More gray areas, but personally, I'd steer RBSD discussions to the Armory (which is also the official self defense forum) and Kajukenbo threads to the Kenpo, Kali and Kajukenbo forum.

Western.

So is Dambe a WMA?!?

no ****, good show Ddlr!! I say! what-what


can we start with the most EPIC of WMA practicioners?
http://www.pythonline.com/files/pythonline/images/john%20viking.preview.jpg

Aye!
This should be interesting. I'm really hoping for some good discussions after so many of us bitching about making this forum.

Where does weaponry discussion go? On one hand it seems to fit into the armory, but there is such a connection between WMAs and how their weapons were designed that it seems like another grey area (for example why the Bowie knife became popular over the Arkansas toothpick).

Also, kudos on the bull with the tophat. Very gentlemanly.

I imagine if it's a weapon in the context of its use in a WMA, it belongs here.

So is Dambe a WMA?!?

Nope. African styles are way cool, but not "Western" in the sense we're aiming for here.

Aye!
This should be interesting. I'm really hoping for some good discussions after so many of us bitching about making this forum.

Where does weaponry discussion go? On one hand it seems to fit into the armory, but there is such a connection between WMAs and how their weapons were designed that it seems like another grey area (for example why the Bowie knife became popular over the Arkansas toothpick).

Also, kudos on the bull with the tophat. Very gentlemanly.

Weaponry topics (assuming we're talking swords, Euro-style stick weapons, etc.) could fit equally well into the Armory or here; I guess it will be up to the individual poster.

Nope. African styles are way cool, but not "Western" in the sense we're aiming for here.
WHERE'S MY AFRICAN MARTIAL ARTS FORUM?

I could tell you what I had to do for Phrost to get this one up and running, but there might be children reading - shudder -

Alright, African MAs don't belong here. What about Capoeira? It's derived from Africa, but much of it's history is in Brazil. Sorry if this is a silly question. Not really.

The genesis of this forum was that a couple of us were quietly agitating for a General MA Forum that would allow more-or-less serious discussion of non-mainstream styles, which hitherto often ended up in YMAS by default. I'd still like to see something like that, but in that this is what we've ended up with, the WMA Forum has to draw lines in the sand to avoid becoming a catch-all "everything not Asian" forum.

Capoeira is way cool, has a really colorful and interesting history and unfortunately IMO would not be on-topic for this forum. Even if we counted Brazil as honorary "Europe" (via Portuguese settlement), Capoeira is a product of transplanted African culture(s) through centuries of organic evolution in South America; the actual Portuguese influence on Capoeira is minimal, other than language, etc.

Further on the "is XXXXXX on-topic?" discussion, I think it makes sense to be guided by culture and history rather than geography. For example, whereas New Zealand was settled by Europeans about two hundred years ago, and modern New Zealand culture is largely "Western", the indigenous and still-practiced martial arts of the Maori people (who settled the same country about six hundred years earlier) would not be on-topic for this forum; they are Polynesian styles. Likewise, for example, Native American fighting styles.