Eighteen chapters written by scholars and practitioners of martial arts, as well as scholars in sociology and anthropology, examine martial arts from around the world as social tools in which their original practitioners were responding to altered physical, social, and psychological environments. The book also examines how practitioners have responded to such stimuli such as feminism, globalism, imperialism, militarism, nationalism, slavery, and the commercialization of sport. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)