Officially Official

It's officially official--my thesis is done! The final copy has been accepted by the graduate college and everything has the green light for graduation in a couple weeks. Now all I have to do is teach and grade papers for the rest of the semester.

It's been a wild ride. I'd been to renfaires before, and I enjoy them or I would never have attempted this project. But just as with anything in life, when you start examining the minutia of something in a new way, it takes on whole new meanings. And of course, whenever you run something through a slew of social theory it always comes out sounding both impressively complex and ultimately simple at the same time...at least for me. 

No spoilers on the findings in the final paper. However, as per my university's policy, it did get uploaded to OhioLINK and should show up on a Google search by some time later this year. (I still get a weird feeling in my belly every time I think about that, like my butterflies aren't sure if they're going to be sick.)

No pirates were harmed during this research project...although a few did ask to be flogged later, because they like it. 

The Calm Between Storms

I can't exactly call this break between renaissance faires the doldrums (that's pirate talk for a calm spell when there's no wind, it's usually wicked hot, and your ship gets stuck in one place so long you want to walk the plant to break up the boredom). I've been slowly hacking away at transcribing interviews from the first half of this project, as well as getting a bit of reading done for the literature review portion of the paper. I have gotten through three books in the past three days--it's hardly nothing. However, compared to the constant adventure that it was in June and early July, the sailing has been a bit calmer.

You may notice the photo of me and the other two pirate lasses. That was taken at the Great Lakes Medieval Faire in northern Ohio. We spent the day there--my first time at this particular faire--and then stayed the night at the home of the parents of the teensie one you see in the middle there. (I was standing on a step, she's not that short.) Her dad cooked, her mom and sister stayed up and drank rum with us. It was a great time. That's a playground pirate ship we commandeered (nautical term), but only momentarily. The younger skalliwags soon demanded their ship back.

The day at GLMF wasn't one of official research for me, more a basis of comparison for the other faires in this project. The site itself is lovely, all woods and twisty paths. But there was not the same level of interaction that I feel like I got spoiled with at the Kentucky faire. Still, it was a nice break, even though the drive made it too far away except with overnight accommodations.

I have three weeks until the next renfaire I'll be attending, but of course classes start back here the week before. I'll be teaching through the week and in the field on the weekends again. At least this next faire is closer to home (2 1/2 hours instead of 4 1/5 away).

"We Don't Do Anything"

This video is from evening pub sing in the main hall. Drunk & Sailor always get the crowd singing along--"You will participate, or the Captain will come out there," is what they like to say. And he certainly does seem to like to single out individuals or small groups of people (usually newbies) who are not playing the game with the rest of the audience, and encourage them to join in the fun.

This song may be familiar to some readers, but we'll just chalk that up to our collective cultural literacy--you, me, and my rennies here--and ignore that. But if that is the case, you will also notice that I failed to record the whole song, which is rather long to sit through if you're not here for the music. (Although I know you may be here for the pirates.) But no matter!

What I took this video for was to show the collective behavior of ritual--yes, ritual. That and how you can tell who is a "cultural insider" at this faire. You can see how the people down front who know how this show goes are jumping with the music as if this is simply how the world works. And at KHRF, it is! (You should see the version of this that happens in the Twisted Thistle, the over 21 pub on site. There is more...bouncing...involved. Think wenches in tight bodices. But this here is a family show.)

Now notice how some of the ones along the edges, like the faeries who were visiting from Great Lakes Medieval Faire, weren't quite sure how they should join in. Meanwhile, the king was up front jumping around like a little kid. (He's a good egg.) It was a lot of fun watching the people from the other faire acclimate to this one over the course of the weekend.

To the Stocks!

I returned late last night from my first weekend of field research. I got some excellent interviews, recorded copious fieldnotes, and took more than 100 photos. But this (in the video) was one of the highlights of the weekend, non-academically speaking. I could say a great deal about how the ritual of sending someone to the sticks is sometimes used as an initiation of sorts for "faire virgins" who are on their first visit with friends who are regulars. Or I could give a follow-up on the history of rat pucking. But this is much more fun!

Apparently the use of pucking carts (or pirate ships for that matter) is strictly prohibited in the village of Briarwood. The King deemed the use of the "cart" to cheating, and the Captain was sent to the stocks for his transgression. I had been told by someone that this is the first time the Captain has ever been sent to the stocks in the seven year history of this faire, but Capt. Amos himself said he has been sent there several times before (and may have deserved it that one time). However, clearly this breach of rat pucking practices was a grievous offense.

(No pirate captains were harmed in the making of this video. I'm not sure how the beanbag rat feels.)

