Seeing that humans had chosen hunting as one of their first methods of living, far before settlement, it seems natural that we as a species have all developed a kind of a warrior tradition. There has yet to be a human society/civilization/group without any kind of military power, and as much as we prefer peace even now, warriors have never failed to be given recognition and praise.
even before we could talk, we held weapons
Our warrior traditions are evident even in our historical understanding of our species. We divide our ‘recent’ history largely into four (or five) segments. The Paleolithic Age, Neolithic Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and arguably now it is the Silicon/Internet/Technology/et. al Age. How did we decide when one age had come after the other? Yes, through the development of tools, but what tools were they? Primarily weapons. When it became evident that those civilizations with iron weapons had become dominant over those with bronze weaons, our historians declared the dawn of the Iron Age. We are, whether you want it or not, a millitant species.
Always fighting with each other, it may be natural that our societies have developed their own ways to raise and value their warriors. Especially with the dawn of movies and other mass medias today, we are flooded with images of warriors, just look at the number of superhero movies in a year!
from the movie "Batman Begins"
One of the elements that seem prevalent in warrior tradition today, is sexiness and exposure. Just check out the next two clips, regardless of the time frame and gender, we find that the warriors only put on minimal clothes.
I personally enjoyed both movies a lot, but when it comes to the realness of the portrayals of these two movies, I am going to have to ask some questions. Especially with 300, it is a reknown historical fact (as noted down by the ancient Greeks themselves) that one of the major reasons the Spartans could hold off the Persians was due to the superior and complete armour the Spartans had. In the movie, our Spartan heroes show off their pecs and abs while chopping off the heads of an army of Immortals fully clad in armour. Much more dramatic, sensual, and fun, sure, but gives off the wrong image? yes.
Nature also has a close relationship with warrior tradition. Although more strongly portrayed in the Eastern traditions, even in western traditions a true warrior must learn to encorporate himself/herself with nature, and must be able to use it to his/her benefit. Well portrayed in the clip below (watch from the 2 minute mark, from Pathfinder)
The relationship between a warrior and nature is even more relevant in Eastern cultures, widely represented by Chinese martial arts. A key element in Eastern warriorhood and martial arts is the usage of ‘chi’. ‘Chi’ is the concept of natural energy flowing in every living thing, it is essential that an Eastern warrior learns to control his/her ‘chi’, and in exceptional cases, even use the ‘chi’ of other living things around him/her.
you can even play super soccer when you master your 'chi'
Another link nature and warrior tradition evident in Eastern culture is the different ‘forms.’ In Eastern martial arts, the different forms of fighting are imitations or derived from different animals. There is a direct link, as eash form takes the natural offense/defense/characters of the different animals into the fighting styles. For example, the ‘turtle form’ would be heavily focused on the defensive aspects, where as the ‘tiger form’ would be much more offensive.
Despite the vast variety of cultures, the warrior tradition has taken a similar path of development, an interesting commonality we may often overlook. Is it a testament to the general nature of human character and the development of society? It seems like, it just may be so.
