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| General Information |
Historical European Martial Arts is an international movement of martial arts practitioners interpreting documentation of the past related to European martial arts. The core element of HEMA’s identity is its relationship to a written corpus concerning a variety of martial arts traditions which are supposedly extinct. The written accounts of European martial arts used as main primary sources for HEMA communities are the fight books, a subgenre of technical literature appearing from the late Middle Ages onwards.As a label, HEMA is used to separate itself from modern sports emerging from traditional practices (such as fencing, wrestling, boxing) or from sports or cultural organisations promoting traditional combat sports as distinctive of their other major counterparts (such as alpine wrestling, Portuguese jogo de pau, French savate and others). |
| History/Development |
The HEMA movement spread in the beginning of the 21st century, with roots in the last decades of the twentieth century. However, other periods of revival of past martial arts can be traced earlier. In the mid-16th century Paulus Hector Mair (martial arts revival pioneer, author of a fight book, as well as a collector of arms, armour and fight books) explicitly states in his two-volume work that he attempts to document and revive past martial arts.
Different elements lie at the root of this revival:
- The changes caused by the industrial revolution increased interest in popular culture in the second half of the 18th century.
- From the late 19th century onwards, the Olympic movement’s ideas developed a new conception of sports. The history of sports appeared as a field of research.
- Around the same time Asian martial arts were imported to Europe. Diverse mechanisms of acculturation or rejection led scholars and martial arts practitioners to revive past traditions of European martial arts.
With the World Wars, the rise of mechanical warfare and the spread of modern combat sports (mainly fencing and wrestling) the revival of European martial arts saw an interruption in the 20th century.
Most of the pioneer groups evolved and increased in size since the early 21st century. Many new groups appeared in the last ten years |
Transmission
(Policies/institutions) |
Several HEMA communities are aiming to promote their activities from a cultural perspective. The usual output of such endeavours is the organisation of public displays of HEMA activities with cultural festivals or museums.
HEMA communities and federations in different countries research and pass on their knowledge and skills regarding historical European martial arts. |
| Relevant Organisations |
- Historical European Martial Arts Coalition (HEMAC)
- International Federation of HEMA (IFHEMA)
- HEMA Alliance (HEMAA)
- Hellenic Federation of Historical European Martial Arts
- Swiss Federation for Historical European Martial Arts (SWISS HEMA)
- French Federation of Historical European Martial Arts (FFAMHE)
- Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts (AEMMA) |
| Additional Materials |
- https://hroarr.com/
- AEMMA library http://www.aemma.org/content/library_startPage.php |
| References |
- Jaquet, D., Tuaillon Demésy, A. and Tzouriadis, I. (2020). Historical European Martial Arts: An Overview, Chungju: ICM. | | |