The Road Thus Far

Okay, so the title sounds like something from the "since last season" opening of some adventure show. In a way, that's kind of what this is.

A long time ago, in a galaxy kingdom far away... No, that's not exactly right either. The "kingdom" in question was right here, sort of. I spend many years, before college, doing all kinds of geeky things like reading fantasy novels, watching science fiction movies and TV shows, and playing RPGs (role playing games to the uninitiated); and I spent a lot of time with the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). But I had never been a "tourist" in the Middle Ages until I attended the Maryland Renaissance Faire back in 2003. The whole interacting with an audience, many of whom were in street clothes, was a little weird to me because the SCA doesn't have that. Yes, my friends and I went in garb (meaning medieval clothing/costume). Yes, many people mistook me/us for those people working there. Yes, we just sort of played along because that's how the "game" becomes fun. I went twice that season--the second time because there was a pirate group performing. You knew it would become about pirates sooner than later.

A couple years later, I attended the Connecticut renfaire with some of my siblings. It was interesting to note the difference in how people interacted based on who was or was not in garb.

Then, I went to college. I studied sociology. And I started dragging my college friends with me to renfaires. Although a few of them needed less dragging, but more on that later.

By mid-afternoon of the first day at this latest faire, I was forming hypotheses and research ideas. I met a man who is what we in the sociology biz call a "bridge" in the social network context, meaning he was connected. The guy seemed to know just about everyone! So I made friends, and over the next year of occasional online communication, I got him to agree to being a guide of sorts for some research I began doing into the renaissance faire subculture. I was introduced to LOTS of people--booth workers, cast members, "playtrons" (meaning patrons who play along and come in character/garb).

I wrote a paper and gave a presentation about renfaires and medieval re-enactors/re-creationists for a class in Deviant Subcultures. I think by that point I was considered a junior at Shawnee State University. (I did finish that bachelor's degree in three years, so it was the year in the middle.) That was what really set me on this path. I found myself asking so many questions about renfaires, the people, the relationships, the "rules," the customs. I could spend years researching this and never run out of things to study, which is probably a good thing since it's what I'm writing my master's thesis on.

By the next year's faire season, several of my friends and I had formed our own "pirate crew" as we had seen with my afore-mentioned cultural guide. Watching the process of creating personas, getting costumes together, choosing names, and creating a collective group identity with the crew has been interesting in itself, especially when my crew teamed up with some other renfaire pirates to form an "armada" of sorts. (All in good fun, I assure you. No actually pillaging has occurred.)

In participating, while observing, I have gotten to know people and built raport that would not have been possible for a researcher walking in wearing "mundane" (non-medieval/renaissance) clothes carrying a clipboard and asking a lot of questions that lead participants to feel like they're being examined under glass and poked with a stick. But that is a tale for another day...

Disclaimer: BTW, this blog has no affiliation with the SCA or SSU (except that the latter did give me a BA in Sociology). Stuff I write here should not reflect on them, in case they decide it matters. 

Ahoy! and Well Met

Capt. Emeleth MacCreedy
of the Mist Reaver

My name is Heather Dumas, Em to my friends, and I'm working on a master's degree in sociology at Ohio University. I'm about to embark on a research project that will culminate in my master's thesis.

If geeks are people who are super passionate about their hobbies, and nerds are really academically minded, then I'm a geek nerd. (Or as one friend put it, a "gnerd.") I am really interested in what sociologists call deviant subcultures--but not so much the criminal element as those fringe groups of people who like to live life, or at least part of it, a bit differently. Many of the groups I like to study usually have some element of dressing in some rather weird clothing and/or in some way portraying a persona that is not the one the everyday world sees...usually. This is how I ended up studying the people at renfaires. That's short for renaissance faires, and the extra "e" is an intentional use of the old fashioned spelling used by members of this subculture.

Yes, that's me dressed as a pirate, "Captain Emeleth MacCreedy," since it is customary to take on a renaissance era persona while at faire. (You were here for the pirates after all, right?) This is a participant observer study, meaning that I get to jump right in there and play along with everyone else at the faire. I've actually done a little research on renfaires before, as an undergrad, and have developed a network of informants, as we call them in this academic discipline, who have graciously accepted me as part of the crew, as it were. You'll hear more about them later, since they are the real stars of this show--they're who I'm writing about--the cast, playtrons, boothies, and other rennies.

This blog is to keep interested parties informed of my progress, and to let my friends read about those adventures which will never make it into the academic article that is the final product of this research. My field research will take place starting in early June and continue through late October. I'll be interviewing people at faires, along with taking lots of notes and photographs (pictures are sometimes worth a thousand words in field notes). More on that later. Until then... Wind in yer sails!