This is a bit of a funny one, how should we see martial arts when looking at the phenomena through academic glasses? Should we see the importance of body mechanics or even the social relevance of the ceremony of training. It is unclear.
As a student of sociology I am constintly being told about culture and history with reference to a specific social point, like looking at feudalism or looking at evil. The process of imagination is a necessity as without a strong image in your mind it becomes difficult to make sense of the big words and the boring chapters that you put in front of you. I find it hard, and it is a process that i think every student should have to put up with.
I do believe that what we look at in social science can make a differnece to the way that we look and think about our social surroundings. I have taken a jump into the deep end with my dissertation by discussing the sociology of karate. Bearing in mind I have been a karateka much longer than a sociologists the process is long and difficult. I do however find myself having to overcome a number of obstacles, for example every book I read with reference to karate I have to read twice; firstly to appreciate and learn as a karate-ka and then secondly so that I can look at it like a sociologists. As you can imagine it takes a while.
I don't think people can appreciate the complexity of trying to understand society, I find its a never ending battle that will always result in more questions asked. But this is why we need to discover and keep at looking at our social surroundings, because it always change and its never in a solid state. The same applies to karate, the heart of karate is extremely complex, its not just people jumping around in white pyjamas kicking and punching the air it is however much interpersonal and deeper than some would like to think. From a sociologists point of view it is a phenomena. After looking at some hard to find theories of martial arts the actually social implications of karate is baffling, It has so many social connections that many of us (both sociologists and karate-ka) neglect to see. Karate does have a major impact on our social lives and also on the life of our society. All you have to do is view blogs, facebook pages and website to see how across the globe karate has a extremely big and encompassing community. This is why I call it a phenomena.
May I just take this time to say thank you to all that have read and contributed to this blog. I began this as a place to begin to post some of my ideas about the connections between karate and society, but as well as this I have found new avenues to gather information for my dissertation. Thanks.
Rant over, time to write more dissertation.
Osu
