The main and original religions of the EN were Shamanism, Paganism, and Tengrism. The proper term that I prefer to use is natural philosophy, because the nomads worshiped what they perceived as essences, entities, substances of surrounding nature: the Sky, Earth, and Water (Tanir, Jer/Yer, and Su), and the spirits of nature or certain geographic location.
These beliefs were consistent throughout the entire existence of the ENC and was never fully replaced even after the nomads adopted other religions. The EN «priesthood» was rather basic and permeated the entire nomadic society: all regular parents were considered «family shamans» and could conduct common ceremonies and rituals; for special occasions there were «specialist shamans» who devoted their lives to spirits; the tribal leadership and Khans sometimes had their own «court shamans» whom they consulted on political and personal matters.
At the same time, the nomads almost never waged on any religious wars. Quite opposite, for the most part the EN were extremely tolerant towards all religions and faiths. They never allowed the differences in beliefs or rituals obstruct the common humane values.
When the nomads forged their mighty empires by the edges of their sabers, they almost never persecuted any religious groups, nor have they tried to force everybody into some one religion. Instead they allowed all subjects practice their own. Their motto was: just obey the law, send the troops, and pay the taxes, and nobody will bother you.
Women’s role in EN society
The shift from the Matriarchy to Patriarchy, which happened in the majority of the SC nations world-wide after the Agrarian Revolution, lead to an ever-decreasing social role and status of women. Within a couple of thousand years women went from worshiped Goddesses of Fertility and Nature to their lowest point in the medieval Witch Hunt, when women were openly discriminated, demonized, and prosecuted.
None of that ever happened to such extend within the ENC. Traditional role of women in EN society was the highest in human history during the Patriarchal Era. For a long time the nomads didn’t even fully transfer to the Patriarchal model. The Ancient Greeks wrote that the Scythian men and women had equal status. And traces of that equality survived to this day in most of post-EN societies.
Most scholars of today agree that the mythical nation of Amazon women who were fierce fighters and could best all-male armies was, in fact, based on the historical tradition of the ENC female warriors. The phenomenon of historical Amazons existed in the EN societies throughout the entire history.
There are famous female queens in the Saka society in the first millennium BC, such as Tomiris, Amaga, Zarina, and others. They were more than just administrative leaders: nomadic queens were required to assume military leadership roles just as male leaders. So powerful were these queens, that their status regarded as high as the famous SC rulers’ of the period, such as the Persian Achaemenid king Cyrus and the Macedonian Alexander the Great.
In my nation of Kazakhstan and neighboring Karakalpakistan there still exist a tale of Qyryq Qyz (forty maidens) who fought their way and saved their country from invaders. There are historical records of famous female military leaders among the Kazakh women in the past few centuries who fought along their men with invading Zunghars, Persians, Uzbeks, Manchu, and Russian.
The nomadic women were so strong and independent, that a courting ritual actually included a real wrestling match or a full-scale duel between the bride-to-be and the contender bridegroom. This wasn’t just an orderly bridal ritual: it was a real fight, and if a man lost, which happened sometimes, he would either become a lady’s slave, or would have to pay a ransom to free himself from the prisoner’s status. Not to mention that his honor would be permanently stained, because there were not secrets in the Great Eurasian Steppe.
By the Middle Age the Patriarchal trend has gradually reached the Eurasian Nomads and most rulers were male. However, even then the women remained influential in politics, and basically acted as gray cardinals, directing their royal husbands from behind the scenes. Great nomadic leaders like Genghis-Khan had multiple wives, but their position was different from that of the Islamic or Chinese harems. In the harems, the wives were basically living in one palace, with a strict hierarchy of senior, middle tier, and junior wives, and the eunuch who were serving/supervising them.
In EN society, each of wives had her own nomadic Aul consisting of a few or more yurts, cattle herds, herdsmen and servants, and sometimes even her own guards. Basically, each of wives had her own small nomadic state within a state, where she was a full master. Even in less rich families with two or more wives being a part of one Aul with shared cattle, each of wives had her own yurt where she lived with her children, and other wives had no direct control over her possessions.
But even in the middle ages sometimes noble women forwent the behind-the-scenes routine and ruler openly. This happened more than once in the so-called Mongol Empire. One of the ancestor of Mongols is Alan-Gua, a mythical pra-mother. In Genghis-Khan’s own life there was an array of important women: his mother Hoelun, his first and senior wife Borte, his relative Altani who received the title of Baatar for being a brave warrior, his junior wives, sisters Yesugen and Yesui, among many others. They played significant roles at certain moment during the forging of empire. Finally, the wife of his third son, the Great Khan Ögedei, named Töregene Khatun was a direct ruler of the empire for a few years until her son Güyük Khan became the next Great Khan.
The Patriarchy never reached the same heights in the Great Steppe as it did in Europe, Middle East, Central Asia, or China. Even in the 19th century, after the majority of the Eurasian Nomads were converted to Islam, the status of women remained comparatively high. Even when under the Islamic law, nomadic women never wore full-veil or were as separated from men as they were in the SC Islamic nations.
The high social status of women in the ENC could be traced from the religious beliefs. In the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age times, the female goddesses were treated as equal to male gods. A good chunk of Scythian/Saka pantheon is made of female deities. Many of them lost their prominence, but one goddess name have survived till today and is still regarded among the Kazakhs: the Goddess Umai. She was one of the highest-ranking ancient goddesses of fertility, matron of all mothers and wives. Some modern-day Kazakhs still conduct millennia-old Umai rituals when the new babies arrive.
Another sign of equality between men and women in the nomadic society is in the very base of all Turkic languages. There are about half a hundred live and extinct Turkic languages, but they all share the same feature: there are no words for «he» or «she» in all of them. Instead, all Turkic languages refer to persons of both genders equally as «ol» or «o». If a Turkic-speaking person wants to specify gender of a person, he or she just have to use words «this/that man» (mynau/anau erkek) or «this/that woman» (mynau/anau qatyn). This is a major detail that tells us a lot about how the nomads traditionally viewed men and women.
Traditional nomadic family
The Eurasian Nomads managed to keep and preserve a very old human social construct known as Tribalism which traces back to late Stone Age and Bronze Age. In a simplified form, the EN tribes (Taipa) consisted of smaller units, such as family clans (Ru), which in turn were formed by families (Otbasy, Janúya). A few of Otbasy would form an extended family that physically manifested itself in a form of a nomadic village called Aul.
Of course, extended families in EN societies were much larger than those of the SC nations, and could incorporate dozens or even hundreds of people. That is because the meaning of the word «blood relatives» included the genetic kin up to seven generations back, a principle knows as Jety Ata (Seven Male Ancestors).
The nuclear families, consisting of primary parents and their biological children, could also include