RESEARCHING SIMULATIONS OF THE PAST: HISTORICAL RE-ENACTMENT AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE

Abstract

Historical re-enactment (HR) has come a long way. From carnivals and pageants originating in Medieval Times, through a hobby for battlefield performers and activities by costumed societies to a scientific method of experimental archaeology, and now HR has become a distinct academic discipline, proclaimed in early 2020. Historical simulations - tangible costumes and associated material culture, habitats, artefacts and intangible culture (staged events, replicated technologies, traditions and cults) - have been an object of academic research for about 40 years. The scholarly interest has been growing and exceeded the scope of its initial field of applied and public history, museum and heritage studies, philosophy and anthropology, to now form an academic framework of its own. In this article the author tries to analyse the literature of the field and describe HR as an academic discipline, its object of research, methodology and key terms, and the spectrum of studies it is engaged with. To sum up, HR attracts careful academic attention. It is accepted as a heritage technology and constitutes a significant part of a distinctive discipline in ‘re-enactment studies’. Many elements of living history have been well explored, its potential for ‘constructedness’ or in Scott Magelssen term ‘3-D sandbox space’ has been carefully evaluated. However, numerous aspects of its potential are still to be revealed. The literature review also indicates that re-enactment studies can benefit a business management approach, to employ heritage industry terms, to explore the im-pact of client service and the experience economy on negotiated authenticity and HR in general as well as material culture studies, and could also contribute much in the development of the notion of ‘replica’ as a key concept of HR.

Keywords

• historical re-enactment
• living history
• historical simulation
• authenticity