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Thursday, July 07, 2005
Martial Arts Evolution Theory 3
Thinking now about how cultures and humankind as a whole have evolved dependent of meeting needs, we can assume that food and shelter are the first needs we have to meet, according to Maslow's hierachy of needs.
So when humankind first climbed down the trees and stepped foot on the savannah, it was possibly for exploration for food sources. Hence, hunting skills, evident in all the great apes, ergo our common ancestors, will be prevalent in those social groups exploring the open ground. With the number of megafauna (great big creatures) around, there will have been a requirement to defend oneself and the group, so those hunting skills are also interchangeable as battle skills.
Social creatures tend to hunt in groups, so the weight of numbers must have been a deciding factor in the hunt and in battle, but let us not discount the fact that humankind and our ancestor hominids have been making and using tools for 100's if not 1000's of millenia, so wielding weaponry is familiar to any person, as a natural extension of being an evolved tool user.
In social groups in both humans and lesser animals, we see continual testing as a means of sorting the social order of a culture. Males and females alike will push and pull, physically and mentally, to establish their rank in the group, which also decides the rank of the other. These social struggles are not intended to harm or hurt, though they can, but also causes social bonding too, as a whole group, for a group without a hierarchy can lead to disfunction, and the inability to operate as a whole makes it weaker.
So, we see in our cousins the great apes, the means of social testing in the lead males, mock fighting when youngsters, becoming tests of strength and weakness when adult.
Of course some fights can lead to injuries, even death, but most are settled when the weaker backs down, and the positions are balanced.
So we must apply this to ourselves, for when we spar and wrestle, we are not out to hurt or harm the other, it is a means of testing, both physical and mental, both of the other and of oneself.
This is perhaps the most likely case of the birth of unarmed combat systems, as a means of testing without causing inappropriate harm.
We humans, though, enjoy power more than most other creatures led by mere instinct, for we can revel in power, greed, EGO. Our need for power, whether just or unjust, drives us to innovation, of thought, of strategy, of invention, so those driven by a need for power may have invented the forms of combat in an unarmed situation, where if all things being equal, of height, weight, strength and open-hands, it relies on ability and technique and mental agility.
Consider, if one proponent were facing another who was armed with a sword, and the opportunity for the unarmed to best the armed arose and they succeeded, the assumed power, respect, awe etc raises that proponent's stature in the group.
One road of thought implies that the individuals who go on to do great things, or become leaders, or top athletes, crave attention, affection, respect etc, largely as a means of layering the ego with what it needs to feed it (Read Marvin Harris, Our Kind, 1989), again as part of the whole fitting into society issue.
These are the Napoleons, the Genghis Khans, Alexanders of history. And I propose that these are the types of people who created a martial system, whether for good intentions or not, but it is the great, the brilliant, the steadfast, the thinkers, the do-ers of humankind who go forth in the world to add to it, not to take from it.
Think about the originators of any martial art, take even Bodhidharma, the most unlikely candidate of the powerhungry, who crossed from Persia to China on the silk route to SongShan to deliver translations of the Buddhist texts and so was born Chan (Zen) Buddhism. He also gave the monks age old meditation exercises, and so was born Shaolin WuShu. But everyone in the East knows his name, for he was revered as a great figure in history, even in his own day.
I'm sure he wasn't to know that MA would be so prolific in China because of him, but because of him, MA flourished there, even within the circle of Buddhist compassion and tolerance of all things.
But power is addictive, and individuals would have taken those simple forms and made them into powerful techniques, and so fighting systems become elaborate and deadly, no longer just a test of strength amongst peers, but a means of control, a means of respect.
Thus, from a simple exercise, someone craving power, control, respect, ability, revenge, ego abasement, all those ugly human traits, whether explicitly expressed or just as part of the mental makeup driving a particular individual, will have beaten and battered, and taken apart the techniques & skills and reformed them to better themselves, to meet their higher needs, subconscious or otherwise.
Perhaps that is where martial arts are born, from the memory of being a small creature battling for life in the reptilian brain, to the power hungry tendencies of our so-called human mind, all these different parts of self and ego may have driven us to use our hands and feet as natural weapons for defence and attack, whether in proving one's standing amidst one's peers and society, or using one's power and ability to issue control over others, martial arts are born of our psyche, of our ability to realise power.
So, by extension, a true martial artist should understand this, and exercise power only when it is needed, not as a means of stroking one's ego.
