[Spunjer]

this is kinda straying of the main topic but it's something that i feel relates to what you've just mentioned, mabagani. i posted this on a different forum, so rather than typing it all over again, i'll copy-n-paste it here:

...which leads me to my personal theory:

was arnis/escrima developed by the visayans as a form of self defense against the pillaging moros? i really don't subscribed to 'it's been there before the spaniards came'. even pigafetta's report was vague. i know it's common knowledge on FMA that lapulapu used some type of kali art to defeat magellan, but if you read pigafetta's report (google it!), in a roundabout way, he got hit with a spear, and when the natives saw him fall, they bumrushed the guy. so where's the kali skill on that? also if you looked at where escrima is predominant in the map, it's centered at panay/negros/cebu area, direct access from mindanao. another clue are the masters. did you ever noticed that majority are visayans? if there were masters from somewhere else (luzon and northern mindanao), they either;
a)learned it from a visayan.
b)their family migrated from the visayan region.
c)saw it from their trip to the visayas

you see my pattern here? so to sum it up, arnis/escrima originated in visayan region within the last 300-400 years ago, out of neccessity, to defend themselves from the marauding moros. the visayan must've been so terrorized and at the same time enthralled by the way these moros handled their barungs, krises, kampilans, piras and bangkungs that they have to come up with a way to defend themselves. they saw a pattern/patterns on how the moros fight, and exploited that angle. how is that first practiced? by using sticks. and then later on the skill being transferred to binangons, tenegre, pinuti and some other indegenous visayan weapon.

i know i'm opening a can of worms here, but not after i started collecting moro weapons did the whole picture started to make sense. you see, after starting collecting, i started reading about our forgotten brothers, to learn more about their history and within just these past few months, i've learned so much about them and their weapons. the sad thing about it, i used to live in mindanao...

and here's a response...

Spunjer,

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spunjer
esgrimador,

this is interesting that someone laid out this theories before! could you please give me some links? i know FMA has been romanticized. that all good, but the truth is still out there somewhere...


Here's the link to some good articles on this specific subject. The first one by Celestino Macachor is especially fascinating (and it has apparently been updated and expanded):

http://cebueskrima.s5.com/custom2.html

like i said, it's pretty interesting. i guess another angle to look at.