Norse Greenland
A Controlled Experiment in Collapse
Jared Diamond
PENGUIN GROUP
Penguin Penguin Books
When Pulitzer-Prize winning author, Jared Diamond, wrote Collapse,
it became a cornerstone book about humanity’s role in the collapse of various
civilizations. He lists a number of environmental
causes: deforestation, habitat
destruction, soil (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses), water
management problems, overhunting, overfishing, effects of introduced species on
native species, human population growth, and increased per-capita impact of
people. He also mentions other
causes: climate change, hostile neighbors,
and friendly trading partners. The
concept behind Collapse is that examining other civilizations that
collapsed will help us today as we face new environmental challenges.
The Penguin excerpt from Collapse, Norse Greenland,
takes out three chapters, which is more substantial than it sounds--a thin book
in and of itself. It covers the basics
of the Vikings, the flowering period, and their demise.
“The Viking Prelude and Fugues” treats their successful expansion,
agriculture, importance of iron, political organization, religion, and a short
history of Vinland. The Norse were “push/pulled”
by available lands and population growth.
Diamond describes this as an autocatalytic process which brings profit
and discoveries that began in 793 AD.
1066 AD describes the end of the process due to an end to easy
conquering. The Norse colonists
continued their European values on lands that did not support such values (such
as cows although sheep and goats did better in their new lands--goats, the
least popular, did best).
Eventually, pagan Norse converted to Christianity. The effect of this brought European values
(even down to clothing that did not fit the weather) as bishops imposed values
that prevented the Norse from adapting the ways of the Inuit, who had adapted to
life in Greenland thousands of years earlier.
The Inuit had several technologies (kayaks, whale harpooning, and seal
killing) not available to the Norse, which might have aided their survival.
Iceland serves of a case where a Norse colony could have
survived although they did not have Inuit to compete with. Iceland soil was ash that easily exposed to
erosion due to flooding, sheep or farmers. Initially, the Norse treated the land as they
would have in Norway. To survive, they
had to adapt and manage the land conservatively.
The Norse traveled to Greenland during a “warm” period, deceiving
colonists into what was normal for the area (this illustrates Diamond’s idea of
climate change delivering a blow to civilization). During cold periods, rich farmers supported
the poor but at a cost. The Greenland Norse
also did not eat as much fish their contemporary Norse. Why not?
While it remains a mystery, Diamond proposes that intestinal organisms,
bacteria or protozoa, caused food poisoning.
Greenland was poor in tar lubricants, iron, and lumber for
furniture. These and other items were
imported in exchange for sealskins, polar bear furs, and walrus tusks for
carving. This was done during the summer
came at the expense of their working
land or getting lumber. Iron
processing required more wood than was available in Greenland. They had to use bone and spend more time
working than they might have had they processed iron. Diamond suggests that the Greenlanders would
have done better to import more iron to protect themselves for their inevitable
clash with the Inuit. Moreover, Vikings
were notoriously inhospitable to those different to them, killing eight of nine
native Americans when colonizing Vinland.
Possibly, trade could have improved the Norse Greenlanders’ lot
financially and nutritively.
Even so, Norway became less interested in Greenland’s walrus
ivory because the Asia trade routes opened back up, and ivory fell out of
fashion. The Norse ate their dog and the
cows down to the hooves. Mysteriously,
the Norse remains have not been found.
Diamond explains that perhaps they were given Christian burial when discover.
Probably, more set up would aid a reader to Diamond’s
purposes, such as begins Collapse,
summarized above. Nonetheless, the
excerpt is self-contained and gives the reader good sampling of Collapse without having to read the
entire work. Other readers might be interested
only in Viking culture and the ecological conditions for the farmers who
colonized Greenland. Whether for an
illustration of civilization collapse or cultural drawbacks for Viking
colonists, this Diamond excerpt or “single” should prove useful. Other readers seeking greater breadth may want to seek the original.
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