A friend of mine once asked me: 'how does a centaur braid his tail?' which led to this lovely discussion. Would love to see some new insights and discussions!
p.s am I doing the tags right?
I would expect them to be a hunter gatherer society. Think about it. They would have a hell of a time with agriculture. There would be no end to the problems with planting and I think they would have serious moral issues with keeping horses or bovine. I think that the majority of their hunting would be done as a speed and pack hunting manner. Think more wolves, less cheetah. Gathering would still be the large majority of the caloric intake. Having an equine digestive system at the end of their human digestive system would be that they can get along with a lot of grasses. This means that nomadic lifestyle necessity. They use speed and herd movement as the major forms of defense thanks to the equine lower parts. So the nomadic stuff makes even more sense. It also seems that they wouldn't get much beyond the equatorial regions, maybe in some temperate plains and grass lands, but only as far as they can range before winter. With the nomadic lifestyle and wide ranging there ends up being spoken language so that knowledge gets passed beyond a generation, this means the ranging can grow again. Those arms and hands though....I don't know if they ever get to tools unless they are part of raid warfare. They definitely don't get them as a part of their own culture. Think about it. They have those six pack abs because of how hard it is to get the human half close enough to the ground to feed. I can't imagine them spending a long time doubled over to smash rocks against one another to get to rudimentary tools. This means that things like the trade gets centered around slaves, since the centaurs can physically overcome humans and other great apes with ease. So we basically end up with the equatorial regions of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe harried by slaver centaurs. The centaurs are kept in check by wily humans that develop advanced technology. But the herds occasionally move through and take human slaves and sell them back. The advent of pikes and bows escalates the wars between humans and centaurs. Eventually civilization triumphs and pushes the centaurs to extremely remote pockets across the globe. They aren't dead, but live on the centaur reserves is a cruel reminder of the cost of survival. Now their society is non-functional. Everything that it was based on is gone as the ranges are strangled. The oral mysticism is crushed by human education. The century of s system of shitty government "protection" has turned most of their proud species to being reliant on government hand outs. They didn't understand the terms of the peace they bartered, but now they can't even function in it. Their youth are disenfranchised. The future seems hopeless...
So to bring it back. Nomadic, with advanced language skills, historicity and oral culture. Confined to the equator or the range of the herd(?) within the summer season. Eventually they gather technology through raiding and slave trade. But technology eventually out distances physical might and the culture gets dominated by humans. So today they are essentially the same as aboriginals throughout the world. At least Canada officially apologized recently. Sorry for what my ancestors did to your ancestors. Sorry that we keep failing. Sorry that we can't even vote to help you anymore...sorry native Canadians.
Well lets say the centaur population gets Zion-ed tomorrow afternoon and there are enough to represent a significant population in a country in sub-saharan Africa....Zimbabwe...we'll choose Zimbabwe. First thing is they become a class of anti-poachers the world has never seen. They take guerrilla tactics and put it on the scale that the poachers couldn't possibly imagine. After stealing weapons caches the populations of wildlife begin to slowly recover. The centaurs form an economy the is initially based on eco-tourism. Protecting this means remaining armed. Which has never been a huge problem for African countries. The problem has always been about not using them for evil. Fortunately the centaurs want to preserve the wildlife habitats. Unfortunately the centaurs have no qualms about killing humans to do it. This leads to an escalation of conflict in the region as the centaurs attempt to "naturalize" larger portions of the Savannah. The escalation becomes more violent and grisly as the centaurs take on larger populations towards both coasts. This should prompt a response from the international community, but the UN gave the land to the centaurs and they aren't good at doing the right thing. So the international community doesn't intervene and soon South Africa comes into conflict in a fully modernized war against guerilla centaurs. The South Africans loose....really badly. So now the centaurs control from the Sahara south. Their tactics are impeccable, and even armies of UAVs have trouble tracking and curbing their violence. The centaurs don't advance economy in standard means, instead it is a state based exclusively on ecological preservation. Infrastructure of the post-colonial era collapses. Instead the centaurs population finds an equilibrium. The state becomes the beacon of doing with less. The world pays attention to the violence, but understands the larger story finally. And the next day the G20 countries all announce a plan to fight overpopulation, the root cause of our problems. Thank you benevolent centaurs! Even if you hate our species, we finally understand what our real problem is and are forced to take real steps to combat it thanks to your shining example. Thanks half-human-half-horses!
Thank god...i didn't eat a lot yesterday and by the end I was having a hard time even forming a sentence. Poor decisions all around!
Probably more or less like the people who inspired them, the nomadic horse archers of the Steppe(Specifically Greek interactions with people groups like the sarmatians). Not being able to get to the ground as easily might make it hard for them to really build things, but in time through trade they would become unparalleled horse archers. Political interactions with humanity at large would probably be rather ossified - either fear, hate, or outright worship would dominate the scene. Centaurs would never be able to create an empire in the style of the Mongols - since they cannot as easily rely on stealth, scale walls, or even enter certain houses, but they would still be feared. Perhaps they would develop a mercenary culture. They would likely not adapt well to an industrialized culture, and either become marginalized or extinct entirely.
In the Star Force series, by B. V. Larson, there is an alien race of Centaurs. (Larson bases his alien races in animals, it's not very creative, but it's so over the top that it ends up being brilliant.) They are indeed a herd-like society, that values war, bravery and honor above all else, and are collectivistic to the extreme, happily sacrificing individuality for the common good. They also make long-winded and flowery speeches, and are horrible at obeying any order that doesn't involve a direct attack. Any kind of strategy or tactics are considered cowardly and duplicitous. I cannot imagine any other culture for the centaurs.
All right, first thing that comes to mind: I can see centaurs being WAY popular in the gay male BDSM subculture. Damn, talk about the parties, and the new kinds of sex that'd result. Sort of similar to one queer guy I know telling me he loved amputees, because... well, you get it. I imagine centaur drag shows, wow, the theater that would be created, Trannyshack style. And TV shows, fashion shows, Centaur Eye for the Straight Guy. And they'd be really good mechanics. Some would be rowdy, some would be upstanding citizens. Centaur literary events, centaur spoken word, centaur restaurants, centaur literature. And the Olympics might never be the same. Oh, centaur tractor pulls!
This is wonderful! I guess I'm the more traditional thinking person because I had always imagined that they'd be gentle creatures (part horse) but a little shy by nature, love nature and exploring new places (they'd make great geographers) as well as bibliophilic. I'd imagine that they were a community group, but don't mind sitting (kneeling?) down alone on top of a wind carved crag to meditate their place in the world. They'd be braniacs with a spot of temper in them, and they would never say neigh (nay) to a good bushel of apples.
In Xena, most plot/story lines have centaurs in conflict with Amazons, or Xena's thug pals back when she was evil, and they're hearty, awkward warriors. A sub theme involves them being killed, their lands encroached upon, and so forth. Portrayed mostly in browns and greys, living in dusty environments and rickety wooden fences. I think in an ideal world Xena-story centaurs just want to be left alone. If you ever get the chance, there's an episode of Xena where Gabrielle is producing a play in a popular city, and a rather pretentious centaur auditions, and it's hilarious. edit: Found the episode. The centaur character's scene starts at approx 12:35, and he's in another small scene starting approx 18:20--
They'd probably be really into horses. Like in Kentucky. They probably eat a lot of BBQ but it's all veggie. They'd wear cowboy hats and they keep people as pets who work like servants by cleaning the parts that the centaurs can't reach and stuff. I guess that's basically slavery. So they'd be vegetarian Kentucky slave-owning horse ranchers.