The collapse of Northern Greenland The collapse of Northern Greenland has been widely disputed; Has this society really collapsed, or have they chosen to leave for a better life elsewhere? Many books have been written on this subject; from Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fair or Succeed to the corresponding work by Patricia McAnany and Norman Yoffee, Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire. In Diamond's Collapse, five main points of collapse must occur before a society collapses. These points are: 1. Environmental damage, 2. Climate change, 3. Hostile neighbors, 4. Friendly neighbors, and 5. Society's response to environmental damage. Comparing it to McAnany and Yoffee's Questioning Collapse, they challenge the fact that societies do not collapse, in fact there is resilience in societies and that they adapt according to their environment and the evolution of their economy and their personal lives. In my essay, I will compare Diamond's view of collapse to McAnany and Yoffee's view of resilience. In analyzing the Nordic Collapse from Diamond's perspective, the first factor he examines is the aspect of environmental damage. He states that "the Norse people of Greenland damaged their environment in at least three ways: by destroying natural vegetation, by causing soil erosion, and by cutting the grass" (Diamond, p. 248). Diamond believes that when the Vikings arrived, they began burning forests to clear areas for their livestock and felling many trees for shelter and firewood. When the Greenlanders began to raise animals such as cows, sheep, and goats, the amount of fodder for the animals increased, which increased the amount of farming they had to do to maintain... ... middle of paper.... ...ight could be seen as arrogant and had a condescending attitude because they believed Inuit were "skraelings (a sick and weak person)" (McAnany and Yoffee, p. 56 ), not all of their encounters were perhaps confrontational. They believe that their attitude could simply come from a religious factor, namely the difference between being a Christian and a non-Christian. Although Norse artifacts have rarely been found in Thule Inuit ruins and vice versa, the artifacts found could represent an encounter, but could just as easily have come from the looting of abandoned houses. Additionally, during the search of the Norse settlements, no weapons were found, thus making them powerless against the Inuit in the event of a conflict between them. A scene on a small piece of bone depicted a battle, but it is important to note that it did not depict a Norwegian versus an Inuit..