The Body and Senses in Martial Culture

H.L.L Loh, Lionel Loh Han Loong, H. L. L Loh

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781349718306
  9781137557414
• eBook ISBN:
  9781137557421
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Sociología

This ethnographic study of a mixed martial arts gym in Thailand describes the everyday practices and lived experiences of martial art practitioners. Through the lived realities and everyday experiences of these fighters, this book seeks to examine why foreigners invest their time and money to train in martial arts in Thailand; the linkages between the embodiment of martial arts and masculinity; how foreign bodies consume martial arts and what they get out of it; the sensory reconfiguration required of a fighter; and the impact of transnational flows on bodily dispositions and knowledge. The author argues that being a successful fighter entails not only sensitized awareness and knowledge of one's body, but also a reconfiguration of the senses.

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

H.L.L LohThe Body and Senses in Martial CulturePalgrave Studies in Globalization and Embodiment10.1057/978-1-137-55742-1_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Loh Han Loong Lionel¹

(1)

Singapore, Singapore

Abstract

As a case study of somatic cultures, this ethnographic study of a mixed martial arts (MMA) gym in Thailand examines the processes by which individuals come to embody particular bodily techniques and values. Of interest is the interrelationship between cultural understandings of bodily knowledge and the way individuals utilise their bodies. This chapter provides a conceptual understanding of this ethnographic study by examining the eclectic body of literature dealing with martial arts and the body, phenomenology and the senses, and sporting bodies and masculinities.

End Abstract

In Techniques of the Body, Mauss (2006) examines how culture mediates the way individuals come to think about the world vis-à-vis bodily knowledge and the way they utilise their bodies. As a case study of somatic cultures, this ethnographic study of a mixed martial arts (MMA) gym in Thailand examines the processes by which individuals come to embody particular bodily techniques and values. Since martial arts are often perceived to be an inherently masculine activity, maintaining and performing their identity as masculine fighters is often central to the men’s journey of embodying martial disciplines. Issues of masculinity and embodiment are closely intertwined in this ethnographic study and I detail how cultural norms and values are perpetuated and sustained through the gym’s daily regimes and the informal sanctions applied against those who fail to conform.

Given how this field site caters mainly to foreign men, I then deconstruct the men’s willingness to embark on a sojourn in Thailand in order to indoctrinate their body within a particular martial tradition. Martial arts can be said to be foreign to all bodies because in today’s contemporary milieu, martial arts is often not part of the everyday, few individuals are socialised into martial disciplines and acts of violence are not normalised. This is further exacerbated in the context of foreigners travelling to Thailand to learn Muay Thai, a martial art that is coloured with specific cultural and nationalistic overtones (Junlakan and Prayukvong 2001; Loh 2011; Toh 2002; Vail 1998). Transnational flows not only impact the discursive construction of martial arts and I will later illustrate how these transnational flows also facilitate the men’s quests and motivations to learn martial disciplines. Muay Thai has been gaining presence on the global stage (Bangkok Post 2008; Bohwongprasert 2003; Norjidi 2009; Thai News Service 2011; Yip 2011). The recently concluded 11th World Wai Kru Muay Thai Ceremony on 12 March 2015, which saw numerous competitors and Thai boxing enthusiasts from diverse countries such as the UK and Ukraine congregating in Thailand, reflects the increasing popularity of Muay Thai globally.

Through the lived realities and everyday experiences of these fighters, I seek to examine (1) why foreigners invest their time and money to train in martial arts in Thailand, (2) the linkages between the embodiment of martial arts and masculinity, (3) how foreign bodies consume martial arts and what they get out of it, (4) the sensory reconfiguration required of a fighter, and (5) the impact of transnational flows on bodily dispositions and knowledge. This phenomenon of transforming the body can be situated within a period of ontological anxiety where individuals, “becom[ing] responsible for the design of [their] bodies” (Giddens 1991, 102), engage in self-reflexive projects concerning their bodies and social selves. For Giddens, this anxiety arises from individuals being able to shape their own bodies, challenging preconceived boundaries of what the body can be. This implies a personal responsibility for the shape one is in, yet there is no fixed idea of the ideal form that should be attained. The men at the gym are expected to discipline their bodies, and failure to do so often results in sanctions. Featherstone’s (2007) concept of body projects is often used to explain a wide array of activities ranging from bodybuilding to cosmetic surgery (cf. Atkinson 2008; Brown and Graham 2008; Crossley 2006). For Featherstone, bodies are projects that require constant disciplining and work because the body is the symbolic edifice upon which identity formation occurs. Individuals engage in these body projects to create a sense of identity and find solidarity within particular somatic cultures. Similarly, within the literature on sports, the body, subjected to scientific discourses, becomes a relentless project for perfection and excellence (Bryson 1990; Konig 1995; Tuxill and Wigmore 1991; Voy 1991). A critique of conceptualising the body as a project is that it assumes that individuals embody rationality and fails to consider how the body is subjected to physiological limitations and affective dimensions (Shilling 2008). Through my informants’ narratives, I portray the tensions experienced by these men as they oscillate between scientific discourses, societal norms, and the limitations of the body.

