Lets say a sizeable group of Fuegian fishermen (lets say 200-300) get stranded on the Antarctic Peninsula. What are there odds of survival prior to the age of discovery? One would think they could live off the fat of the sea in the milder climate of the Peninsula.
>>856456
>What are there odds of survival prior to the age of discovery?
Extremely little to none. Humans struggle to survive there now even with modern technology and with regular visits and trade to restock them. For these hypothetical communities, there would be no resupply ships coming in. No metal and very little rock to build anything with, and the native wildlife wouldn't offer nearly as much in the way of building and tool materials the way Arctic people have. Even the northernmost points of Antarctica are colder year-round than any other environment pre-modern humans have settled.
>>856456
It would be impossible unless they could make boats, spears, and fishing net out of whale bone, leather, and sinew. Without boats they could only eat penguin, and I don't think they could.
>>856573
There's also the seals there and whales themselves, but that would be difficult to sustain any real populations alone. Some lichen grows there but who knows if it's edible or not.
No wood no survival.
Pre Industrial civilizations fell when the reached Peak Wood.
>>856641
Arctic peoples can survive without wood, it just becomes very difficult, and they rely on a lot of other materials, usually from animals, to compensate. The problem is there isn't nearly as much alternative sources in the Antarctica as there is in the Arctic.
>>856456
On the outer Antarctic island humans could and did survive, the mainland I highly doubt.
>>856581
They still need boats.
Okay, so it turns out the eskimo could make canoes out of whale bone and seal leather.
Honestly, I think this may be doable. They could hunt seal, fish, hunt whale. They could create fires using animal oil. They could eat all their food raw. I see no reason they couldn't survive.
What kind of whales could they hunt? There are orcas and humpback whales, but I don't know if any of them are traditionally hunted.
>>856887
How do they get the technological incentive or knowledge to do so? Europeans had access to seals and whale bones but they didn't make canoes.
Things dot come out of no where, Norse invaders of Greenland were in contact within Inuit and still didn't adopt the technology.
>>857055
>Europeans had access to seals and whale bones but they didn't make canoes.
Because they had no need to, Europe is full of wood.
Necessity is the mother of invention. This is like asking why a village of blind people wouldn't have invented telescopes or glasses.
>>857055
Huh, what? Oh yeah, I forgot we were supposed to be talking about Fuegians specifically. I was talking about humans in general being able to survive on Antarctica. It's actually a question I've been rolling around in my head for years.
>>857077
Dorset didn't do what Thule did, neither did wood deprived Norse in Greenland.
>>857118
For the Norse at least, they were able to get their wood from Iceland and partially a couple expeditions to America.
>>857117
If you throw 18th century Greenlandic and Arctic Inuit into Antarctica yeah they'd probably survive in a meager sort of way but any other group I don't really think so.
>>857120
That's still not answering the question. They went through expensive and extreme lengths to maintain their way of being in spite of economically efficient and superior water craft. Necessity was not the mother of invention, they went through extreme lengths to not learn Inuit processes.
>>857131
I'm also pretty sure they lived in Greenland for a lot shorter period than groups like the Inuit had lived in other Arctic areas, and had much larger supply lines that the Inuit didn't have.
>>857124
I actually created a thread on /sci/ years back about whether or not humanity could survive self sufficiently on Antarctica and retain industry.
Mines going through the ice to the bedrock for coal and maybe even uranium; greenhouses providing food; wind turbines, solar panels, and steam engines providing energy...
>>857146
Which all requires modern technology at the very least.
>>857149
Well yeah. There would be infrastructure built up front, then all support from the outside world would be cut off.
>>856456
>coldest, largest desert in the world
This is how stupid you are.
