Name: Premium
Brand: Storytel
SKU: 120015
Price: 129 DKK
Availability: InStock

T. J. Desch-Obi

A groundbreaking investigation into the migration of martial arts techniques across continents and centuries

The presence of African influence and tradition in the Americas has long been recognized in art, music, language, agriculture, and religion. T. J. Desch-Obi explores another cultural continuity that is as old as eighteenth-century slave settlements in South America and as contemporary as hip-hop culture. In this thorough survey of the history of African martial arts techniques, Desch-Obi maps the translation of numerous physical combat techniques across three continents and several centuries to illustrate how these practices evolved over time and are still recognizable in American culture today. Some of these art traditions were part of African military training while others were for self-defense and spiritual discipline.

Grounded in historical and cultural anthropological methodologies, Desch-Obi's investigation traces the influence of well-delineated African traditions on long-observed but misunderstood African and African American cultural activities in North America, Brazil, and the Caribbean. He links the Brazilian martial art capoeira to reports of slave activities recorded in colonial and antebellum North America. Likewise Desch-Obi connects images of the kalenda African stick-fighting techniques to the Haitian Revolution. Throughout the study Desch-Obi examines the ties between physical mastery of these arts and changing perceptions of honor.

Including forty-five illustrations, this rich history of the arrival and dissemination of African martial arts in the Atlantic world offers a new vantage for furthering our understanding of the powerful influence of enslaved populations on our collective social history.

University of South Carolina Press

Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World

Fighting for Honor: The History of African Martial Arts in the Atlantic World

Log ind med...

Log ind

Opret dig med...

Opret en konto

Indtast din kode

Listening Hours

Storytel

Med Premium får du 100 timers lytning og læsning hver måned, med adgang til et stort katalog af lydbøger og e-bøger.

Premium