Post by Gareth Hadley on May 4, 2010 13:46:54 GMT 9
The SCA has their own website sca.org/ which has a page devoted to this topic, sca.org/officers/chatelain/sca-intro.html which I encourage you to read. However this is what the SCA is in my own words.
The Society for Creative Anachronism is an International group of people who explore, discuss and reenact history. That might sound rather stuff and boorish, but it's not as bad as all that. Our time period is very open ended for starters, anything before 1600AD is fair game. No constricting 10 year time periods for us. Any race or culture is allowed, if you want to be a Viking Raider, a Celtic Berserker, a Spanish Pirate or a Japanese Samurai there are other people who share your interests and can point you in the right direction. And the best part is that we aren't worried about the construction of something being historically accurate. As long as your clothing and armour look reasonably historical, it doesn't matter if the materials are authentic or not. We use modern tents, chairs and shoes all the time. It's encouraged that the historiacal looking things are used, but that's up tot he individual. We're here for the fun and the camraderie rather than the strictness other reenactment groups often enforce.
The last big thing is that we 'Reenact the Middle Ages as they should have been" and not as they were. What that means is that you're just as likely to see a woman fighting as you are to see a man in the kitchen. We believe in equality in the SCA. That also means that everyone from the King on down to the Newest Member is treated properly. It makes for a much more enjoyable time for everyone that way.