Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

ShayanMirza · 7th January 2007, 07:45 PM

Regarding academics and sword studies, what I find interesting is the dichotomy of approaches to swords. Academics approach swords from a historical, cultural, scientific, or aesthetic angle. The warriors who wielded the blades, or skilled martial artists who may have acquired them, approach them from an intuitive physical level. One understands a sword's past, the other understands its present, its immediacy and purpose. When an academic untrained in martial arts speculates over the way a sword was used based on some esoteric fact or hypothesis, I find the result is rarely convincing and often belies a fundamental misunderstanding of the weapon. For example, people who claim that the shamshir cannot be used for stabs. If they'd ever done a martial art with bladed weapons and then practiced with a shamshir, the would find that they are, indeed, quite useful and agile for hooking thrusts. (Conversely, when a martial artist attempts to delve into the academic aspects without a solid academic background, the result is equally untenable.) Intellectual knowledge of the sword without an organic physical understanding is empty. Weapons are intrinsically physical, intended for the immediacy of life and death, rather than lofty ideals of aesthetics or chivalry. That is not to say they cannot have such ideals applied to them; simply it means that such ideals should not be the sole intermediaries in understanding weaponry. I feel that it is far too common in literature regarding weapons to approach them on an exclusively intellectual level.

My ideal sword guru would be a person who mastered physical combat but also studied the history of the sword, addressing all possible angles of knowing the weapon. One great example of a pairing of mental and physical approaches to the sword is the revival of European sword martial arts. By basing a physical approach off of the historical knowledge of weapons manuals (e.g. Liberi's writings) many people are greatly increasing their understanding of the martial arts of their ancestors. This approach was also nationalistic in a positive way, enabling Europeans to reclaim their martial heritage and contribute to the world's martial arts knowledge as a whole. Hopefully more countries will adopt this wholistic and positive approach to history and nationalism (I can't wait til a book about shamshir techniques comes out, then I can stop using my escrima techniques with a Persian sword!)

7th January 2007, 07:45 PM	#6
ShayanMirza Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Charlottesville Posts: 25	I realize this is a tangent.... Regarding academics and sword studies, what I find interesting is the dichotomy of approaches to swords. Academics approach swords from a historical, cultural, scientific, or aesthetic angle. The warriors who wielded the blades, or skilled martial artists who may have acquired them, approach them from an intuitive physical level. One understands a sword's past, the other understands its present, its immediacy and purpose. When an academic untrained in martial arts speculates over the way a sword was used based on some esoteric fact or hypothesis, I find the result is rarely convincing and often belies a fundamental misunderstanding of the weapon. For example, people who claim that the shamshir cannot be used for stabs. If they'd ever done a martial art with bladed weapons and then practiced with a shamshir, the would find that they are, indeed, quite useful and agile for hooking thrusts. (Conversely, when a martial artist attempts to delve into the academic aspects without a solid academic background, the result is equally untenable.) Intellectual knowledge of the sword without an organic physical understanding is empty. Weapons are intrinsically physical, intended for the immediacy of life and death, rather than lofty ideals of aesthetics or chivalry. That is not to say they cannot have such ideals applied to them; simply it means that such ideals should not be the sole intermediaries in understanding weaponry. I feel that it is far too common in literature regarding weapons to approach them on an exclusively intellectual level. My ideal sword guru would be a person who mastered physical combat but also studied the history of the sword, addressing all possible angles of knowing the weapon. One great example of a pairing of mental and physical approaches to the sword is the revival of European sword martial arts. By basing a physical approach off of the historical knowledge of weapons manuals (e.g. Liberi's writings) many people are greatly increasing their understanding of the martial arts of their ancestors. This approach was also nationalistic in a positive way, enabling Europeans to reclaim their martial heritage and contribute to the world's martial arts knowledge as a whole. Hopefully more countries will adopt this wholistic and positive approach to history and nationalism (I can't wait til a book about shamshir techniques comes out, then I can stop using my escrima techniques with a Persian sword!)