On Thu, 14 Mar 1996, AlberCrombie wrote:
Society for Creative Anachronism. Over 20,000 members world wide. The idea
is to research and re-inact/live out the ways of the middle ages ( we have a
target period between 600 to 1600 AD). There is probably a group close to
you. (well, you never know)
This is a serious non-profit organization. We do serious research, and have
a lot of people doing very interesting things. Not only do we do arts and
crafts (et al) we also fight using real armour and ratan (a form of bamboo)
swords. Even do the royalty thing.
I will say the SCA is not about fantasy, LARPs, elves, magic, or anything
else that falls under the fictional mideval parasol. This is strictly (ok,
90%) authentic.
<sigh> I'm probably going to get flamed for this, but:
As an interresting asside, I *had* joined the SCA a few years ago and did
some digging into its history (took some doing. The early records of the
SCA were not exactly in a wonderful state of organisation). I found out
something amusing which caused me to quit the SCA as I could not keep a
straight face:
The SCA was originally started by a group of people wanting to play
"Dress-up". I swear. The group started to become prominent and
attracted the attention of the US IRS. To overcome this, the SCA decided
to become incorporated and get a Tax-Free status. To do so, they
presented their case as a "re-creationist" society and got accepted as
such.
And this, my friends, is my poor tale. I had to quit the SCA as
everytime I saw an SCA member take offence at something that was not
"purely period", or something that was "not done in the right way", I'd
remember the origins of the Society and crack up laughing at their
seriousness.
Sorry, but it *did* kind of spoil it for me. ^_^
Neoculture (Crash-Test Dummy On The Information SuperHighway)
-------------------------------------+------------------------------------
Dans le froid glace de l'Olympe noir | Dans le vide de l'espace infernal -
Les Dieux malins ont en vain | Fatigue, lasse, vainqueur -
Use de leur puissance, leurs pouvoirs| Ulysse pres d'une Aurore Boreale
Contre Ulysse 31. | Rechauffe un peu son coeur.
-------------------------------------+-------- Aubry.Thonon@qed.qld.gov.au