Hi everybody, I need the vast resource of this page to help me with one of my papers I'm writing. Since the Scythian society didnt keep written records of their lifestyles, I have to use ethnographic parallels between the Mongols, Ossetians or any other group resembling / coming from the Scythians to understand the nature of their society and culture. Any help, comments, links, posts or general ideas are vastly appreciated!
I just gave this reply to a similar question.
The problem is, the Scythians weren't a single people group - the term is a Greek (and later, Roman) catch-all for 'barbarians from the east.' It was used to refer to everyone from steppe nomads to Germanic-speaking Goths. As a result, you're not going to be able to do an ethnography of the Scythians - that would be like doing an ethnography on 'ancient black people' (do you mean Ghanna? The Zulus? Ancient Nubia? the modern concept of race - black - doesn't line up with historical cultures; neither does 'Scythian').
Certainly, comparing the 'Scythian' Goths to the Mongols would be very inappropriate (they were culturally completely dissimilar). As would comparing the ancient Scythians in Herodotus to the Mongols (they lived 2000 years apart).
You can get a quick and dirty overview of the different meanings of the word 'Scythian' in the second (I think) chapter of Kulikowsky's Rome's Gothic Wars.
So the real question is, which Scythians are you interested in? Name a specific passage from a historical source, and people might be able to give you some more positive assistance.