History and Practice of Martial Arts

Catalog description

History and Practice of Martial Arts, is an integrative, interdomain (GH, GHW) course. It examines the history of martial arts in which students will learn both about the origins, development, and diffusion of martial arts dating to China in the late 6th century and how it morphed and spread to different cultures including but not limited to Okinawa, Japan, Korea, the United States, Brazil, and Europe. Students will understand the philosophical bases of the martial arts as a mode of thinking combining the mental, physical, and spiritual well-being of the practitioner. For the health & wellness (GHW) portion students will also be introduced to a particular martial art (whatever the choice/specialty of the course instructor). While martial arts date to the late 500s C.E., many martial arts, like Korean Tae Kwon Do for instance, developed as a nationalistic martial art in Korea only in 1955 influenced by and becoming a synthesis of native Korean martial arts, Japanese karate, and Chinese Kung Fu. Other martial arts have similar evolutions. It's a classic product of trans-cultural influences at a particular moment in time given the histories of Korea, Japan, and the region. Examination for this will be done in class through a physical demonstration of skills for belt promotions.