What If the Greenlandic Norse Adapt and Adopt Inuit Culture

[iori]

Alright, so we all know the Norse at one time had a colony in modern Greenland quite along time ago, however in the 15th century the colony was essentially dying off do to the little ice age.

So, what if, instead of looking down on the native Inuit, the Greenlandic Norse adopted the aspects of their culture that allowed them to survive in the arctic conditions and created a new society by blending the two together?

Now, assuming it works, and they survive (if not thrive), how would this affect history?

 

[oudi14]

That may have happened to some degree with the Western Settlement. But the influence would have been too slight to have carried over into modern times. Perhaps a little of the Norse DNA might show up in some of the Inuit.

 

[Stephen]

We get some blue eyed eskimos.

 

[ArKhan]

We get some blue eyed eskimos.

You mean like those blonde haired blue eyed Inuit in the long ship that one Canadian explorer swears he meet near Baffin?

 

[AmIndHistoryAuthor]

There used to be a tribe in Newfoundland called the Beothuk that other tribes described as fair skinned and brown haired. They were exterminated by the French. If I recall right, Vine Deloria theorized they came from Europe.

The interesting question is if Vikings adopt Inuit culture, they've obviously had extensive contact with Inuit, intermarriage etc, so the influence goes both ways. The Danes colonizing Greenland encounter Inuit with iron swords and armor. A more even match, but maybe not decisive.

Potentially you see Inuit traveling to Scandinavia. If there's long term trade, which there wasn't in OTL, that gets pretty interesting. Perhaps furs.

You also have a far less violent series of initial encounters that permanently open up the Americas than Colombus. There was fighting between Norse and Inuit, but nothing on the mass slaughter scale Colombus did in Quisqueyah.

 

[Philip]

The Danes colonizing Greenland encounter Inuit with iron swords and armor. A more even match, but maybe not decisive.

Were there sources of iron for them to exploit?

Potentially you see Inuit traveling to Scandinavia. If there's long term trade, which there wasn't in OTL, that gets pretty interesting. Perhaps furs.

Wouldn't the Little Ice Age bring this to an end?

 

[AmIndHistoryAuthor]

Were there sources of iron for them to exploit?



Wouldn't the Little Ice Age bring this to an end?

It seems there was (and is) iron in Greenland.
http://www.google.co.id/search?hl=en&q=greenland+iron&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

But I don't know nearly enough about mining to guess if Norse mining techniques could exploit the ores.

What I could find on the LIA disagrees about how long it lasted. Some sources claim it was still going on as late as the 1850s.

If the LIA brings trade to an end. the question becomes how long does that trade go and does the memory of it affect future expeditions? The earliest anyone argues the LIA begins is about 1250, which would still give over a century of possible trade.

IOTL the Norse colonies don't vanish til 15th cen, but with adapted Inuit culture they do.

Or perhaps the Inuit-Norse travel south, with possibly bringing iron technology to other tribes. Interesting.

 

[karl2025]

Were there sources of iron for them to exploit?

I've heard that the primary source of Inuit iron was actually meteorites.

 

[arctic warrior]

The primary source of Inuit iron was meteorite.

If the Norse adapts to the Inuit life they would probably diminish in numbers as 4000 without agriculture is far out of proportion as Greenland 1802 had a population of 5865 according to Danish Statistical Bureau.

So no real basis for a cultural continuity of the Norse if adapting.

 

[Valdemar II]

The primary source of Inuit iron was meteorite.

If the Norse adapts to the Inuit life they would probably diminish in numbers as 4000 without agriculture is far out of proportion as Greenland 1802 had a population of 5865 according to Danish Statistical Bureau.

So no real basis for a cultural continuity of the Norse if adapting.

Through we could see them semi agricultural (maybe keeping sheepherding).

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Alright, so we all know the Norse at one time had a colony in modern Greenland quite along time ago, however in the 15th century the colony was essentially dying off do to the little ice age.

So, what if, instead of looking down on the native Inuit, the Greenlandic Norse adopted the aspects of their culture that allowed them to survive in the arctic conditions and created a new society by blending the two together?

Now, assuming it works, and they survive (if not thrive), how would this affect history?

The Inuit are LESS native to Greenland than the Norse. They arrived later.

