Limits of Understanding in the Study of Lost Martial Arts

Abstract

The paper is organised around the notion of embodied technique. The recent attempts to formulate scientific methodologies for the reconstruction of medieval fighting techniques based on a study of premodern fight books raise questions about the epistemological status of these (re)constructed techniques developed by modern practitioners of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA).

Keywords

• martial arts studies
• cultural history
• cultures of fighting
• martial arts
• fighting system
• embodied knowledge
• embodiment
• technique
• Ben Spatz
• tacit knowing
• Michael Polanyi
• mediality
• hermeneutics of movement