[Sca-cooks] Period or no?

[Brett McNamara]

Perhaps a more appropriate question might be, "how far back, and in
what cultures, can we document X?"

I would agree that starting out with the mission of "I want to place
my chosen thingy in SCA viable range if it kills me" has lead to
tremendous confusing and misinformation.  However, taking a thing and
trying discover it's roots can be an extremely enlightening endeavor.

As long as the researcher is willing to be open to the idea that their
path of inquiry may not lead them to the place they wanted to be, but
maybe to a completely different, equally interesting place.

Taking something known to be from a certain time and place is the safe
option.  However, it doesn't really uncover new insights.  Digging
back through time with what we have now is completely different
course.  While more prone to misinterpretation, it's also more prone
to discovery.

I'd be reluctant to completely discourage someone from exploring the
past, even with the dreaded question "is X period?"


On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 11:21:08 -0700, David Friedman
<ddfr at daviddfriedman.com> wrote:
>  ...
> In my view, starting with a recipes you already have and then trying
> to "document" it is almost always a mistake. At best, it is a lot
> more work than going the other direction--looking at period recipes
> and finding ones you like. Finding modern recipes and then
> "documenting" them is rather like finding a place to order pizza by
> calling phone numbers at random until you get one that turns out to
> be a pizza place.
> ...
> Or in other words, the question "is X period" pushes one of my buttons.
>