[QUOTE=Maeglin]
This seems utterly contrary to my understanding of the SCA. SCAdians don’t want to recreate the medieval experience, but the medieval experience as they want it to be. There is no church, no peasants, no oppression, no disease, no nothing. It is a sanitized, family-friendly, politically correct vision of the Way The Middle Ages Ought To Have Been.
I find this very difficult to wrap my head around.
[/QUOTE]
Well, see, that’s where the CREATIVE part comes in. The problem with things like religion and disease is that it’s pretty difficult to recreate them in any reasonable fashion. First off, since the period covered by the SCA is from roughly 450 AD (fall of Rome) to 1600 AD (end of Elizabeth I’s reign) and spans all of Europe with visitors from the other continents represented as well–which religion would we be talking here? Christian Catholic only? Athanasian or Arian? How about Greek Orthodox? Russian Orthodox? Odin or Thor? Islam? Protestant Reform Lutheran? English Reformed Church? Italian or French Pope? Should we recreate the Crusades every time we get some Middle East persona people interacting with Europeans? Pretty difficult to get things done and the parties would be nowhere near as fun. So instead, those who are interested in medieval religion study up on it and there are many people who have religious personas, monks, mendicant friars, nuns–I think we had a Cardinal once but that was an anomaly. I’ve heard plenty of verbal Crusades going on, as Islamic and Christian persona’ed people debate the relative historical merits of the various Crusades as well as the difference between the ostensible reasons they were waged versus the actual motives. Besides, what SCAdians are more interested in is how ordinary people lived their lives. What did they eat and how did they cook it? Can you bake bread over an open fire? What kind of clothes did they wear and how did the availabilty of materials dictate styles? Where did the trade routes go and how did that affect the lives of people–how available would luxury goods have been? How do you make shoes starting with nothing more than a dead cow? If cows were much smaller then (and they were) how did they piece leather bits together to make stuff? How did they grow their food? What crops were available? What was the role of women in various cultures? How was property acquired and passed on? The minutiae of everyday life is infinitely more engrossing, both to us and to the people back then I suspect, than the minutiae of theological opinion.
Really, the SCA is summed up quite accurately by its own description of itself–“The SCA is a non-profit medieval historical society dedicated to recreating the Middle Ages, not as they were but as they should have been.” We all know the horror stories–plague and starvation and the Children’s Crusade and the Medici popes and the Mongol invasion and the Inquisition and all the rest of it. That’s all fine and dandy–but really, how much did most of that stuff impinge on everyday life? With the exception of disease, the answer is “not a hell of a lot.” The SCA is probably more accurate than most people would think in that regard.
And there are plenty of peasants in the SCA. Anyone can choose a persona of any type they prefer. I myself am a Frankish peasant woman in my primary persona, although I tend to vacation in the Tudor/Elizabethan era in England because the clothes are so pretty. Sometimes I go Viking just for the fun of it. Shoot, sometimes I decide to have a male persona just for shits and grins–usually just for wars, though. From the standpoint of the SCA, though, everyone is assumed to be nobility unless or until they declare or show themselves to be otherwise. It’s just courtesy, really. There’s plenty of bullying and shoving people around for no reason IRL, we all know how it works and see no real reason to recreate it faithfully.
If it helps any, draw the distinction between reenactors, who are primarily interested in redoing something (a battle, a costume, a time period) right down to the last detail (good examples are Civil War and Dickens Fair participants) and recreators, who are more interested in the flavor and atmosphere of a given time period. SCAdians are the latter. Individuals may have a bewilderingly encyclopedic knowledge of some narrow skill, time period or craft but have little or no interest in other times, skills and crafts. The time period we cover is huge, the range of skills and interests is mindboggling and we’re not attempting to recreate a medieval Potemkin village for the edification or amusement or entertainment of anyone besides ourselves. The SCA is a place where you can overhear twelve year olds debating whether the shoes one of them is wearing are period accurate with the rest of their garb, and they will know what they’re talking about. That’s a success, in my book. The SCA is a place where you can find out a hell of a lot about history if you want to, or you can just go make a token effort at it and have a bunch of fun. Nobody’s judging, you get out of it what you put into it, and everybody has a slightly different set of needs and goals. That’s what makes it fun!
Never forget the all important part–anachronism. In the SCA we’re ALL out of our right time–not in the 21st century, but not in any other given century either. The 16th century French nobleman is camped next door to the Mongol warrior but who cares? As long as they both clean up their camp and have fun, who’s getting hurt? Food poisoning is perfectly period, but who the hell needs it? Just make sure the ice chests are out of sight and put your food in a nice wooden bowl or on a trencher. Getting hurt is period, too, but the chirurgeons are medically trained professionals IRL, chain mail coifs make the best neck stabilizers possible and we know how to clear a path for an ambulance. We love to dance but there isn’t always a handy batch of live musicians available–so we just politely assume the music is coming from a group playing behind a curtain somewhere that just so happens to have a “replay” option.
Society. Creative. Anachronism. Kinda says it all, doesn’t it? 
