Re: [EK] Re:native american persona?

[Thomas Hudson <hudson@cs.unc.edu>]

Poster: Thomas Hudson <hudson@cs.unc.edu>

The lady Tisman writes,

> I have brought
> several new comers  into the light that the SCA brings.  They become
> fascinated with the idea of living in the old traditions (even for a weekend
> at a time).  When they hear more, such as tourneys, court, and things of that
> nature, then their first response is to conform to the european based
> lifestyles for persona.  Their second response in hearing that they will
> probably be the only one that will be researching, practicing, or otherwise
> involving that culture, they run.

> (My opinion only) I don't think that we, as a group, support alternate
> cultures as open mindedly as we ought.  We have a majority of members that
> focus on and study europe, but no groups that offer classes on say
> traditional Egyptian mummification (although the technique was extended from
> the Egyptians time, to that of the kings mummifications in europe), or the
> effects of the cultures that were experienced by the crusades (when the other
> cultures influenced the europeans in their various ways).
> I admit, I approached this matter as someone that was not thinking of other's
> feelings.  I just tend to get tired of seeing my friends decide that they
> don't want to play, based on the difficulty to express their ancestral
> cultures.  This is the reason for the fire in me, as I have had over a dozen
> people that I am close to grow from enthusiastic to downtrodden.
> I am truly sorry for my rudeness, and poor judgement.

My lady, I fail to understand...

  Your newcomer friends are the only ones researching a particular
*European* culture, and this is a reason we need to encourage more support
for alternate (non-European) cultures?  Rather, we need to support more
research in culture!

  Why must somebody express their ancestral culture?  I'd like to know
more about the Kingdom of Bohemia, which is my physical roots, but my
persona is and will be firmly Italian.  It's so *wonderful*.  I could
almost as easily have fallen in love with Spain around the Reconquista,
or Provence in the time of the trobars, or half a dozen other periods.
There's so much about the various European cultures to like that I don't
see why one has to be limited by one's descent.




  Do we have any good guides for persona research out there?  I've
tried to get ahold of some of the English Civil War groups' documents,
with no luck so far (though you'd think I'd just ask some members of
the Elizabethan Conspiracy...)  The class I gave on "16th Century
Venice - All Of It" needs lots of reworking, and I'm having trouble
finding the kind of sources I need.

  (There are occasional snippets of good information everywhere, but
just not *enough*.  I might creep forward 60 years or so so I can be
a Venetian Black Market Publisher (TM):  Psst, wanna buy a Machiavelli?
The latest Luther, hot off the Protestant presses in hell?)



Giovan Donato Falconieri, who never understood why a role model had to
be "like him" to be worth imitating...
// Kappellenberg, Windmasters' Hill, Atlantia:  OCFA - LFET

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