068 Disappearing Cultures

What this episode covers

The history of Greenland is interwoven with change. Always dependent on weather and climate, Greenland seems not to offer much to its settlers. And yet, over the centuries, people have settled in the thin coastal strip of Greenland. Little is known about the settlement flows of the Inuit, which originated from North America. But scientists manage to put together the puzzle from many individual finds. Today we know about trade between Norse settlers and Inuit. We know that the Vikings at some point just disappeared from Greenland. And we know the colonization history of Greenland, which is closely linked to the colonial power of Denmark. But what impact does this have on the current Greenlandic Inuit culture and will it experience a similar fate as the earlier cultures and simply become extinct over time?