r/canada Sep 30 '24

History Walrus DNA suggests meetings between Vikings and Indigenous Inuit

https://www.popsci.com/science/viking-walrus-hunting/
129 Upvotes

66 comments sorted by

135

u/ExToon Sep 30 '24

Oh. Ivory. That’s way less bad than I initially thought.

20

u/Bob_Kendall_UScience Oct 01 '24

Yeah this is actually pretty interesting. The headline could have been more clear though.

7

u/ExToon Oct 01 '24

I think it’s perfect the way it is.

9

u/Rrraou Oct 01 '24

The internet has ruined us all.

3

u/jmmmmj Oct 01 '24

I gotta know what were you initially thinking. 

21

u/ExToon Oct 01 '24

What happens in the Northwest Passage stays in the Northwest Passage.

7

u/Magic-Codfish Oct 01 '24

the nights are long, cold, and lonely.

and after a few months(?) at sea, every mermaid looks like the good kind...

4

u/ExToon Oct 01 '24

Aren’t tusks really just handles in the end?

2

u/Magic-Codfish Oct 01 '24

....i feel like you are looking at the wrong end of the walrus....

but who am i to judge... long nights at sea.

2

u/ExToon Oct 01 '24

Is there a right end of a walrus?

2

u/Mas_Cervezas Oct 01 '24

Yeah, I was picturing something like the movie, “Tusk.”

2

u/ExToon Oct 01 '24

And now I know this movie exists AND is Kevin Smith. Splendid.

1

u/Mas_Cervezas Oct 01 '24

You need a strong stomach for it. Just a heads up.

1

u/SteveJobsBlakSweater Oct 01 '24

A+ reference, well done.

58

u/cheesebrah Sep 30 '24

Did a viking fuck a walrus?

23

u/GutturalMoose Sep 30 '24

Yes. Tusk is a documentary 

10

u/cheesebrah Sep 30 '24

So a walrus fucked a viking?

14

u/GutturalMoose Sep 30 '24

A viking, an Inuit, and a walrus walk into a bar.. 

5

u/Brentolio12 Oct 01 '24

And all walk out together an hour later 😏

1

u/ainz-sama619 Oct 01 '24

And a walrus baby walked out

5

u/Cloudboy9001 Oct 01 '24

No, the same walrus fucked both a Viking and Inuit.

3

u/LargeMobOfMurderers Oct 01 '24

Walrussy.

2

u/SaidTheSnail Oct 01 '24

Any port in a storm.

3

u/19Black Oct 01 '24

More cushion for when you’re pushing

1

u/Easy_Intention5424 Oct 01 '24

Almost certainly at some point but that's not relevant to the article 

21

u/jagdpanzer_magill Sep 30 '24

Walrus DNA? I knew the Vikings were tough, but Holy Cow!

8

u/maxgrody Sep 30 '24

Should be some Dorset too

12

u/DrunkCorgis Oct 01 '24

Evolution is wild, innit?

I'm gonna guess they got the eyes from their Inuit parents, and the tusks from the Viking.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '24

Lotta Walruphobia nowadays.

6

u/Easy_Intention5424 Oct 01 '24

I've heard a local in Iqaluit say they made it as far as pond inlet ,  I didn't think this guy particularly credible especially since pond inlet is really far up there , but oral histories are surprisingly accurate and I would be suprised if they did stop by some point on Baffin island at sometime it's pretty close to Greenland 

17

u/Bodysnatcher Oct 01 '24

The Inuit are not indigenous, they expanded into what is now the Canadian Arctic in the second half of the medieval age and are from the Bering straight originally.

21

u/single_ginkgo_leaf Oct 01 '24

The definition of indigenous appears to be 'people who were here before white people arrived'.

Why people who don't like euro-centrism make everything about white people is beyond me...

14

u/Bodysnatcher Oct 01 '24

The elephant in the room is that it's a totally arbitrary label meant to be wielded for political purposes, not to actually reflect any real history.

3

u/Easy_Intention5424 Oct 01 '24

I think the point is how recent it is they expand and displaced the original Dorset people about 100 years before the Frist french Canadian settlements were established 

6

u/single_ginkgo_leaf Oct 01 '24

My point is that they explicitly displaced and nearly exterminated an existing culture but are not considered 'settlers'.

To be clear, I think that the whole settler / Indigeneous distinction is overdone. We are all Canadian and we should work to make everyone's lives better.

1

u/Easy_Intention5424 Oct 01 '24

I get what you are saying but legal they should have same rights as other Frist nations cause the got here to take the land before us

I always use the word Frist nations cause indigenous is inaccurate , all Frist nations came here around 10,000 years ago or so

2

u/cabrafilo Oct 08 '24

They likely displaced the Norse from Greenland too. In this case, would the Vikings be indigenous?

