Deb Fuller wrote:

>I'll disagree that reenactments are primarily for reenactors. While there are
>some reenacting events that are closed to the general public and some
>reenactors who just like "playing dress up" or "acting", a lot of reenactors,
>my groups included, see themselves primarily as educators for the public. I
>tend to see us as "living exhibits". We bring an aspect of a historic site or
>event that you just can't get with static exhibits and existing structures.
>
Sorry, I wasn't clear and generalized all reenactment activities. I see
some as primarily for the reenactors, and some as primarily for the
public, and some falling somewhere in between. Living history and
reenactment programs at historical sites are obviously organized towards
public education, and there are some reenactment groups that purposely
plan an event for public benefit. Doesn't stop the reenactors from
getting personal enjoyment and experience at the same time. Others (more
common, I think, among Western states fur trade era and modern Mountain
Men thinkers) are either intentially closed, or just not very conducive
to public attendence (one Ranger group I know has done 20 mile treks
through wilderness, in full kit, for fun...the question of the public
attending seems never to have been rasied....). In the middle the events
that I was thinking about: primarily planned and organized for the
benefit of the reenactors, but opened to the public as well. As in
"while we are out here doing this, why don't we?" It's also a good
recruitment policy. And in this sense, primarily can mean as little as
55% for reenactors and 45% for public. I don't think the participants in
this area would strongly consider cancelling the event if public
attendence dropped. That's what I meant by "primarily for the reenactors."

>
>I try to remind the public that we are people too, not mannequins or a hands-on
>museum. You wouldn't go up to someone on the street and poke at their clothes,
>don't do it to us. We'll gladly explain what we are wearing if asked. I also
>have to keep people out of private tents that are tied up. You'd think that
>they would look in the one that was actually open for display but no, untying
>tent flaps must present a special challenge that some people just can't resist.
>

Part of my point is that if the reenactment is entirely for the benefit
of the public (or the public thinks it is) then everywhere, including
inside tents, is part of the display. I don't think the idea that real
people are really camping out using this 'museum collection of old
stuff' really occurs to them. I know reenactors that really try to keep
the modern content down even in their private stuff: they are authentic
down to skin and rifling through their chests and parfleches inside the
tent is not going to turn up much modern stuff, either. They aren't
doing this for public education, but themselves, and this part of their
gear is private and off-limits to the public.

I recall a couple of archaeological field camps where the crew had very
little ability in pioneering and primitive camping skills than the
people whose material culture they were researching. If it wasn't Gortex
and Coleman, they floundered about helpless. Point being, many modern
people look at the 'old stuff' and can't conceive using it, relegating
it to museum display status. They look at a reenactment as a static,
unpractical display, not a functioning habitat. It probably doesn't
occur to some that real people are camping out and _living_ there. The
tents and beds (and personal items) are just part of the display, right?

>It all goes back to one of my mantras - Never underestimate the stupidity of
>the general public. :)
>
I could be wrong, but I prefer to cling to the notion that it's the 10%
of the public doing 90% of the stupid things. We just notice the
stupidity more.

--
James F. Johnson
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"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but
the silence of our friends."- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

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