The Antarcticans

[Vastatosaurus Rex]

This isn't technically a story so much as an exercise in worldbuilding (or, more specifically, culture-building). It's written like an encyclopedia article and is about a fictional culture of people who colonized Antarctica before European discovery. There's some alternate history in this, especially near the end.

The Antarcticans

The Antarcticans (Welau-hema in their own language) are the indigenous people of the continent of Antarctica. Descended from Polynesians who arrived near the Ross Ice Shelf around the 1300s, they live as hunter-gatherers on the continent’s coast, subsisting predominantly on coastal and marine animals. Although their numbers have been significantly reduced by diseases and genocide after contact with other nations, they are now protected by the United Nations.

Origins

All the anthropological, linguistic, and genetic evidence indicates a Polynesian origin for the Antarcticans. However, the precise location in Polynesia from whence the Antarcticans came has not been resolved. There are two main hypotheses. One claims that the Antarcticans reached Antarctica from New Zealand (meaning they would be of Maori descent), whereas the other claims that the Antarcticans came directly from tropical Polynesia.

The former hypothesis would require the Antarcticans to travel a shorter distance and therefore seems more probable to many experts. On the other hand, the Antarcticans’ own oral tradition says that they had come to Antarctica directly from a place called Hawaiki, which is always described as being eternally warm. Therefore, most Antarcticans favor the “straight from tropical Polynesia” hypothesis.

The oldest human-made artifacts uncovered in Antarctica date to around 1350 AD and are found near the Ross Ice Shelf, indicating that the Antarcticans first arrived in that region sometime in the fourteenth century. Since then, however, they have colonized almost all of Antarctica’s habitable coastline.

Subsistence and Survival

Whether they had come from New Zealand or straight from the tropics, the first Polynesians to settle Antarctica would have come from a culture that practiced farming. However, since agriculture in Antarctica was impossible for obvious reasons, they reverted to a hunter-gatherer subsistence strategy, and the Antarcticans have stuck to that lifestyle ever since.

Almost all the food consumed by the Antarcticans is meat and fat. The Antarcticans usually hunt fish, penguins, seals, and even whales. The hides of these animals are used for clothing and boats, while the bones are used for tools and boat frames. Antarcticans make their houses using whatever materials they can find, but bone, stone, and even blocks of ice are the most common materials.

In times of war between the Antartican tribes, it is customary to eat dead enemies and use their bones as animal bones would be used.

Society

Unlike other hunter-gatherer peoples, which are egalitarian, the Antarcticans have a clearly defined social hierarchy, which they most likely inherited from their agriculturalist ancestors. Each Antarctican tribe is headed by a male chieftain who earns his rank from the belief that vested in him is the prestige of his ancestors. Whenever an important decision affecting the tribe is to be made, the chieftain organizes a council meeting in the village square. Although the tribal elders in the council may all offer suggestions, the chieftain speaks first and makes the final decision. In Antarctican society, women care for children and tend the home, while men may be craftsmen, hunters, warriors, or leaders.

War is a frequent occurrence between Antarctican tribes, and men’s prestige often comes from showing bravery, cunning, skill in combat. Even within tribes, fighting may break out, for Antarcticans believe that slighting another person’s prestige should be punished with revenge.

Religion and Spirituality

The Antarcticans are polytheistic, believing in numerous deities. Among the most important are the creator god Kane, the earth goddess Papa, the sky god Rangi, the fire goddess Pele, and the war god Ku. One of the duties of tribal chieftains is to act as priests and appease these deities.

An important concept in Antarctican religion is called “tapu”, or sacredness. According to this idea, certain objects and places are rich with spiritual essence derived from the deities and must therefore not be disturbed. Sometimes the concept of tapu is used by chieftains to protect certain resources from exploitation. For example, a chieftain may protect a pod of whales from hunting by declaring it under the protection of tapu. Tapu is also used to reinforce the social hierarchy. For instance, certain possessions of prestigious individuals cannot be touched by social inferiors, and vice versa. Antarcticans believe that if one violates tapu, one will either fall sick or experience some other kind of terrible luck.