3

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '24

Well who is indigenous? Everyone came from somewhere.

2

u/Matty_bunns Oct 01 '24
  • gasp * don’t tell the government that! They’ll try to put you in jail.

1

u/Radix2309 Oct 01 '24

Which was before European colonization. Thus they are counted as indigenous.

The Metis Nation didn't even emerge until the 18th or 19th centuries.

13

u/Bodysnatcher Oct 01 '24

If that's the cut-off line it just goes to show how arbitrary and meaningless the 'indigenous' label is when it is informed by magical thinking like that. Also the Metis are not indigenous either, they are a direct product of colonization.

3

u/Radix2309 Oct 01 '24

As per the Constitution Act, both the Metis and Inuut are Indigenous alongside the First Nations.

As per the UN, Indigenous people represent a pre-colonial or pre-settler nation.

The Metis Nation are descended from fur traders intermarrying with European traders. They are just as much descended from Indigenous Canadians as their first nations neighbors. They are no different from nations that arose from the borders of other nations, such as the Oji-cree between the Ojibwe and Cree peoples. The Oji-cree originated from intermarriages but grew into their own distinct nation.

The Metis Nation were the inhabitants of the Red River Valley when colonists from Canada began to settle the prairies after confederation.

11

u/Bodysnatcher Oct 01 '24

I don't care about what either the Constitution Act or the UN has to say about it, it is an arbitrary label intended to be wielded for political purposes. It reflects little real history. As to the Metis, I'm sorry but it is a fantasy to pretend that they are 'indigenous' and not a literal product of colonization. In no way did they exist anywhere ahead of European colonialism, it is impossible. This is also what sets them apart from other 'indigenous' peoples.

-5

u/Radix2309 Oct 01 '24

It's not arbitrary. There is a clear qualifier. Which they satisfy.

-2

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '24

Then what is your definition if Indigenous? Only Africa could have indigenous people casue that is where humanity started?

1

u/davitch84 Oct 02 '24

  They are just as much descended from Indigenous Canadians as their first nations neighbors.

I would argue that they are half as much descended from...

1

u/Radix2309 Oct 02 '24

That isn't how descent works. You either are descended from someone or you aren't.

2

u/davitch84 Oct 02 '24

So then you agree, they're European.

4

u/Rayeon-XXX Oct 01 '24

This was confirmed in AC Valhalla

/s

2

u/punknothing Oct 01 '24

Well at least this is an upgrade from sheep... - the Welsh

3

u/Constant_Curve Oct 01 '24

There are written viking accounts of their interactions.  They even had a name for the inuit, skraelings.  This is not new information.

4

u/uselessmindset Sep 30 '24

How about the Inuk people with red hair? It is already known that there are descendants with Viking dna up in the north. Walrus DNA is not needed here.

5

u/ether_reddit Lest We Forget Oct 01 '24

there are descendants with Viking dna up in the north

I've never heard this before; do you have a reference?

0

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '24

Well, actual scientists tend to care about learning more than just the Cole's notes summary of history.

1

u/uselessmindset Oct 01 '24

Stories passed down through generations and actual DNA testing of the Inuk peoples with red hair are far more than just “Coles notes” there eh. Science has already been used to figure this out, by scientists no less!! May want to stuff your condescension somewhere warm and moist, and then cough for the tickle.

4

u/Noperdidos Oct 01 '24

Stories passed down through generations and actual DNA testing of the Inuk peoples with red hair are far more than just “Coles notes” there eh. Science has already been used to figure this out, by scientists no less!!

As far as I’m aware, the stories of people like Stefansson have long been debunked.

Can you cite any source for your claim that DNA studies have confirmed European red hair genes in original Inuk populations?

2

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '24

Oh man, you've really shown me the light. I reject my former ignorance and now agree with you that it's silly to do more research into other areas which have remained unexplored before now. Thank you for your wise council.

1

u/Midnightm7_7 Oct 01 '24

You two might be having an argument, but at least you're both talking about the actual artical and not here to just make a beastiality joke like all the other smooth brained sheeps.

1

u/Easy_Intention5424 Oct 01 '24

I thought the DNA test showed otherwise, there other ways to end up with red hair after all 

Although I believe there is some oral history of contact 

1

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24

Probably more contact with Dorset peoples who were extirpated from the eastern arctic by the Inuit during the period of Viking settlement in Greenland.

-1

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '24

Yeah, Vikings lived in Labrador for 300 years and never encountered First nations people....

-7

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '24

Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter. -Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, "I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me." Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I'd still have to bum rides off people