Escrima
See Philippines
Europe
The term martial artstoday typically refers to high-level Asian fighting meth-
ods from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and, to a lesser extent, Thai-
land, Burma, Indonesia, India, and Vietnam. This perspective is derived pri-
marily from Western popular culture. The standard view holds that non-Asian
contributions to the martial arts have been restricted to sport boxing, savate,
Greco-Roman wrestling, and the modern fencing sports of foil, épée, and
saber. Not only have substantial and highly sophisticated fighting systems,
true martial arts, existed outside Asian contexts, but many survive and others
are experiencing a renaissance. Like their Asian counterparts, Western martial
arts offer their practitioners both self-defense and personal growth.
Proceeding from a concept of martial arts as formulated systems of
fighting that teach the practitioners how to kill or injure an opponent while
protecting themselves effectively, these combat systems may employ un-
armed techniques or hand weapons (firearms excluded). The term Western
martial arts,loosely used in this instance to encompass systems developing
outside the greater Asian context, can refer to any martial art system that
originated in Europe, the Americas, Russia, and even the Middle East or
Central Asia. This entry will primarily focus on the martial arts of Europe,
as its title suggests, but will also include arts from other areas that are usu-
ally ignored, although they are basically in the Western tradition. Sporting
systems (such as boxing, wrestling, and modern fencing) that emphasize the
use of safety equipment and intentionally limit the number and kind of tech-
niques in order to be competitively scored are eliminated from consideration.
Although no claims can be made for an unbroken record, historical
evidence suggests that Western martial arts have been in existence for at
least 5,000 years. The first direct evidence of a high-level unarmed combat
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