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Courtly Behavior, Cloved Fruit, and Modern Courtesy




Poster: "Bruce C. Miller" <bmiller@mnsinc.com>

Greetings, all...

First off, although I can't speak to the SCA (as I'm still fairly new as
an active member), as an Ancient ex-Marklander, I remember that the
cloved orange was being passed around at Markland's feasts as early as
1975.

As to courtly behavior at SCA events, if we're going to actually do a
decent job of historical recreations, shouldn't we be indulging in a
fair amount of period behavior?  By this I mean more than the honorifics
of "My Lord" and "My Lady."  We should actually be doing a decent amount
of research into proper modes of behavior (and, no, I have NOT done so
myself) so that we are "in period" for our own personas, should we not?
Of course, this causes the inevitable conflict of what is courteous for
one persona in one historical period is totally offensive to another
persona in another historical period.  And, of course, there's the
problem of proper period behavior being offensive in some fashion to
modern sensibilities.

Finally, as to politeness in the "real world," for some reason I have
not had the negative experiences of so many of the other males writing
in.  At the worst, my courtesy of holding open a door has been simply
ignored.  Most often, any courteous act gets a nice "thank you"
(sometimes with a lot of surprise in the voice).  I help out others
regardless of gender.  This help doesn't happen every time possible--I
don't claim some kind of "politeness perfection"--but it is the general
way I approach the world.  Were I ever to be upbraided by someone of a
different gender, race, etc., I need merely say
"I'm simply being courteous to you as I would be to anyone else I meet,"
and leave it at that; if someone is still offended by a courteous act,
that's their problem, not mine.

Yours in Service,

Arbogast of Diedenhofen

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