I wrote something similar to this several years back as a short thesis here: http://kungfulife.blogspot.com/2005/04/fighting-hero-appeal-of-martial-arts.html
So when humankind first climbed down the trees and stepped foot on the savannah, it was possibly for exploration for food sources. Hence, hunting skills, evident in all the great apes, ergo our common ancestors, will be prevalent in those social groups exploring the open ground. With the number of megafauna (great big creatures) around, there will have been a requirement to defend oneself and the group, so those hunting skills are also interchangeable as battle skills.
Social creatures tend to hunt in groups, so the weight of numbers must have been a deciding factor in the hunt and in battle, but let us not discount the fact that humankind and our ancestor hominids have been making and using tools for 100's if not 1000's of millenia, so wielding weaponry is familiar to any person, as a natural extension of being an evolved tool user.
In social groups in both humans and lesser animals, we see continual testing as a means of sorting the social order of a culture. Males and females alike will push and pull, physically and mentally, to establish their rank in the group, which also decides the rank of the other. These social struggles are not intended to harm or hurt, though they can, but also causes social bonding too, as a whole group, for a group without a hierarchy can lead to disfunction, and the inability to operate as a whole makes it weaker.
So, we see in our cousins the great apes, the means of social testing in the lead males, mock fighting when youngsters, becoming tests of strength and weakness when adult.
Of course some fights can lead to injuries, even death, but most are settled when the weaker backs down, and the positions are balanced.
So we must apply this to ourselves, for when we spar and wrestle, we are not out to hurt or harm the other, it is a means of testing, both physical and mental, both of the other and of oneself.
This is perhaps the most likely case of the birth of unarmed combat systems, as a means of testing without causing inappropriate harm.
We humans, though, enjoy power more than most other creatures led by mere instinct, for we can revel in power, greed, EGO. Our need for power, whether just or unjust, drives us to innovation, of thought, of strategy, of invention, so those driven by a need for power may have invented the forms of combat in an unarmed situation, where if all things being equal, of height, weight, strength and open-hands, it relies on ability and technique and mental agility.
Consider, if one proponent were facing another who was armed with a sword, and the opportunity for the unarmed to best the armed arose and they succeeded, the assumed power, respect, awe etc raises that proponent's stature in the group.
One road of thought implies that the individuals who go on to do great things, or become leaders, or top athletes, crave attention, affection, respect etc, largely as a means of layering the ego with what it needs to feed it (Read Marvin Harris, Our Kind, 1989), again as part of the whole fitting into society issue.
These are the Napoleons, the Genghis Khans, Alexanders of history. And I propose that these are the types of people who created a martial system, whether for good intentions or not, but it is the great, the brilliant, the steadfast, the thinkers, the do-ers of humankind who go forth in the world to add to it, not to take from it.
Think about the originators of any martial art, take even Bodhidharma, the most unlikely candidate of the powerhungry, who crossed from Persia to China on the silk route to SongShan to deliver translations of the Buddhist texts and so was born Chan (Zen) Buddhism. He also gave the monks age old meditation exercises, and so was born Shaolin WuShu. But everyone in the East knows his name, for he was revered as a great figure in history, even in his own day.
I'm sure he wasn't to know that MA would be so prolific in China because of him, but because of him, MA flourished there, even within the circle of Buddhist compassion and tolerance of all things.
But power is addictive, and individuals would have taken those simple forms and made them into powerful techniques, and so fighting systems become elaborate and deadly, no longer just a test of strength amongst peers, but a means of control, a means of respect.
Thus, from a simple exercise, someone craving power, control, respect, ability, revenge, ego abasement, all those ugly human traits, whether explicitly expressed or just as part of the mental makeup driving a particular individual, will have beaten and battered, and taken apart the techniques & skills and reformed them to better themselves, to meet their higher needs, subconscious or otherwise.
Perhaps that is where martial arts are born, from the memory of being a small creature battling for life in the reptilian brain, to the power hungry tendencies of our so-called human mind, all these different parts of self and ego may have driven us to use our hands and feet as natural weapons for defence and attack, whether in proving one's standing amidst one's peers and society, or using one's power and ability to issue control over others, martial arts are born of our psyche, of our ability to realise power.
So, by extension, a true martial artist should understand this, and exercise power only when it is needed, not as a means of stroking one's ego.
I wrote something similar to this several years back as a short thesis here: http://kungfulife.blogspot.com/2005/04/fighting-hero-appeal-of-martial-arts.html
