Adapting way of life


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ULFsurfer
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Adapting way of life

Post by ULFsurfer »

Here are some comments on Frank's speech which Kwisatz posted in this thread:

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I really loved reading it and it made me think about relating stuff today.

I would say the best example of two differently adapting groups of people are the Norse men and the Inuits on Greenland a thousand years ago. Few people probably know this, but Greenland was almost uninhabited at this point of time. Then in the 900s AD the Vikings landed their ships in the southern parts while the Inuits simultaneously migrated from the northwest. Two different people - two different worlds. The Vikings were farmers and settlers, depending on the thriving of crops and livestock, while the Inuits were pure hunter gatherers. What has been established is that the climate was warmer back then compared to today, which made it possible for the Scandinavian settlers to survive with their life style for over 400 years. They became gradually forgotten in the Old World but could manage on their own.

It did however become colder, likely resulting in the final abandonment of the Viking settlements. Archeologists are not quite certain about what exactly happened, but this is the most accepted explanation. Lots of them probably starved to death, but others adapted with the Inuit way of life and survived. Even though it was colder people could survive by migrating to where the food was. Most importantly they had no dependency on livestock that had no chance of surviving the harsher winters, or crops that had no chance of growing during the shorter summers.

I believe we still have a lot to learn from this history. We need to be more adaptable or else risk disaster. As you well know this is the main theme in Frank's works, so maybe I'm just repeating a lot here. I just wish more people would read Dune, then I'm quite sure the world would be a better place.

And one day when we do settle Mars and we discover sandworms there (boy what a surprise that would be!), we should learn to ride them instead of fleeing them. :-)
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Freakzilla
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Re: Adapting way of life

Post by Freakzilla »

It was WARMER in the past? The hell you say! :P
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Nekhrun
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Re: Adapting way of life

Post by Nekhrun »

ULFsurfer wrote:It did however become colder, likely resulting in the final abandonment of the Viking settlements. Archeologists are not quite certain about what exactly happened, but this is the most accepted explanation. Lots of them probably starved to death, but others adapted with the Inuit way of life and survived. Even though it was colder people could survive by migrating to where the food was. Most importantly they had no dependency on livestock that had no chance of surviving the harsher winters, or crops that had no chance of growing during the shorter summers.
Last I heard, the disappearance of the Vineland and Greenland settlements had more to do with abandoning the practices of cultural integration with native inhabitants because of the conversion to Christianity. When they were no longer able to interact with heathen cultures who knew how to live in those environments, they died or left.

The native inhabitants survived so it's not like it couldn't have been done.
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Re: Adapting way of life

Post by ULFsurfer »

Yes Nekhrun, they were indeed Christians and probably what you say is just what I have been saying: that they refused to give up the civilized way of life by living off livestock and crops, which ultimately failed. Archeologists also discovered that they had digested more and more fish, but it's not 100% certain if these finds are believable due to some decay issue. There could have been clashes between Norsemen and Inuits as well, mostly in Vineland as the stories tell.

The early 1400s is called the "Little Ice Age", so yeah temperatures are able to fluctuate noticeably over centuries or even decades. Maunder minimum in the 1600s is another example, when it was freezing and the Solar activity unusually quiet.

So please do adapt people! Don't forget to bring a coat to the beach!
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