 

[Umbral]

We get some blue eyed eskimos.

This was my first reaction too.
The things the Norse had that would have lit a fire in the Indians, such as iron, horses, the stirrup, seafaring, cattle, etc, just weren't that applicable to the Eskimo environment, or lacked materials.

For any real changes, you'd need the hybrid culture to push back against the indians, and establish itself further south, before the older people who retained the "archaich" skills were gone. Which is unlikly, especially in the timeframe they had to work with.

However, I did reconsider a bit. The Norse would probably not completly absorb into the Inuit, but more likly adopt some environment-useful skills, such as the Inuit hunting-fishing techniques, and the hide kayack techniques.

With this supplemental food-gathering techniques, the Greenland Norse would probably survive in some form, although not prospering.

I could see more trade with the indians for timber, etc, and some genetic transfer. Maybe a few ideas slipping down south.

 

[iori]

For any real changes, you'd need the hybrid culture to push back against the indians, and establish itself further south, before the older people who retained the "archaich" skills were gone.

That's actually more or less what I was thinking when I posted the thread, adopting the aspects of Inuit culture that would allow them to survive and prosper, but keeping the rest of their own culture, maybe slowly integrating the Inuit into their culture for a larger population base to.

 

[foresterab]

Interesting topic that has alot of ripple effects...

Assuming the Norse were willing to relocate westward and interact with the Inuit there is a chance that small scale intergration of the two cultures could exist.

The use of large, wooden ships could lead to a greater push for the Inuit to move south and increase the size of boats used but I think due to metal shortages the Norse would be moving to more bone related weaponry quickly.

The concept of a communal government and annual gatherings would establish a more centralized form of self government than the Inuit traditionally practiced. I can see these annual gatherings becoming a large scale whale hunt or other large sized fishery due to influence of large Norse boats and construction techniques.

Unfortunatly given the harshness of climate, limited food sources, and large cultural changes needed most Norse will freeze/starve out shortly as any large population switching to pure Innuit gathering techniques would most likely extripate the local annimal populations.

Having the Norse move south to Vineland/Newfoundland and interacting more favorably with the skraling Beotheuk's is more plausible or moving over to Labrador and interacting with the Cree in the north.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Were there sources of iron for them to exploit?

What about bog iron? Are there potential sources in Greenland? Presumably an ATL Viking-Inuit creole culture would have the knowledge, they'd just need the source.

 

[Valdemar II]

What about bog iron? Are there potential sources in Greenland? Presumably an ATL Viking-Inuit creole culture would have the knowledge, they'd just need the source.

No and there's no trees either.

 

[RGB]

No and there's no trees either.

There were some but the Norse chopped them down just like in Iceland.

They needed wood afterwards, hence the occasional expedition to Beotheuk.

As far as I know, they had no source of iron they exploited on any kind of regular basis, but that's not too surprising. If you see Russian Pomors (and to a lesser extent Swedes and Finns) a lot of the technology does not rely on iron beyond the most necessary tools; ships, houses...all that can be made of wood. In absense of wood, earthworks can be used for buildings. Cutlery and such is normally wooden.

They could well have no source of iron except for trading for tools with Europe and still survive for centuries.

 

[Michael B]

As far as I know, they had no source of iron they exploited on any kind of regular basis, but that's not too surprising. If you see Russian Pomors (and to a lesser extent Swedes and Finns) a lot of the technology does not rely on iron beyond the most necessary tools; ships, houses...all that can be made of wood. In absense of wood, earthworks can be used for buildings. Cutlery and such is normally wooden.

And what iron they did have they recycled.

As for adopting Inuit technology, that is going to be pretty remote. Take the kayak as an example. It is a pretty sophisticated piece of work which can't be reconstructed by just watching a Inuit skim across a bay.

In addition the Greenlanders were a pretty xenophobic bunch. On at least one occasion they killed a native just to see what blood his blood was. Not the sort of people to easily open trade relations with the Inuit.

As a final point societies like the Greenlanders who are on the edge of survival are conservative in that they don't experiment because most experiments fail. It is easy to point out how good Inuit technology is, but it was developed over centuries. When the Vikings arrived at Greenland there were no native peoples because they had all died out.