SC - Not eating cute furry animals

[Tara Sersen]

Nicholas of Falcon Cree wrote:
>What I always find amazing is that folks keep repeating the phrase "It's
>not period" for Natural Items... Man did not invent the cucumber.

There are many plants available today that man *did* invent, through 
selective breeding (not to mention the more recent "genetic 
engineering"), that did not exist in period. Sure there were 
strawberries. And they were very tiny. There were no sweet oranges 
until very late in period. There were no nectarines, man did invent 
the nectarine. There were no boysenberries, man did invent the 
boysenberry.

And there were all sorts of food plants that existed in period that 
don't exist anymore. Man does indeed create and destroy plant species.

>For that matter mankind didn't invent "pink"
>The world was actually in color back then and if you could find the
>color in something that could be crushed, wet, mixed and spread into
>fabric then chances are it was used.  (Roses, heck  blood!!!)

Heck, you can't dye cloth with rose petals and blood does not produce 
red. Dyeing fiber is very different from applying a pigment to the 
surface.

>There is always the possibility that something is "period". What we
>question is if it is documented.

The focal point of the SCA is Europe, although not exclusively 
Europe. The main premise is not, did it exist anywhere in the world, 
but (1) is it likely to have been used in Europe before 1601, and (2) 
would this item have been known about/used by my persona or by a 
particular culture at a specific time.

>It seems that the SCA ignores the explorations at times, but as the
>explorations were occuring in "period" times, then I am sure that most
>of the North/South American NATURAL  products are period. The things
>that we are concerned about is whether or not we can concieve of the
>people of the time using such and such item.
>Well actually what we are concerned with is how can we prove what we
>want to use is documentable...

No, it is "can we document its use in Europe or by Europeans". 
There's all sorts of stuff in the world that a pre-1601 English man 
would not have been exposed to. "Period" doesn't just mean "it 
existed anywhere in the world"; it means used within a very specific 
context.

Chocolate certainly existed in the world at the time my persona 
lived. But a 10th century North African living in Southern Spain 
would not have known about it. So what if Spaniards in the very very 
late 15th century had learned about it. It is not period for my 
persona.

If i'm making a period Near Eastern feast, chocolate cheesecake just 
doesn't cut it. Yes, we have some cheesecake-y recipes in period. And 
in very late period we have some recipes or at least discussion of 
chocolate, but not chocolate cheesecake. Just because the two things 
existed in period doesn't mean that people in period combined them.

>The Cucumber in most of its varities was available in "period". Whether
>or not it was available to the area of concentration the SCA has chosen
>was the question... to those people who question me for eating my
>cucumber I would dip my hand into a can of gas and tell them to show me
>how petrol is not period, since oil has been around much longer than
>humans have.

Well, petrol is not period. It is highly refined petroleum and the 
process wasn't known in period. Just because crude oil existed does 
not mean gasoline existed.

Anahita