[Sca-cooks] Re: Rhachitis

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 01:13 AM 8/27/02 -0500, you wrote:
>'Lainie commented:
>> It also (OFC) would seem to indicate some
>> problems with basic nutritive value in the diets of the Europeans who went
>> to Greenland and/or an exaggerated level of genetically related health
>> problems.
>
>I guess both are possible. The genetic pool on Iceland is not large
>and I'm not sure how much intermixing there was with other groups
>once Iceland was settled. I imagine any geneticists here can give
>you some numbers if the minimum size needed to avoid problems.

You may be right about diet, but I must point out here that we are not
talking about Iceland- we are talking about Greenland- a much smaller
population base, and even with influx of new immigrants, still not enough
to keep the settlements viable. How many generations before they called it
quits- two? three? Maybe four?

The genetic pool on Iceland was influenced by mainland Scandanavia (at
least if we are to trust the sagas, and I do) and some by northern
Scotland. But Greenland is another story entirely, given the length and
difficulty of the journey. And I don't know of any indications that the
settlers interbred with the aboriginal inhabitants.

Of course rickets, which started this converstion, isn't genetic but
diet-related. But my point was that there are also indications of genetic
problems, and everything added together spells out pretty well why the
settlements were doomed- they didn't have the resources to support the
population needed to avoid the dangers of interbreeding.

'Lainie
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