Playing to Survive: Children and Innovation During the Little Ice Age in Greenland

TY - JOUR

T1 - Playing to Survive: Children and Innovation During the Little Ice Age in Greenland

AU - Meyer, Mathilde Vestergaard

AU - Riede, Felix

PY - 2024/10/29

Y1 - 2024/10/29

N2 - Greenland is the world's largest island, but only a narrow strip of land between the Inland Ice and the sea is inhabitable. Yet, the Norse chose to settle here around ad 986. During the eleventh century ad, precontact Inuit people moved into Greenland from northern Alaska via Canada. Although the two cultures faced the same climatic changes during the Little Ice Age, the Inuit thrived, while the Norse did not, for multiple causes. The authors focus on one of these causes, the hitherto overlooked contribution of young children's learning strategies to societal adaptation. The detailed analysis of a large corpus of play objects reveals striking differences between the children's material culture in the two cultures: rich and diverse in the precontact Inuit material and more limited and normative in the Norse. Drawing on insights from developmental psychology, the authors discuss possible effects of play objects on children's future adaptability in variable climatic conditions.

AB - Greenland is the world's largest island, but only a narrow strip of land between the Inland Ice and the sea is inhabitable. Yet, the Norse chose to settle here around ad 986. During the eleventh century ad, precontact Inuit people moved into Greenland from northern Alaska via Canada. Although the two cultures faced the same climatic changes during the Little Ice Age, the Inuit thrived, while the Norse did not, for multiple causes. The authors focus on one of these causes, the hitherto overlooked contribution of young children's learning strategies to societal adaptation. The detailed analysis of a large corpus of play objects reveals striking differences between the children's material culture in the two cultures: rich and diverse in the precontact Inuit material and more limited and normative in the Norse. Drawing on insights from developmental psychology, the authors discuss possible effects of play objects on children's future adaptability in variable climatic conditions.

KW - Greenland

KW - children

KW - climate adaptation

KW - play

KW - toys

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85208131701&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1017/eaa.2024.36

DO - 10.1017/eaa.2024.36

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1461-9571

JO - European Journal of Archaeology

JF - European Journal of Archaeology

ER -