described in the transcript mirrors how Bronze-Age agrarian elites first bequeathed undivided estates.  That pattern seeded both feudal hierarchies and the later fascist valorization of lineage.