SC - Another Andalus question- easier

[LrdRas@aol.com]

At 2:15 PM -0600 1/29/99, Michael F. Gunter wrote:

>I must confess that I have done a similar BAD THING. In our whims I
>declared coffee not only period but necessary to speak with me earlier
>than 10:00 a.m.

Coffee is period, although probably late period outside of Abyssinia. I
don't know how early it reached Frangistan but it was spreading through
al-Islam during about the last two centuries of our period. And there is
some evidence, which I think Bear offered in a previous discussion, for at
least medicinal use earlier.

My basic objection to "Royals declare X period" is what it implies about
what we are doing--that being historically accurate is merely an arbitrary
rule of the game, and any other arbitrary rule, such as "we can use
anything that was used before 1600 or has been declared period by current
royalty" does just as well.

I think there are good reasons to care about historical accuracy--and if
so, then "period" means, not "permitted in the SCA" but "practiced before
1600," in which case someone who says "X is perod" when it isn't is lying
and telling other people to lie. Those who make such statements don't see
it that way because they are thinking in terms of arbitrary rules, which
can be arbitrarily changed.

For why I think historical accuracy matters, see the essays on that subject
in the Miscellany. For a start, think about why basing the SCA on medieval
and renaissance europe works better than basing it on _The Lord of the
Rings_ would.

David Friedman
Professor of Law
Santa Clara University
ddfr at best.com
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================