ANST - Event Steward vs Autocrat

[Casey&Coni]

Someone queried:

Since
>the mid 70's the person running an event was called the autocrat.  Here in
>the last year or so I've notice a rather pronounced changing to the tile of
>steward.
>
>I have obviously missed something here.  Is this a happy to glad thing?  Is
>it a preference thing? Or is it a PC thing?  Or what? :)


I believe this qualifies as an 'or what'.  There has been an ongoing effort
in the sca to turn many of our less realistic vocabulary to terms that are
easier to understand or more historically accurate.  'Troll' (a mythical
creature used in stories to get children to bed on time and keep them away
from unsafe bridges) becomes 'gate' (a place where one checks into a keep or
castle and controls the flow of traffic and taxation).  Feast-o-crat (a
totally modern construct that is descriptive but would not have been heard
in a medieval kitchen) becomes 'cook'.  I don't own a 'dragon'- people would
throw me in the looney house if I claimed to- but I do have a 'carriage' as
well as a 'cart' and a 'horse'.  'Smalls' are a period reference to ones
underclothes and were never a synonym for children.  Claiming to have owned
a 'golem' would get you burned at the stake; telling someone to leave word
with your 'clerk' wouldn't make anyone bat an eye.

Now the word 'autocrat', although period for certain cultures, is not
necessarily appropriate for the more westerly portions of europe.  Since we
default to the english way of doing so many things, steward leaps to mind as
a suitable substitute.

In general, I think this trend lends more to events in the way of setting a
mood and also gets us less 'those-sca-folks-are-total-fantasy-based-loon'
looks.

Dieterich

"Most of the time I find I can answer my own questions... with motivation,
common sense, and a little research.  It's easier to ask others, but rarely
is the information I get as accurate or as vast as if I get off my lazy
duff."- Angelo Carrara

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