Society for Creative Anachronism
The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) is an international living history group with the aim of studying and recreating mainly Medieval European cultures and their histories before the 17th century. A quip often used within the SCA describes it as a group devoted to the Middle Ages "as they ought to have been",[2] choosing to "selectively recreate the culture, choosing elements of the culture that interest and attract us".[2] Founded in 1966, the non-profit educational corporation has over 20,000 paid members as of 2020[3] with about 60,000 total participants in the society, including members and non-member participants.[4]
Founded
May 1, 1966 in Berkeley, California, U.S.
501(c)(3) non-profit corporation
Worldwide
About 30,000[1]
Publications[edit]
The SCA produces two quarterly publications, The Compleat Anachronist and Tournaments Illuminated,[22] and each kingdom publishes a monthly newsletter.
The Compleat Anachronist is a quarterly monographic series, each issue focused on a specific topic related to the period of circa 600–1600 in history.[23] Issues are written by SCA members and have covered a wide range of topics.[24]
Tournaments Illuminated is a quarterly magazine, each issue covering a range of topics and including several features such as news, a humor column, book reviews, war reports and various articles on SCA-related topics of interest.[25]
Organization[edit]
Corporate organization[edit]
The SCA is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation in California,[26] with its current headquarters in the city of Milpitas, California. It is headed by a board of directors, each of whom is nominated by the membership of the SCA, selected by sitting directors, and elected to serve for 3.5 years.[27] Each director serves as an ombudsman for various kingdoms and society officers. The BoD, as it is called, is responsible for handling the corporate affairs of the SCA and is also in charge of certain disciplinary actions, such as revoking the membership status of participants who have broken Corpora regulations or modern law while participating in SCA activities.[28] Because the SCA now has groups all over the world, it has also been incorporated in other countries, e.g. SCAA in Australia, SCANZ in New Zealand, SKA Nordmark in Sweden, SKA in Finland, and the UK CIC which covers both the UK and Ireland. These affiliated bodies work with the U.S. BoD with regards to Societal issues, but make all decisions affected by local law independently of the U.S. parent body. Although they agree to work in unity with the U.S. SCA board of directors, they are autonomous and are not bound by any ruling of the U.S. body.[29]
Branches[edit]
The SCA is divided into administrative regions that it calls kingdoms. Smaller branches within those kingdoms include Principalities, Regions, Baronies, and Provinces; and local chapters are known as Cantons, Ridings, Shires, Colleges, Strongholds, and Ports. Kingdoms, principalities, and baronies have ceremonial rulers who preside over activities and issue awards to individuals and groups. Colleges, strongholds, and ports are local chapters (like a shire) that are associated with an institution, such as a school, military base, or even a military ship at sea.[28]
All SCA branches are organized in descending order as follows:[28]
Cultural impact[edit]
In Number of the Beast (1980), Robert A. Heinlein portrayed an SCA tournament where live weapons were used and the battles actually fought to the "death".[50] The defeated combatants were either transported to an alternate reality where medical technology was advanced enough that they could be revived from any wound or transported to the alternate reality that was Valhalla. The contestants' desires were placed in sealed envelopes prior to the tournament, which were destroyed if the competitor won and obeyed if a competitor lost.[51]
In Ariel (1983), a post-apocalyptic fantasy by Steven R. Boyett, technology suddenly stops working and sorcery and sword fight take over. Several characters who are former SCA members attribute their survival to their SCA experience.[52][53]
The 1986 fantasy novel The Folk of the Air by Peter S. Beagle was written after the author attended a few early SCA events circa 1968; but he has repeatedly stated that he then studiously avoided any contact with the SCA itself for almost two decades, so that his description of a fictitious "League for Archaic Pleasures" would not be "contaminated" by contact with the actual real-life organization.[54][55]
Members of the SCA are given pivotal roles in S. M. Stirling's Emberverse series, where their skills in pre-industrial technology and warfare become invaluable in helping humanity adapt when all modern technology (including firearms) ceases working.[56]
The novel Murder at the War (Knightfall in paperback edition) by Mary Monica Pulver is a murder mystery set entirely at the SCA's largest annual event, Pennsic War.
In David Weber's 1996 science fiction novel Honor Among Enemies, main character Honor Harrington mentions that her uncle is a member of the SCA[57] and that he taught her to shoot from the hip (the time the SCA covers having been moved up to the 19th century in the future era in which the novel is set, to include cowboy and Civil War reenactors).
In May 1999, The Onion ran a front-page article headlined "Society for Creative Anachronism Seizes Control of Russia" featuring photos of actual SCA participants from the Barony of Jaravellir (Madison, Wisconsin).[58][59]
In his conclusion to the Space Odyssey series, 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997), Arthur C. Clarke portrays the SCA as still being active in the year 3001.
In Christopher Stasheff's "Warlock" series, the inhabitants of the planet Gramarye are revealed to be descended from SCA participants.[60] A prequel, Escape Velocity, describes how the SCAdians first came to Gramarye, and how lands were assigned to the royal peers.[61]
In John Ringo's The Council Wars science fiction series, characters with SCA or SCA-like experience help their society recover from a catastrophic loss of technology.[62]