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- Title
I Did Not Return a Master, But Well Cudgeled Was I: The Role of 'Body Techniques' in the Transmission of Venezuelan Stick and Machete Fighting.
- Authors
Ryan, Michael J.
- Abstract
This article looks at the way that bodily attributes are cultivated and disciplined in the process of being recognized as a member of a restricted social group. This study took place in northwestern Venezuela, and looks at the role of stick, machete, and knife fighting as it has been refined and transmitted by a group of men. Following a description of the different contexts where these local armed combative methods (known collectively as 'Garrote de Lara') developed, this article suggests that stepping and seeing are not merely physical attributes, but 'body techniques,' or technical and efficient ways of looking at, moving through and belonging to a world. Where contingent historical and ecological factors shape a community's traditional habitual responses toward acts of interpersonal violence.
- Subjects
VENEZUELA; MACHETES; KNIFE fighting; SELF-defense; SOCIAL groups
- Publication
Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Anthropology, 2011, Vol 16, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1935-4932
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1935-4940.2011.01122.x