Silat: Art, Magic and Performance

Anthropologists have called for a rethinking of magic, witchcraft and sorcery (Kapferer 2003; Meyer and Pels 2003; Wiener 2004). Similarly, Townsend (2004) calls for reconfiguration of definitions of shamanism. My work resonates with calls to rethink magic, sorcery, and shamanism, but from the perspective of Malay mysticism embodied in silat. I contend that the guru silat should be examined as the predominant type of Malay magician, where war magic encapsulates elements of shamanism, sorcery and Sufi Islam. Here I begin to situate the guru silat and the practice of silat firmly within Malay cosmology and explore the ramifications of such an insertion for anthropological theory.¹ This requires a discussion of war magic, a terrain that I reclaim from the perspective of martial arts.