[Sca-cooks] *Sigh* That tomato thing - again

Chass Brown chass at allegiance.tv
Mon Oct 2 11:45:52 PDT 2006


Ahh but see not all of us are good at research. Tis where my wife and me
balance each other, but not all people have that support. The thing that
got me was he said "Common use" instead of just proof of use. 

Chass Brown A.K.A.
Charinthalis Del Sans of the portable chariot. 
Honorable Recruiter of the House of the Red Shark.
Rear Admiral Northern Region Ansteorran Royal Navy -      Ship the
Red  Shark.  Muddeler of Mead


-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of grizly
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 11:04 AM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] *Sigh* That tomato thing - again


Actually, around here (when spleens are not in vent) folks often ask for
support of whatever assertion is being made.  If someone finds evidence
of a
tomato useage and presents it in context of whatever was found, then
game
on.  If there is a generalization made that whatever reference makes the
tomato use ubiquitous and cultrually spread across several time/location
chuncks on the spectrum, then the logic leading to that is needed.

My actual preference is to find a way to interest people in learning
about
research, developing and testing hypotheses, reviewing available
research
and documentation, and presenting completed assertions for scrutiny of
one's
peers or colleagues in a givena rea of research.  Learning/teaching
research
skills at the front end could possibly save lots of consternation along
the
way for everyone.

My perosnal interpretation of the general approach of responsible
scholars
is to avoid useage of such terms as "period" in the first place.  I ask
people to show me their evidence of use of X and the time/place of
contention.  "Period" ain't got any real traction for when and where
smooth
tomato-based pasta sauces were in common use and by whom.  We have
several
parameters for real knowledge and understanding in our little game of
SCA.
Often times they are blurred for one or more reasons, like we are
generally
covering 10 centuries of history, but have use when evaluating
assertions.
I contend that they at least: TIME, PLACE, SOCIAL CLASS.  Your
kilometerage
may vary (YKMV).

Knowing how an assertion or claim or document touches each of these
elements
gives me a general idea how to evaluate its place in our current body of
knowledge.  I understand that there are persons want to be the person
that
finds the definitive document that proves mashed potatoes, or tomatoes,
or
country fried chicken, or modern pizza, or hershey's chocolate, or
gilbey's
gin, or barbequed pork sandwiches are "period".  If those people are
looking
for the one piece of evidence that allows everyone to free wheel and
make
fried chicken, mashed potaotes, stewed tomatoes and chocolate merigue
pie
for a "period" feast any time they want . . . . then I suspect there
will be
some significant resistance from the "food people".  If those
researchers
are looking to expand the general understanding of those food items and
their assimilation into the various foodways of time-place-economic
group,
then the resistance will be much less.  I see these approaches as two
(of
many) arms of the multi-faceted continuum of the research.

niccolo difrancesco
(who believes there is no "magic bullet" for these cusp food items that
become the hero-quest of new people every few months or so)

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