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Martial Arts Topics / The Tradition and Culture Thread
« on: August 13, 2006, 09:34:08 AM »
? "Absorb what is useful, disregard that which is useless"
? "Smuggling concepts across the frontiers of style."
In this thread I would like to address the impact of the above statements on traditionalism in the martial arts. In particular:
How do practicioners/teachers (i'm just a student) reconcile the statements above in regards to the culture they are 'borrowing' , 'adapting' , and 'smuggling' (
) from. ex. I find culture facinating and though i am a big fan of NHB/MMA style martial arts and i want to train in a proven and effective martial art, I find myself bored with NHB/MMA because it's very one-dimensional (just technique and sparring). On the other hand, i find myself recently drawn to traditional martial arts (pencak silat)? because they have a have a history, they come from exotic places, and have many different aspects (self defense, dance/performance/music, spirituality) i can explore. In addition i feel like an anthropologist in that i'm preserving valuable information that's in danger of going extinct. Now I'm living in Indonesia and studying silat here....It's a real adventure 
? *Does anyone study the culture from where (insert martial art) comes from? or.... Is culture useless?
* If you profit from the knowledge of a certain culture (financially as in operating a m.a. school)? do you feel you owe something to the country of origin and it's people (and your instructors)??
? *How much of the native culture (predominantly South East Asian i presume for this forum) do you include in your class? (terminology, salutations, jurus, music, art, spirituality, unique weapons, etc..). Do you consider these aspects important to your class?
* For those who have had training in the country of origin,? do you teach/ train in the same way you were instructed? What do you do differently?
? * The goal of the JKD and Dog Brothers is growth and evolution. But what are we leaving behind? I mean, if a certain style of silat has 12 jurus and I decide only jurus 6-12 are useful so I discard the rest, what are the consequences? What if my teacher is the last representative of that particular style and i am his only student.. will jurus 1-5 will be gone forever? Just because i don't see application in those movements doesn't mean it isnt' there; it might be useful to someone else...... is there something you regret leaving out?
? These questions came up as i was discussing pencak silat with a very well travelled and well spoken silat teacher here in Indonesia. He's not very happy with the "commercialization" of p.s. in America:? ?he feels that we Americans are just "selling techniques" and in the worst cases using patents to "steal" a martial art (smuggle?) and keep it for ourselves.
I apologize in advance for touching any nerves, I wish i could have organized my thoughts better before posting this thread. Look forward to replies,
thx
? "Smuggling concepts across the frontiers of style."
In this thread I would like to address the impact of the above statements on traditionalism in the martial arts. In particular:
How do practicioners/teachers (i'm just a student) reconcile the statements above in regards to the culture they are 'borrowing' , 'adapting' , and 'smuggling' (
) from. ex. I find culture facinating and though i am a big fan of NHB/MMA style martial arts and i want to train in a proven and effective martial art, I find myself bored with NHB/MMA because it's very one-dimensional (just technique and sparring). On the other hand, i find myself recently drawn to traditional martial arts (pencak silat)? because they have a have a history, they come from exotic places, and have many different aspects (self defense, dance/performance/music, spirituality) i can explore. In addition i feel like an anthropologist in that i'm preserving valuable information that's in danger of going extinct. Now I'm living in Indonesia and studying silat here....It's a real adventure ? *Does anyone study the culture from where (insert martial art) comes from? or.... Is culture useless?
* If you profit from the knowledge of a certain culture (financially as in operating a m.a. school)? do you feel you owe something to the country of origin and it's people (and your instructors)??
? *How much of the native culture (predominantly South East Asian i presume for this forum) do you include in your class? (terminology, salutations, jurus, music, art, spirituality, unique weapons, etc..). Do you consider these aspects important to your class?
* For those who have had training in the country of origin,? do you teach/ train in the same way you were instructed? What do you do differently?
? * The goal of the JKD and Dog Brothers is growth and evolution. But what are we leaving behind? I mean, if a certain style of silat has 12 jurus and I decide only jurus 6-12 are useful so I discard the rest, what are the consequences? What if my teacher is the last representative of that particular style and i am his only student.. will jurus 1-5 will be gone forever? Just because i don't see application in those movements doesn't mean it isnt' there; it might be useful to someone else...... is there something you regret leaving out?
? These questions came up as i was discussing pencak silat with a very well travelled and well spoken silat teacher here in Indonesia. He's not very happy with the "commercialization" of p.s. in America:? ?he feels that we Americans are just "selling techniques" and in the worst cases using patents to "steal" a martial art (smuggle?) and keep it for ourselves.
I apologize in advance for touching any nerves, I wish i could have organized my thoughts better before posting this thread. Look forward to replies,
thx