[Sca-cooks] Bellybuttons and garb

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 07:52 PM 9/10/02 -0400, you wrote:
>
> Greetings! I'd like to take this opportunity to publically eat crow.

Nah- they're not that tasty.

> that back to a friend of mine, who pointed out that there is a culture
known in the Old
> World that has lots of documented revealing of belly buttons-- that would
be Indian (as in
> 'Indian subcontinent') and of course I kicked myself. Because I _do_ know
that, when I'm
> paying attention. So, if I led anybody astray, I'm sorry!

"known in the Old World?" By Whom?

In all of my classes, over several years, I remember once- ONCE we
discussed India- and that was in a class on Travels and Pilgrimages. None
of the texts we looked at had descriptions of the women's clothing there
that I remember. I do not know of any Indian women who emigrated to Europe.
When I started in the SCA some 13 years ago, I understood that non-European
personas were 'guests'. I know that isn't PC anymore, but I can tell you
this- Elaine in 1402 in France knows only that spices come from India, and
fine silks and Elephants.

Not to mention the two pre-17th c pictures from India that I've seen that
had women did _not_ show their navels. (Now if I could only remember where
those are...)

Grumpy 'Lainie
madly trying to sew work clothes... and some fire-proof pants...
___________________________________________________________________________
"If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce it tastes much more
like prunes than rhubarb does." Groucho Marx, _Animal Crackers_