In the subsequent section, I will outline the bodies of literature that provide theoretical insights into this localised phenomenon that has global linkages. The phenomenological tradition, reiterating the importance of the body and senses in somatic cultures, unifies the literature pertaining to masculinity and martial arts. Next, I will provide brief summaries of the subsequent chapters, sketching my theoretical arguments and its relationship to my research problematic.

Martial Arts and the Body

Tan (2008) succinctly summarises and charts the gradual development of academic interest in martial arts over the last few decades. He charts a chronological break between the period up to the 1990s and that from the 1990s to the present. He charges that in the former period, a majority of studies tended to “possess a fairly ahistorical, quantitative, positivistic and clinically-driven analysis of martial arts” (2008, 69) that failed to contextualise martial arts or pugilism as a microcosm that reflects different socio-cultural contexts, symbolism, and meanings that constitute the lived experiences of practitioners. The latter period, in which there is more qualitative and in-depth theorising of martial arts, is one in which numerous theorists have attempted to conceptualise and problematise martial arts in relation to anthropological and sociological enquiries, and have linked martial arts to other issues such as nationalism, politics, power, popular culture, ritual studies, and the body. Some keystone works include Donohue’s (1991) ethnographic study, The Forge of the Spirit: Structure, Motion, and Meaning in the Japanese Martial Tradition, in which a structural-functionalist approach was utilised to analyse Aikido, Judo, and Kendo. Donohue was interested here in how the ritual practices of these martial arts are metonymic of larger social and cultural values/norms. In another study, Warrior Dreams: The Martial Arts and the American Imagination, Donohue (1994a, b) highlights the myriad reasons why individuals consume martial arts. Some see it as a system of self-defence; others are drawn by its connections to popular culture or fantasy. This consumption, he argues, is linked to the “essentially emotional and aesthetic pull” (2002, 66) exerted by martial arts on individuals. For Donohue (1991, 1994a, b, 2002), the interest in foreign martial traditions stems not only from the sense of solidarity that martial arts creates amongst its practitioners but also because they can serve as a ritualistic performance that functions as a “shield against [the existential] terror [of uncertainty]” (Berger 1967, 22). These rituals give shape/framework to everyday life, providing individuals with discipline, mental fortitude, and opportunity to know themselves better.

The authors in Jones (2002) also took up this thread of exploring the performativity of martial arts. In terms of geographical coverage, until recently, more attention was paid to Japanese martial arts. Recent studies of non-Japanese martial arts include Indian martial arts (Alter 2002; Zarrilli 1998), Chinese martial arts (Alexander 2009; Holcombe 2002; Shahar 2008), boxing (Glogower 2009; Wacquant 1995, 1998, 2004, 2005), MMA (Van Bottenburg and Heilbron 2006; Downey 2007; Garcia, and Malcom 2010; Spencer 2009), Pencak Silat (Farrer 2009; Lee 2009), Capoeira (Delamont and Stephens 2006, 2008), and Muay Thai (Nur Amali 2001; Pattana 2005, 2007; Satterlund 2006; Toh 2002). Focusing on the effects of globalisation, the authors in Green and Svinth (2003) have also analysed some of the processes of modification and change that different martial arts have undergone.

Despite the increased attention being paid to martial arts, it must be recognised that there still remains a lacuna regarding martial arts within the sociology of sports (Van Bottenburg and Heilbron 2006; Garcia and Malcom 2010). Stu...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Frontmatter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Methodology
• 3. The Lived Realities at the Gym
• 4. Knowing Your Body
• 5. The Global Martial Circuit and Globalised Bodies
• 6. Conclusion
• Backmatter