[Sca-cooks] Amateur vs. Scholarly Experimental Archaeology

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 11:36:13 -0700
From: Susan Fox-Davis <selene at earthlink.net>
Subject: Paul D. Buell on Tea Meal was: Fw: Re: Sca-cooks digest, Vol
1 #2334 - 12 msgs
>
>I really, really appreciate that this friendly scholar regards "SCA land" as
>kindly as he does, instead of the frequently-encountered attitude we
>usually get
>from "real" academics.  He understands the meaning of the word "amateur" as
>ama-teur, who does these things for the love of it!

I have no idea whether or not Paul Buell is connected with this
movement, but among scholars there's a tentative practice known as
Experimental Archaeology.

It involves implementing the strange idea that, for example, when a
ruined garment is dug up, a scholar makes a reproduction based on the
archaeological sample, to see what the original was like, to see if
the analysis of the fragments was accurate, and to improve the
understanding of the technology of that time and place

Odd concept, eh?

The scholars within the academic community who engage in this (and
these are bona fide scholars, not just amateurs) are faced with the
censure of their non-experimental brethren. Funny about that...

I've read articles published in scholarly journals by scholars
documenting their experiments. These scholars are often quite
apologetic about their experiments in print, but from the photos you
can see that they're enjoying themselves. Can't imagine why...

Anahita