Current Project

Alexus McLeod’s recent book, Myth and Identity in the Martial Arts (Lexington 2024), is a study of the role of myth in identity formation connected to the cultural role of the martial arts in history and modern society.

The book focuses on a variety of communities of practice involving the martial arts in various ways in East Asian and Western history. Alexus argues that myths of the martial arts should not be understood as “falsehoods” created as means of legitimizing modern practices, but should instead be understood as narratives that enable individuals and communities to formulate social identities and to accord meaning to their practices. The book covers six influential sources of myth and identity formation in the history of martial arts: early Chinese and Indian philosophy, the formation bushido thought in the Edo period of Japan, Republican-era Chinese conceptions of nationhood and physical culture, Western contributions and the innovations of Bruce Lee, African American conceptions of martial arts as a response to oppression in the twentieth century, and the contemporary ideologies of mixed martial arts.