So many of the thread here have been about different types of warriors. (mostly samurai vs knight stuff) but there is an entire academic field dedicated to studying warriors and marital arts from the prospective of anthropology and history.
But while universities are constantly adding new courses and even phd programs in various subcultures this, arguably more important field has sadly remained small with only a few scholars practicing and teaching
So hoplology thread time.
http://www.hoplology.com/index.asp
>The IHS exists to study the evolution and development of human combative behavior. This study encompasses the segment of human culture concerned with weapons, armor, combative accouterments and fighting systems, in regard to their technical characteristics and the ways in which they interact with the economic, political, social and religious institutions of human societies.
>>863802
If you want to waste your time...
If you want to know about warfare(including historical) go to military college. They may have retarded doctrines like interdiction and other shit but it's still better than those half-assed biased "studies".
>>863849
explain how this stuff any more a waste of time than any other field in the humanities.
>>863870
Mostly because it gives you very, very focused and specific knowledge about things very few people care about and on top of it majority of this knowledge is based off retarded biases your profs had, since hard facts about let's say - historical fencing, are hard to get outside of Western Europe because elsewhere the art of fencing died, was poorly documented etc. etc. etc.
>>863900
Most of the humanities give you focused and specific knowledge very few people care about.
Furthermore many practical systems of sword and spear still exist. Donn Dreager for instance went across asia documenting systems in field. We can also compare these modern systems with records, marital arts texts, and compare their training weapons to surviving historical examples. All this can be done in a rather systematic manner.
And because such records and weapons exist all over the world, even if the arts have been lost, its a field which has areas to research throughout the globe. Even with all the work done in Japan they've only scratched the surface of many cultures, not to mention in depth comparisons
>>863926
>A martial arts based in spears.
I need this.
And one about falcatas.
>>863963
Most surviving lineages don't go back nearly that far.
Of course we can tell a lot about older ways of fighting from those surviving schools, there are only so many ways to use the human body functionally. But with only a few pieces of art from roman times to go by any reconstruction would be pretty much guess work
>>863849
I will add that military history only tells us the basics of how a weapon was used, often based on guess work by historians looking at it.
Studying weapons systems academically on the other hand can give us a much clearer picture, and provide practical knowledge for the construction of new modern systems of close combat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ejx6DVuV50
for instance most hoplolgists study martial arts themselves.
