Political Conflict and the Martial Arts
In social conflict, martial arts emerge not only as direct confrontations, but
particularly in politically stratified situations (e.g., in colonial contexts) op-
pressed groups commonly employ martial arts to confront oppressors sym-
bolically. In such cases martial arts have been utilized to support sociopo-
litical action pursued by subordinated groups. Such strategies draw on both
indigenous combative traditions and newly synthesized systems as focal
points for resistance. Examples of the former are provided by the Chinese
Boxer Rebellion (1900), the fugitive slave resistance of the Brazilian
macambos(nineteenth century), Okinawan opposition to Japanese Sat-
suma domination (seventeenth–nineteenth centuries), and Indonesian re-
sistance to Dutch colonization (eighteenth–twentieth centuries). The latter
strategy emerges in modern taekwondo and Vovinam-Viet Vo Dao.
The martial traditions in the first category share common elements:
indigenous origins that promote ethnic pride, a belief in the superiority of
their techniques to competing systems (particularly those of the dominant
group), notions of elitism within an oppressed ethnic group, the belief in
the ability to magically generate power that confers invulnerability and in-
vincibility, and a body of oral tradition that substantiates claims as to ori-
gins and efficacy. The catalyst for their symbolic deployment in cultural
conflict comes with the perception of a politically dominated status.
Responses to sociocultural disorganization that culminate in move-
ments to regenerate traumatized populations and synthesize new world-
views have been labeled by Anthony F. C. Wallace as cultural revitalization
movements. The revitalization response may be triggered by various forms
of stress; however, in the cases considered here the stress is political (e.g.,
military invasion, economic hegemony). While such movements are, essen-
tially, politically motivated, their trappings are most often spiritual/reli-
gious. Frantz Fanon notes that when a people want to regain a sense of self-
worth they return to ancient religions and creation myths in order to
validate cultural or political resistance. Martial arts practitioners often
claim that their esoteric martial traditions have their origins in the remote
legendary, or even mythic, past. This feature of martial arts lends itself to
revitalization strategies. Finding solutions for current pressures in terms of
past events provides a point of cohesion for oppressed people.
Moreover, in the majority of cases of cultural revitalization (whether
they seek a return to a past “golden age” or a new world order) there is the
implementation of a special ethnic or religious identity (often as a means of
directly confronting stereotypes imposed by dominant groups) for purposes
of unification. These ethnic and religious identities engender feelings of elit-
ism among the subordinated group and create a debased image of the dom-
Political Conflict and the Martial Arts 435