The Integration of Ordos Regional Culture and the Evolution of Livelihood Patterns during the Pre-Qin Period

Abstract

Ordos, located in the southwestern part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region‌, is one of the core areas of Northern Frontier culture. During the pre-Qin period, the Ordos region witnessed the integration of agrarian and nomadic cultures, fostering ethnic amalgamation and cultural exchange. The subsistence models evolved from a combination of gathering and hunting in the Paleolithic era, to complementary farming and hunting with integrated cultivation and animal husbandry during the Yangshao culture, and further to mixed agriculture and pastoralism in the Longshan and early Shang cultures. By the Shang-Zhou period, nomadic practices emerged as dominant, centered on herding and hunting‌. This process demonstrated a mutually reinforcing relationship between cultural fusion and the evolution of subsistence models, collectively shaping the distinctive cultural landscape of the Ordos region.