In a message dated 5/29/00 3:30:34 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> Bottom line is that the terms "living history" and "re-enacting" have
>  different meanings for different people. Maybe they are all correct

This is true to some extent. I know "re-enactment" groups that are sticklers
for authenticity (the local Roman garrison comes to mind) and correctly
document everything on their person or in their camp, down to hand making
armour as it was in the time period (by hand, with a home forge) or creating
leather garments from killing the deer themselves to treating the leather and
so on. Some groups are extremely fanatical (aka period "Nazis") but others
allow you to be period with reasonable modernisms like using cotton-poly
blend fabrics or machine stitching that doesn't show.

Like your Canadian unit, there are good groups out there that have their
primary purpose to be education or keeping an old tradition alive. Those seem
to be the best groups for "re-enactment" type things as they carefully
research their time period, are knowledgeable about it but not fanatical
enough to put people off or have a "period-Nazi" attitude.

Now I will probably start a flame war but I don't trust groups like the SCA
(Society for Creative Anachronism) or Markland which are well known medieval
recreation groups. Some groups are pretty good and do good re-enactments.
(I've done them and it's one of the only justifications I have for my costume
history degree. :) But more often than not, I've seen groups that aren't as
knowledgable as they think they are. A recent example was the Viking exhibit
opening at the Smithsonian. There were some good Viking re-enactors out front
of Natural History (from Scandanavia!) but the locals were a bit off in their
authenticity, as pointed out by my friend who used to be a Norse
archaeologist. Their metalworker was using shoddy metalworking techniques and
not explaining what he was doing quite right. Now I don't think that one
needs to be a Norse archaeologist to be a re-enactor or living history person
but I do think that you need to be truely skilled at the craft you are
demonstrating, not dabble in it as part of a re-enactment.

So to make generalizations, I think that the groups that concentrate in a
particular period like a Roman garrison or Elizabethian England are generally
better and more knowledgable  than groups that do a broad period like
medieval Europe.

Deb Fuller

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