Indigenous Antarcticans

I was thinking of explore a TL where Antarctica had a human population before the arrival of europeans, and was looking for some help.
 

wormyguy

Banned
Too hard. The only parts of Antarctica which are warm enough just for humans to possibly be able to live are still too devoid of life or resources to allow any kind of human habitation. Of course, if there were some sort of radical climate change, or the Antarctican plate did not slide quite to its current position, but that would change history so significantly that it would be unlikely that humans would evolve.
 
Argh, I can't remember the details, but someone way back in the days of Second Mosaic Earth had an inhabited Antarctica (I think it was called "Yamania")... I'm not sure how plausible it was though. (Glen Finney also had an inhabited Antarctica in ME7, but it depended on global warming)
 
yeah I know about the impossibility of the situation, but I wonder about the cultural development of these hypothetical people.
 
I heard something once about some archeologists finding signs of humans on Antarctica millennia ago, but I don't know how true it is.
 

Hendryk

Banned
See the thread "Populate Antarctica". My own suggestion:

Let's imagine that a tribal war erupts in Tierra del Fuego around 1000 BCE. The losing tribe, having been kicked out of its hunting grounds, finds itself forced to seek other lands beyond the stormy waters to the south. Taking to the sea aboard flimsy rafts, many unsurprisingly fail to make it, but, by sheer luck, some manage to reach the South Shetlands. Living conditions are harsh, but not that much worse than in Tierra del Fuego, and the outcasts adapt to it, learning among other things to clothe themselves in sewn seal pelts. Within a few generations the tribe has grown back to respectable numbers, and discovered the South Orkneys and the Antarctic Peninsula. Little by little, adventuring groups begin to settle these new territories, making it as far as Ellsworth Land and Thurston Island. In the following centuries, a cultural split develops between the islanders, whose lifestyle is still fairly similar to what it was in Tierra del Fuego, and the mainlanders, who have become an Antarctic analog to the Inuit, living off the hunting of seals and other sea mammals.

By the time European explorers show up, the whole periphery of the Antarctic is home to nomadic tribes, whose total population is in the 100/200,000 range.
 

Hendryk

Banned
I think thats a bit too much. A few tens at most,
Well, it's a figure I pulled out of thin air, and I'm willing to be proved wrong. But the periphery of Antarctica covers a lot of space, and between the whales, the seals and the penguins, it seems to me that there's enough animal protein to feed a self-sustaining population of that order of magnitude.
 
Well, it's a figure I pulled out of thin air, and I'm willing to be proved wrong. But the periphery of Antarctica covers a lot of space, and between the whales, the seals and the penguins, it seems to me that there's enough animal protein to feed a self-sustaining population of that order of magnitude.

I dunno about that - the Inuit have about that order of magnitude of people but the Canadian Arctic is a far more habitable place than Antarctica; and keep in mind the Antiponuit (or Antarctinuit, or whatever) are going to be essentially penned up on the Antarctic peninsula, which if nothing else just isn't that big.
 
Fat overmen

SumoSkier.jpg

 
Well, it's a figure I pulled out of thin air, and I'm willing to be proved wrong. But the periphery of Antarctica covers a lot of space, and between the whales, the seals and the penguins, it seems to me that there's enough animal protein to feed a self-sustaining population of that order of magnitude.

Well for starters there's no building materials to build whale hunting boats so thats pretty much out. Secondly whilst the seals and penguins are huge sources of food, they are also very seasonal - for max population levels you can't look at peak times, but rather the lean points of the year.

The Inuits had far more coastline, more varied food sources*, trade relations with other tribes and the ability to move south if a winter really sucked. The antarcticans are going to have a small malnurished population, and be wiped out by the first particularly bad winter that covers their food stores.

*
Wiki said:
whales, walruses, caribou, seal, polar bears, muskoxen, birds, and at times other less commonly eaten animals such as foxes. The typical Inuit diet is high in protein and very high in fat - in their traditional diets, Inuit consumed an average of 75% of their daily energy intake from fat.[12] While it is not possible to cultivate plants for food in the Arctic, gathering those that are naturally available has always been typical. Grasses, tubers, roots, stems, berries, and seaweed
 
I think that a couple of 10s of thousands could live (not well) on the Antarctican Peninsula coast. Whaling boats made out of seal hide and bone would work ok. Shelters made out of rock covered with hide should work ok as well. It would be hard, but not impossible, for a small number to live there. After Europeans showed up, I'd think many of the AP folks would move away; after all, who would want to live in Antarctica?
 
Let's imagine that a tribal war erupts in Tierra del Fuego around 1000 BCE. The losing tribe, having been kicked out of its hunting grounds, finds itself forced to seek other lands beyond the stormy waters to the south. Taking to the sea aboard flimsy rafts, many unsurprisingly fail to make it, but, by sheer luck, some manage to reach the South Shetlands. Living conditions are harsh, but not that much worse than in Tierra del Fuego, and the outcasts adapt to it, learning among other things to clothe themselves in sewn seal pelts. Within a few generations the tribe has grown back to respectable numbers, and discovered the South Orkneys and the Antarctic Peninsula. Little by little, adventuring groups begin to settle these new territories, making it as far as Ellsworth Land and Thurston Island. In the following centuries, a cultural split develops between the islanders, whose lifestyle is still fairly similar to what it was in Tierra del Fuego, and the mainlanders, who have become an Antarctic analog to the Inuit, living off the hunting of seals and other sea mammals.

I could see that happening, it was about same idea I had.

By the time European explorers show up, the whole periphery of the Antarctic is home to nomadic tribes, whose total population is in the 100/200,000 range.

I have to agree with others though, that a few hundred thousand is way to high. I'm pretty sure that the Antarcticans would be bound to penisula, and I could maybe see going on extended hunting trips around the coastlands. Anything deeper in Antarctica is uninhabbitable, and would be a place of myth for the natives.

These people would be some tough SOBs.
 
After Europeans showed up, I'd think many of the AP folks would move away; after all, who would want to live in Antarctica?

Speaking of them, I wonder how this would effect the development of Anatarctica's development from this point on. It's not like anyone has made any serious attempts at settling the place.
 
By the time European explorers show up, the whole periphery of the Antarctic is home to nomadic tribes, whose total population is in the 100/200,000 range.

Nothing quite so high. The current population of Greenland is ~60,000 so I would be shocked if our Antarctica 'Inuit' is even close to that figure.
 

Hendryk

Banned
I have to agree with others though, that a few hundred thousand is way to high.

Nothing quite so high. The current population of Greenland is ~60,000 so I would be shocked if our Antarctica 'Inuit' is even close to that figure.
Well, as I said, I pulled that figure out of thin air, so if it has to be revised downwards, fair enough. What would be a more realistic estimate?
 
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