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the definition of LH. what is it?

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Hmmm... we don't all use the same lexicon, so your milage may very.

What is Living History?

I like to think of it as a Kodak moment, or in our case a van der Weyden moment or what I call "full presentation". By this I mean, the clothing, the persona's (you are in character from sunrise to sundown, and beyond), the equipment, and the setting are as close as it gets to the real deal. Everything is documentable either by iconographic or contempory examples. It is a total immersion experience like Plimoth Plantation or James Town.

There are varying degrees, but it is generally a snap shot in time that concerns not only life, but occasionally is coupled with a re-enactment event.

What is re-enactment?

This is a reliving of an ACTUAL event in recorded history. The end result is already known and does not change.

The persona bar is not as strict, but the clothing and equipment code is usually very high.

Sometimes both living history and re-enactment, have what's known as a TACTICAL. This involves taking a historical event or just setting up a skirmish, to see if someone had done something differently, how might it have turned out. A what if scenario.

Tourney Companies: These folks recreate tournaments, at least that is my understanding. Again the bar varies. Perhaps Bob Hurley can fill in the gaps.

Entertainment: Renfaires and the like. These groups generally have the "trappings" of the Middle Ages, but are not so concerned with accuracy as they are with crowd pleasing. They give an impression. The bar, from observation is generally not very high.

Re-Creationists: This runs the gamut in regard to everything, from high (rare) to low. Interest in history and accuracy also range, though most are concerned with having a good time and how it should have been.

Any how, that's been my general perception, fwiw.

~J

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Many of the Companions of the Company of Saint Olaf have a strong SCA background, and we use similar "weapons" in our tournaments - I don't believe you'd want to play with us if we were using steel, or even wasters. We study Chivalry, works on period tournaments, and medieval European martial arts, and apply as much as we can (and can understand) to our events. We're also fond of the grand display of a tourney, and tend to be more authentic in dress and camp than most SCA/LARP type groups.

As I've said elsewhere, combat for such groups ranges from pretending to fight with real weapons to really fighting with pretend weapons. Most of us are somewhere in the middle.

And I'd nearly bet that the next tourney company member you ask gives you a different answer.