Vikings: Hope for Change

Although we often view Cortez and Columbus as some of the best indicators of first contact, I think by doing so we do injustice to the Norse explorers of North America. The first contact between the Norse and the Skraelings consisted not of warfare or exploitation, but mutual trade and gift giving. The Norse also generally seemed to settle outside of Skraeling territory and did not encroach on their lands. It is believed by some professionals that this symbiotic relationship lasted for almost 400 years. Such a figure is without a doubt encouraging. Conflicts between the two groups, however, did occur. According to the Greenland Saga a bull from one of the Norse Warriors charged the Skraelings, leading to them to return aggressively in force. Although this goes to show that misunderstandings are indeed great detriments to first contact, it is refreshing to see that conflict did not result from a “friend-enemy’ dynamic or attempts to exploit. Perhaps a beneficial trading relationship and economic interdependence can help ensure peace between two groups.
I enjoyed Morgan’s reflective post on Conquest of America and how it tied in the Mass Effect series. The Reapers, like the conquistadors, almost wiped out an entirely sentient species for the purpose of conquest and slavery. They did this because they viewed their foes, the Protheans, as an entirely different race that was in no way on par with their own synthetic race. The conquistadors viewed the Aztecs in a similar fashion, as an inferior and inherently different species that was expendable. Will humans make such erroneous judgments in the future? Even today in America with education, reasoning and great stores of knowledge we encounter problems of religious fanaticism and racism. In the last twenty years the world has seen genocides in the Balkans, Rwanda, and Darfur. If faced with an extra -terrestrial group that was technologically inferior or needful such as in District 9, would we repeat the same actions as Cortez? Will we view extra-terrestrials as equal sentient beings or “prawns?”