Evolutionary history of martial arts

[ghostexorcist]

Many people on here (including myself) like to research the history of martial arts. Considering that my major is physical anthropology with an emphasis on primatology, I would like to write a paper that traces the actual evolutionary origins of martial arts. While doing some preliminary research, I came upon this article on the subject (http://nateb11.hubpages.com/hub/How-Human-Evolution-Allowed-for-the-Development-of-Martial-Arts). Overall, it’s not bad. They cover issues like bipedalism, the opposable thumb, and our large brains, but it doesn't go deep enough in my opinion. It doesn’t explore the reasons for these adaptations, or other things like primate social behavior and tool use, the origins of hunting weapons and their adaption for war, conflicts between early human species, or the need to further develop martial skills to protect settlements.

Primatologists study chimpanzees because their lives are believed to parallel that of our common ape-like ancestor who lived around 7 million years ago. I believe studying them helps us to understand the origins of martial arts too. For instance, young chimps like to wrestle. This helps them to hone the skills they use to protect their communities and territories as adults. This might also explain why wrestling is one of the oldest and most prevalent martial arts. They are also known to attack enemies with sticks and rocks. See this video for an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xVHBm2Q-oM&feature=related

The slinging of sticks and stones could have easily given way to the use of clubs and staffs and projectile weapons by early human species. It is interesting to note that a community of chimps from Senegal actually hunts with spears! They sharpen the tips of branches with their teeth and then ram them inside of trees with the intent of skewering prey. This of course could have given rise to hunting spears that were later adapted for war. These are just a few examples.

Anatomically modern humans appeared in Africa 150,000-200,000 years ago. Their very thick bones indicate that they lived hard lifestyles. They lived in hunter-gatherer societies at this time. Modern examples of hunter-gatherers like the !Kung San people (! = click sound) are known to war amongst themselves, so there is no doubt that early humans did the same. The spears and arrows that were used for hunting were probably used in battles against various tribes. Humans are believed to have started to leave Africa around 50,000 years ago. Over the course of many millennia, they spread to Saudi Arabia, India, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australia. Groups split from those in India and spread into Central Asia, the rest of the Middle East, and finally Europe. Like language, the martial skills that these people brought with them splintered and traveled with each group. The first settlements began to appear around 15,000 years ago. Naturally, these early groups of settlers would have had to protect themselves from nomads living in the area. And of course armies would have been required to protect the cities that started to appear around 6,000 years ago. Thus armed and unarmed combat progressed to meet the needs of society.

I will elaborate on these points and more in the actual paper. I would like forum members to provide their thoughts on the subject. Is there anything in particular that you would like to see covered? It will probably take me several years to research.

[Bacon]

Monkeys beat thentar out of each other with their hands, then they moved on to using objects for blunt force trauma. Then as human beings evolved we learned how to stab, cut, beat, break, burn, gas, impale and explode each other.

Basically I see it going:

Monkey violence -> hunting/basic humaning hunting weapon use ->more refined military tactics -> our current understanding of ancient and modern military history

I don't think you'll find much which hasn't already been covered as far s anthropology or military history so forgive me for saying so but it's old hat.

[jdhowland]

Tribal societies often have ritual warfare. Some have seen this as a way to limit population growth but the recorded number of deaths in such actions (as reported in New Guinea and Sumatra in modern times) is actually small. I think warfare tends to reinforce an "us and them" awareness which serves to protect the local gene pool and cultural boundaries.

Pre-tribal gatherer societies (band level) may not have had warfare in any organized (or culturally dictated) way at all. Just attack and defense strategies as the need arose.

A small book entitled "Animals at War" was published in the '70s. Not specifically about hominids, though.

You might want to concentrate on either tribal or band level humans. Or even bring up the difficult subject of what caused the transition.

Good luch on the research!

[ghostexorcist]

Tribal societies often have ritual warfare. Some have seen this as a way to limit population growth but the recorded number of deaths in such actions (as reported in New Guinea and Sumatra in modern times) is actually small. I think warfare tends to reinforce an "us and them" awareness which serves to protect the local gene pool and cultural boundaries.

[...]

Good luch on the research!

Thanks for the suggestions.

I am currently reading a book on the chimp community of Mahale in eastern Africa. The section on “play” discusses the various forms of locomotive motions like twirling and backflips that chimps do. The author mentions that males play this way to learn how to avoid predators, impress future mates, and show off their strength to future competitors. He believes these displays have ties to the young human athletes that liked to perform their feats of strength before crowds during the ancient Olympics. The author also mentions a book written by a sociologist that connected various aspects of human culture back to a need to play, including war. War falls under the term of play because it is usually fought according to certain rules—i.e. rules of engagement. These are more extreme versions of rules that, say, little boys set while having mock battles of their own. And since play fighting gives animals and young boys the skills they will use as adults, the martial arts can also be considered a type of playing. Some martial arts are closely tied to dancing. Many cultures have “war dances” that they perform before going to battle. Likewise, some martial arts were born of dances. This ties back to the tumbling play of chimps and probably even our common ancestor.