Read: Diamond, Collapse, chapters 7 and 8
Berry, "The Gift of Good Land" and "Solving for Pattern"

1. What were the characteristics of Norse society on Greenland? What kinds of relationships did inhabitants have with the environment?

2. Why did the Norse settlements on Greenland collapse? What relationship do you see between knowledge, culture, and the environment in the story of their society's rise and fall?

3. How does Berry believe we should relate to the land?

4. What does Berry mean by solving for pattern? What kind of knowledge is he advocating, and how does it compare to other theories of knowledge we've encountered during this semester?

5. Based on these readings, what do you see as the relationship between the environment, knowledge, and culture?

Journal entry: Culture and Collapse, due in class on Monday, November 20.
For this entry, you are to consider whether the United States is headed for the kind of collapse that Diamond describes. Are we living in ways that are not environmentally sustainable? If so, what can be done about it? If there is a problem, is it cultural? Would the ideas proposed by Berry be practical and useful? Why or why not?

For more information, contact: aleshkow@holycross.edu