Where did Martial Arts originate from?

[Dobbersky]

There were civilized and intelligent humans of the modern type wandering around for thousands of years inventing things and codifying things before Sumeria. Two thousand years from now, when all our digital and paper media have decayed into uselessness and all our buildings have crumbled into piles of dust, our civilization is going to look awfully ignorant, and people will probably assume we were all uneducated cavemen who clearly didn't have the mental capacity to do anything so complex as codify a martial arts system.

Solid Post!!!

or it could reverse due to the final World War 3 where all electronics were destroyed etc by Radiation and we went back to a Middle Aged existance!

[Open minded]

I read once most of MA come from mimicking the yoga moves inside the shaolin temples to a fighting art so it could be from yoga, never know

No one actually knows this answer

The best things in life are the ones that can't be explained

[JusticeZero]

Yoga is quite new, though, and a lot of martial arts either predate it or come from places that were never exposed to it. The oldest things we know of typically come from Egypt; that isn't because Egypt was an amazing civilization though, it comes from the fact that Egypt liked to write things down on pieces of rock and bury them in big sealed structures in a very arid climate. Civiizations had been rising, flourishing, and falling for a long time before Egypt.

[Open minded]

I didn't know yoga was that new something new I've learned. But I did say I didn't know this answer I just used the chance to make another post.

Hi you again well at least you know your stuff can't knock you from that any way what MA do you actually do?

Did you read that up or internet or what?

[Dobbersky]

Yoga is the non-combatant form of Kalaripyattu, from India

[JusticeZero]

I'm an Angoleiro - Capoeira Angola Palmares (which is like saying "Gongfu Southern Hung Gar"); listed under my name. I tend not to just take things I see "on the internet" at face value, since that could do bad things to my career (in the 'gross incompetence' category) but I have some general historical perspective on things.

But yes, Yoga originates out of India, not China, which is a very different place. There is a fallacy that a lot of people who haven't ever been to any of these places or studied much about them have, where they sort've let them blend together. Different parts of Asia aren't different in the way that California and Washington State are different, it's more like confusing Mexican food as coming from Quebec.

One of the last times I was in fear for my life was when a woman in a taiji class noted that she was from Georgia (the country, not the southeastern state of the U.S.A.) and the only thing I could remember about it was that it was in the area formerly held by the USSR. I'm pretty sure that I would have considered myself fortunate to only get a bloody nose had there not been some other people around. Just because it's close doesn't mean it's similar. Learning something Chinese to get close to Indian culture is like trying to learn more about the culture of Greece by wearing a kilt and drinking tea.

[MasterPain]

I think the confusion stems from the legends of Bodhidharma coming from India to teach Buddhism in China, and bringing Indian martial arts with him.

[bushido_man96]

I think the confusion stems from the legends of Bodhidharma coming from India to teach Buddhism in China, and bringing Indian martial arts with him.

Agreed. This unproven legend (not proven fact) has also created a kind of monopoly on the whole creation of Martial Arts, and the perception that all Martial Arts come from the Far East. You'd be surprised to learn of the number of people out there that wouldn't constitute styles like Boxing and Wrestling as "Martial Arts," because they didn't come from the Far East. A constant source of irritation to me...

[shinka]

Where and who started martial arts..... so easy

Chuck Norris .... He's 200000 y.o and still kicking mouhahahahaha

[Harkon72]

I think it was when man picked up a rock and threw it, then picked up another to try and improve on his aim.