[Sca-cooks] SCA Slaughtering

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> Well, yes, but the cultures you are talking about are primarily small
> operations. What we are recreating are big operations, with _lots_ of
> staff. It's hard for many of us-- including me-- to imagine how many staff
> were involved in the maintenance of even a small manor. Imagining that a
> staff for a country house could be over a hundred different people, all
> with defined duties, boggles the mind!

OK, for the time being, I'm ignoring the rest of your posting because this
paragraph cuts to the heart of our two thought processes,

You're thinking of a large household, probably royal, certainly of fairly
high title and a great amount of wealth. What you're saying would be true
for households of that type.

BUT, and this is a major BUT, in any given area there would be few of those
sorts of households. In period, your average noble was essentially a farmer
with sovereignty over his lands and people. Certainly, he could raise levees
and be called to War, but in the main his job was to oversee the production
of goods from his lands.

In a farming economy, everyone contributes as they can best. There are
numberless records of harvests, where every able-bodied adult was called
into the fields, and the grannies scared birds, the children did their
chores, and so forth. In the ordinary course of events, those people with
specific tasks, such as working with the falcons or the dogs, or herding, or
whatever would be responsible for those tasks. In an extraordinary event,
such as the harvest, or the fall butchering, or perhaps the necessity to
entertain a Royal Progress, then everybody was expected to pitch in and do
what needed to be done on their level.Certainly, for example, the household
scribe would not be asked to slaughter the pigs, but he might be put to
keeping a record of how many were slaughtered, and how many hams were
smoked, and that sort of thing.

I can't imagine that the Lady of the house was ignorant of the details of
the food prep, since it was her job to oversee all the household servants,
and by that token, everyone in the household would be aware of these
realities, although the necessities of their stations might prevent them
from actually participating, hands- on. Something like, telling the servant
to cahange the rushes, or air the bedrooms, or fetch the wood, rather than
doing it themselves.

Yes, there were often managers, as well, but it was also the noble's job to
see that the managers were doing their jobs well.

Now, as with anything else, some would be better and more scrupulous about
attending to their duties than others. But, I flat can't see that Mary
chambermaid, having made all the beds and aired all the linens would be
allowed to sit idle when everyone else was working.

And that thought train is why I feel that any major project in a household
involved everyone's participation- not much differently from the ways things
are done today.

Phlip

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....