La concezione Weberiana del carisma: il caso delle arti marziali

While Weber implicates the body in his descriptions of charismatic qualities and actions it is surprisingly underdeveloped in his own work on the sociology of religion. However, perhaps more surprising is that, while a range of classic sociological theory has been considerably recast in light of the generally agreed ‘re- emergence of the body’ in sociological thinking over the past two decades, the concept of charisma has, been largely neglected. This paper starts to redress these lacunae by revisiting several key characteristics of Weber’s sociology of charisma that strongly imply embodiment. It argues that an embodied perspective of charisma is a significant channel of inter-corporeal communication through which (religious) leadership and forms of continuity and change are enacted and maintained over time. In illustrating this argument the paper draws on empirical illustrations taken from the examples of Jigoro Kano (1860-1938 : Founder of Judo), Morihei Ueshiba : 1883-1969 : Founder of Aikido) and Bruce Lee (1940-1973 : Founder of Jeet Kune Do). These have been selected for the varied insights each has to offer the idea of embodied charisma. In conclusion the paper reflects on how a more developed idea of embodied charisma might be useful in providing a renewed focus for the sociological study of established, new and also what we refer to as emerging ‘secular’ religions of which martial culture is a prime example.