Warrior Dreams The Martial Arts and the American Imagination

Subjects:

• Anthropology » Cultural Anthropology
• Popular Culture » Popular Culture (General)

Reviews:

• Based on evidence drawn from participatory-observation and secondary readings, Donohue argues that the myths, symbols, and organizations of the martial arts met various psychic needs and addressed basic human issues such as power, control, and identity. The martial arts offer through their symbols, historic traditions, and (inefficient) techniques of self-defense a sense of security and control, community, and a moral guide to action. Chapters include a cross-cultural analysis of martial systems, a brief history of Asian martial arts, an analysis of how the arts were adapted to fit US warrior myths, an anthropological study of the US Dojo, and an examination of US fascination with the mysterious (quasi-religious) masters.
  —Choice

• Endorsement From
  Jesse Goodman, Associate Professor
  Indiana University: This book represents an example of the potential power imbedded in scholarship freed from the unimaginative and ritualistic stodginess of conventional research protocols. It clearly demonstrates the way in which this emerging scholarship can be both personal and intellectual, practical and conceptual. Although much of the book is situated within a feminist context, it should not be thought of as a volume just for women educators. As a man, I found it engaging and relevant to my own experiences as a teacher, scholar, parent, and student of education. Like the authors, its audience will be a diverse collection of individuals. I recommend it for preservice and inservice teachers, graduate students in education, sociology, and womens studies, school administrators, and academic researchers.

Table of Contents:

• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Introduction
• Warrior Dreams
• Form and Function: Martial Systems in Cross-Cultural Perspective
• The Asian Martial Arts: Just So and Just-So Stories
• Martial Skills, Marginality and Moral Force: Mythic Dimensions in the Image of the American Warrior
• Tradition, Adaptation, and Elaboration: The American Dojo
• Mystery and Mastery: The Added Dimension in the Martial Arts
• The Search for a Center
• Wave People
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index