Settlement Research On Greenlandic Inuit Population

Erik P. Swanberg

Arizona State University

 Not like any other origin story, the Inuit culture of Greenland can trace their heritage of

survival and settlement through important questions that determine when, where, and why Inuits

settled in the area. I will uncover what resources the Inuit established as vital to their survival

and staple diets throughout their existence. We can initially notice that through examinations of

maps Inuits support the east-west axis theory presented by Jared Diamond. As civilization starts

in the east (Fertile Crescent) through time humans move westward along a similar line of

latitude. Then as humans adapt they began to move north.“The colonization of the Arctic regions

of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland is a remarkable chapter in the expansion history of our

species. Despite being considered by many a desolate and perilous habitat, human groups have

inhabited the Arctic for at least 5,000 years, sometimes retreating, but often thriving by means of

ingenious cultural adaptations and survival skills”(Helgason pg. 123).

The Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule culture, a nomadic

people who emerged from western Alaska around 1000 and spread eastwards across the Arctic,

displacing the related Dorset culture (in Inuktitut,) they are called Tuniit. Inuit legends speak of

the Tuniit as "giants", people who were taller and stronger than the Inuit, but who were easily

scared off and retreated from the advancing Thule. T​he success of the Thule is linked to the

climate when expansion coincided with the Medieval Warm Period in the years between 1000

and 1300. The Thule were expert whalers, especially of bowhead whales. This slow species

makes for good prey. Their 100-ton bodies can be fifty percent fat by volume, giving people

ample calories to eat and burn through long winters. With the slight increase in temperature

during the Medieval Warm Period, the theory went, the range of the bowhead whale expanded

across newly ice-free waters. ​The Inuit finally established over time a process and routine to
utilize the resources of the coast as well as those further inland. Although both land and coastal

marine resources were important for Inuit survival, both then and now, Inuit developed a

dependency on the harvest of marine mammals in every season of the year.

By 1300, the Inuit had settled west Greenland, and finally moved into east Greenland

over the following century. The Inuit are the aboriginal inhabitants of the North American

Arctic, from Bering Strait to East Greenland, a distance of over 6000 kilometres. The Inuit

people live in Arctic Canada, as well as living in northern Alaska, and have close relatives in

Russia. According to archaeological research, the origins of the Inuit lie in northwestern Alaska.

These first Alaskan Inuit lived on the sea coast and tundra, where they hunted seals, walruses,

whales, and caribou. This would have required only smaller-scale movements to precise

locations. Instead, the Thule developed a thriving, intricate network of settlements across the

Arctic. It is here, based on their ability to utilize the physical environment and living resources of

this geographic region known as the Arctic. A specific culture developed that anthropologist

Jared Diamond could explain perfectly with the Inuit culture. Diamond explains why some

societies are more materially successful than others. The Inuits history can be compared to

Diamond’s theory through attributes that have created societal success from a mixture of

geography, immunity to germs, food production, the domestication of animals, and use of steel.

Beginning in the fifteenth century, Thule culture fragmented, specialized, and emerged

eventually as distinct contemporary Inuit and Inupiat groups (What made the Thule Move? p.10).

The Little Ice Age is the main reason given for the disintegration of Thule civilization in the

fifteenth century. Yet, the work by Diamond indicates that humans evolve biologically through a

path of least resistance dependent on food production, writing, technology etc., and then he
concentrates on specific representative examples to illustrate his findings. While the Thule

abandoned some sites due to cooling trends, this did not hold in all cases. Other causes, including

increased contact with Europeans and their infectious diseases, might have had more to do with

the disintegration in some locations.

 Citation Page

Greenland. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Greenland.html

Helgason, A., Pálsson, G., Pedersen, H., Angulalik, E., Gunnarsdóttir, E., Yngvadóttir, B., &

Stefánsson, K. (2006). MtDNA variation in Inuit populations of Greenland and Canada:

Migration history and population structure. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 130(1),

123-134.

What Made the Thule Move? Climate and Culture in the High Arctic. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.historicalclimatology.com/blog/what-made-the-thule-move-climate-and-culture-in-t

he-high-arctic#comments