[Regia-NA] SCA-style vs. Regia-style discourse

[Douglas Sunlin]

Well, at this point, my wool and linen costume bits as well as my geteld are 
all beiege, beige, beige, (and have been so for 2 years) since I have yet to 
hear any d
irections on which colors are suitable. Playing it safe...

On manræden, Osweald of Baldurstrand 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/California_Viking_Age 
http://www.geocities.com/baldurstrand/





>From: JuditheileenY@netscape.net (Eileen Young)
>Reply-To: list-regia-na@lig.net
>To: list-regia-na@lig.net
>Subject: RE: [Regia-NA] SCA-style vs. Regia-style discourse
>Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 14:31:28 -0500
>
>Thank you, Thora.
>
>Carolyn Priest-Dorman <capriest@cs.vassar.edu> wrote:
>
> >If someone is looking for solid factual documentation, and is frustrated
> >because she isn't finding it, it isn't helpful for her to be hearing
> >something like this.
> >
> >>But then, there isn't any solid
> >>documentation for the existence of children, either. We know this, we 
>have
> >>three on site, and trying to explain them away is just the pits...:-))
> >
> >Nonsense!  There's plenty of solid carbon-dated evidence for the 
>existence
> >of children of all ages throughout history, in the form of skeletons. 
> (No,
> >as a mother I don't like to contemplate the existence of dead children
> >either, but the truth is important and sometimes needs to be said.)
> >
> >It is more helpful to the questioner if the people who respond either
> >answer "yes, here's the documentation," or "X has the documentation, go 
>ask
> >her," or "no, I don't have documentation."  Rhetorically phrased 
>factually
> >incorrect responses don't do anything to either help or calm down the
> >frustrated questioner; they just inflame the situation.
> >
> >I have noticed this particular culture-clash problem repeatedly on this
> >particular list.  It simply is not easy to orient oneself to Regia's 
>world
> >view and values from the remote location of the New World.  Kim has gone 
>a
> >long way toward providing insight into the problem when he points out in
> >his most recent Regia-NA post the basic penury of Regia as an 
>organization,
> >and how Regia can't often underwrite publication of members'
> >research.  This accounts for the paucity of membership and/or
> >organizational handbooks, etc.  (I think I have a copy of every official
> >Regia document--handbook, bylaws, and fighting rules.  Is that it?)
> >
> >However, most of the results of research in the SCA are similarly
> >unpublished.  And however easy it is to take pot-shots at the SCA for its
> >base level of inauthenticity, the simple fact that serious high-level
> >researchers live, research, play, and produce documentation there simply
> >cannot be laughed off by anyone.  The SCA solves this problem by 
>vigorously
> >promoting (and rewarding) discourse among the membership about factual
> >historic information they've found, in the interest of ensuring a more
> >authentic game.
> >
> >In the SCA, when someone asks for documentation it's because he wants to
> >make or do a more period thing.  It's not a challenge to the communal
> >knowledge of the entire SCA--it's a praiseworthy impulse seeking an
> >outlet.  When North American SCA people come to Regia, as I did, they 
>seek
> >to be oriented to the knowledge base of Regia in just the same way and 
>for
> >just the same reason.  They express this need by talking to the only
> >populace they can lasso:  the e-groups.  But I've noticed that many times
> >what they find is a baffling silence, a bewildering language barrier (it
> >*seems* like English, much of the time), or assertions about what is and
> >isn't historically authentic by people who get hostile when their
> >statements are probed for the underlying sources.
> >
> >SCA people need to understand that the rank and file Regia member does 
>not
> >always know what the documentation is, because that's the express job of
> >the local Authenticity Officer.  (This is not a criticism!  I'm willing 
>to
> >bet that the rank and file don't know much about what the local group's
> >ledgers look like either, for the same reason.)  But in the SCA, there is
> >no "Authenticity Officer" post.  Regia people need to understand that the
> >insistence of SCA people on sources of fact is not a challenge, but the
> >result of the deliberate "authenticity vacuum" in the SCA hierarchy.  And
> >both sets of people need to understand that if Regia-NA is to flourish we
> >will need to work toward creating some middle path that satisfies both 
>Old
> >World operating methods and New World acculturation.
> >
> >Remember, the ultimate goal here is to have fun being authentic; that's 
>why
> >we're all here, isn't it?
> >
> >
> >Carolyn Priest-Dorman              Þóra Sharptooth
> >  http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
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> >list-regia-na@lig.net
> >http://www.lig.net/mailman/listinfo/list-regia-na
> >
>
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