History and Present

As stated earlier, the Antarcticans are descended from Polynesians who reached the Ross Ice Shelf in the fourteenth century and spread all around the Antarctican coastline. However, since the Antarcticans lack a written script, little is known about what happened between that date and Antarctica’s discovery by Western and other explorers in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

Once those explorers arrived, however, tragedy ensued. Many of these explorers carried diseases to which the Antarcticans had little immunity, therefore causing plagues which sometimes wiped out entire tribes. As if that were not enough, resource competition between the Antarcticans and waves of foreigners looking for fish and whales often led to bloody conflicts.

Of all the various foreigners intruding into Antarctica following the continent’s discovery by Westerners, none were worse to the Antarcticans than the Japanese during World War II. During that period, it was official Japanese policy to massacre Antarcticans to acquire their resources. Often Antarcticans were also kidnapped for experimentation and (in the case of women) sexual exploitation.

Following the end of World War II, the United Nations declared that the parts of Antarctica inhabited by the Antarcticans were to be made into preserves, protecting the Antarcticans from further brutalization. Since then, most of the world has respected the Antarcticans, entering their territory only for scientific study. However, tensions between Antarcticans and Japanese continue to this day, for many Japanese whaling and fishing companies have a habit of illegally entering ships into waters designated for Antarctican use. For these infractions as well as previous atrocities, the Antarcticans despise the Japanese, regarding them as “demons with death rods”.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Its all good except I sincerely doubt Japan would have been mucking about there during WWII.

[Vastatosaurus Rex]

Its all good except I sincerely doubt Japan would have been mucking about there during WWII.

Why not? There's lots of marine life it could exploit.

[Simon_Jester]

Its all good except I sincerely doubt Japan would have been mucking about there during WWII.

Why not? There's lots of marine life it could exploit.

There are also several million Australians with guns in the way.

Think about the ranges involved. Ships can only sail so far without having to refuel, and if they have to sail past hostile bases they tend to sink. When Japan fought at places like Pearl Harbor and Guadalcanal, it was at the extreme fingertip limit of its operational range. Going farther than that would simply be a way to expose valuable ships to attack. Many of them would never come back, unless the Japanese somehow managed to conquer Australia (which would have been extremely difficult, quite possibly impossible).

[Vastatosaurus Rex]

Ships can only sail so far without having to refuel

What was powering ships back in WWII?

[Simon_Jester]

Fuel oil, mostly. Which the Japanese did not have much of.

What did you think? Atomic power didn't exist yet; coal is functionally equivalent to oil for these purposes. Wind!?

[Sky Captain]

Did the Japanese actually sent any expeditions to Antarctica during WWII? There are much easier ways to get fish without sending valuable ships to middle of nowhere. I have heard that only Germany sent few ships shortly before WWII and some submarines during WWII but that`s all. I think at one point Germany also considered building a submarine base there, but I doubt that was meant seriously since supplying such far off base would be major strain on resources.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Did the Japanese actually sent any expeditions to Antarctica during WWII? There are much easier ways to get fish without sending valuable ships to middle of nowhere. I have heard that only Germany sent few ships shortly before WWII and some submarines during WWII but that`s all. I think at one point Germany also considered building a submarine base there, but I doubt that was meant seriously since supplying such far off base would be major strain on resources.

As far as I can find, Japan sent ONE expedition to Antarctica in 1911, and didn't go back again until 1958. There's probably a better boogeyman you can find than the Japanese.

Also, as per the OP, are there 'Antarcticans' living on South Georgia and Saikhlan islands?

[Simon_Jester]

The Germans make great boogeymen in Antarctica, because they were relatively involved. But that works best before the war started, when German ships could freely travel down to Antarctica without getting shot in the face by the Royal Navy.

It might be a vaguely plausible deviation from history to put a German U-boat base in Antarctica... but not a big one, and not much more than that.

[CaptainChewbacca]

If there are natives there to buy food from or to force to work, I can see how that would make a base easier. Also it makes HIGHJUMP a lot more interesting.