|
|
|
| ||||||
| ||||||
|
Sadly, I am far from an expert on the subject, as my tribe (to my knowledge) isn't one of the one's doing such things. I've had some discussions with other Indians, however, and they were quite interesting. As I understand it, there was indeed a codified and semi-organized body of martial moves within certain tribes that focused mainly on grappling, mostly because combat between tribes was almost always armed. The stress was on entangling, or keeping from being entangled, while applying a knife or other such weapon to your opponent. The increasing role of firearms began to erode these skills, but since many of the tribes were in armed conflict until relatively recently the techniques haven't out of use for long. The methods used in the reconstruction aren't known to me, I'm afraid. I'll keep my eyes open for people that know more about it than I, and grill them a bit further on the matter. You seem critical that such a movement would have an agenda, but is that a bad thing? Doesn't every bit of historical *anything* have an agenda behind it, lurking and changing the facts? If one doubts that ideology shapes historical narrative, a simple exercise of collecting History textbooks from 1910, 1930, 1950, 1970, and 1990 should quickly show how history can be framed very, very differently depending on who is analyzing and collecting the data. Furthermore, an argument to practility seems very out of place when speaking about modern sword arts. If one looks at the sheer practicality of sword arts in general, one would find them extremely lacking. We will never be involved in sword combat or sword-based warfare, and even if we somehow manage to be, it will be because of our involvement in these arts. The value within them must somehow be transcendent of their simple practicality, then. Some modern martial artists and scholars (Kiyota, for one) have argued that, for the very fact that kendo *is* different from kenjutsu, it has more value to the modern practioner. By loosening it's connection to techniques meant for killing, the kendoka can pay more attention to the transcedent and psychological aspects of the art. Similarly, if a disenfranchised group seeks to uplift it's members and create a sense of community by reconstructing their societies' martial arts, does it truly matter how much they are similar to arts of the past? pax Gabe.
|
||
| Follow Ups | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Post Followup | ||