[NR] Conact question for personas

Chandranath chandra at plumes.org
Fri Oct 26 11:26:30 PDT 2001


[Warning: short thesis ahead.]

I suppose the first step in "what is okay" is to look at Corpora, and the
second step is at Kingdom Law.  After that, we resort to tradition and
opinion.  (The ordering is not necessarily preference; it's simply that it's
easiest to go with the concrete first.)

First off, corpora states that the only requirement for attending Society
events is wearing pre-17th century clothing.  No further stipulation is
made in that section (Requirements for Participants at Society events).
Moving into the By-Laws, we see that the SCA is "dedicated primarily to the
promotion of research and re-creation in the field of pre-17th-century
Western culture." <IMHO>The use of the term "primarily" indicates that this
is not an exclusive definition, and therefore cannot be used to exclude
that which is not pre-17th-century Western culture entirely.</IMHO>

The above section also references the second item of the Articles of
Incorporation.  Section (b) of this item reads:

"Generally, to engage in research; publish materials of relevance and interest
to the field of pre-17th-Century Western Culture; to present activities and
events which re-create the environment of said era, such as, but not limited
to, tournaments, jousts, fairs, dances, classes, etc cetera; to acquire
authentic or reproduced replicas of chattels representive of said era; and
to collect a library."

So much for corporate documents.  I don't yet have the new copy of Kingdom
Law, obviously, but I freely assume nothing has changed recently that affects
our topic.  The only relevant item I see, in fact, is under Primary Rights
and Duties of the Populace: "The primary right and duty of each Subject of
Ansteorra is, by their presence, participation, research, and interaction,
to assist the Kingdom in recreating the environment of pre-Seventeenth Century
culture at activities and events such as, but not limited to, tournaments,
fairs, parties, dances, classes, et cetera."

<IMHO>It seems to me that the truth is that persona is undefined by rule or
law, thinly defined by tradition, and largely up to the person WITH the
persona to sweat the details.  Certainly there are social pressures brought
to bear on people because of their personas from time to time; doing anything
unusual is always risky in terms of peer regard.  It is also, however, my
personal experience (as someone with a persona of non-Western and quite
unusual, in the SCA, background) that anything done WELL that largely fits
the above considerations is mostly accepted by anyone who isn't looking to
pick a fight in the first place.

My suggestions to someone who wanted to do, say, a Cherokee persona: Be
prepared to defend your decision.  Be aware that it will almost certainly
come under attack (but what doesn't?)  Research it well, and if you can't
find any _relevance_ to the SCA's purpose, then pack it in and do something
else, by all means.  And whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability.
Be genuinely interested in the culture you choose, show it respect, put
your energy into it, and you will infect those around you with the same.

Most of all, do not think for an instant that going with this because it is
something you are familiar with is the easy way.  It won't be, for the reasons
above, and also because -- and I believe this strongly -- the best way to
hold your own attention is to investigate something you _aren't_ already
familiar with.  By doing so, you add to your own knowledge, you add to the
Society's knowledge, and frankly, I think this is more important than worrying
about whether someone's persona has had legitimate contact with Western Europe
in 1583 or whether maybe it couldn't have happened until 1612.</IMHO>

End of thesis, beginning of answers to specific questions:

What would someone do to support a Cherokee persona if they were inclined
to want to do so?  The above pretty much gives you my view.  If 20 more people
answer, expect 20 more views on the subject.  In my personal case, I can
document an English official contact (on behalf of Her Majesty Elizabeth
bearing a letter to the Great Akbar, specifically) in 1583, and have found
that useful for forestalling argument about persona "viability," as it were.
Frankly, those arguments have been very rare anyway.  My persona story --
and honestly, I hate most persona stories, not necessarily excluding my
own :) -- includes departing India for England, not because I have documented
such occuring before 1600, but because it is reasonably plausible and harms
nobody (and, let's face it, never really comes up, because the SCA isn't
about interrogating people about their persona stories.  How many of us
are married to people from different cultures of entirely different time
periods, anyway?)

Are ones who represent cultures outside of the basic Western European cultures
limited to the time frame in which the culture was in contact with Western
Europe or any time in period?  The factual answer is that every persona is
logically limited to any time in period by the requirement that we dress
that way. :)  Anything else is merely convention.  I personally prefer to
play an Indian (that is, the Asian type) persona from post-European contact
because it suits my aesthetic (and also, I'm a late-period kinda guy, you
know), but probably the majority of my associates on the SCA-India list play
earlier personas.  It happens.  Is it right?  Well, it doesn't bother me.
Your Mileage May Vary.

Let me finish off by saying that in my view, the corporate founding documents
described a time when the SCA was a relatively small organization and in
which focus was vital to keep the organization going.  The size and span of
the current SCA -- again, in my opinion -- makes the Western European focus
obsolete, and I welcome expansion of the knowledge base of How the World Was
Back Then.

Yours longwindedly,
Chandra

--
Shri (Lord) Chandranath <chandra at plumes.org>, Insegnante of Mooneschadowe
"Per pale sable and gules, a decrescent argent."
mka Russ Smith (http://www.randomgang.com/)



More information about the Northern mailing list