I'd like to look at combat like this...
Firstly, it's a violent physical conflict (usually) between humans.
This can be further divided into Social and Predatory violence. Social violence includes sport fighting, defending one's ego, duels, drunken brawls over petty insults, fighting over a girl (or a man), etc. In contrast, Predatory violence is hunting down a deer, jumping an unsuspecting victim, putting down two bad guys in a firefight, fucking up a mugger who attacks you, hacking up a man with a machete, etc. There are definitely overlaps and grey areas but the dividing line is intent. The intention of Social violence is to ascend rank, assert control, defend honor, express emotions, and prevent the ego from harm via violent means. The intention of Predatory violence or the defense against it is to incapacitate and or kill the enemy. Fuck the pacifists, human beings have both ingrained in our DNA. Man fought, and continues to fight, for glory, money, honor, ego, women, social standing, etc. Man killed, and continues to kill, for food, wealth, protection, offense, etc.
Fighting is in our blood.
Let's not shit on the pacifists too much. Yes, we as humans, perhaps only for the better cohesion of social groups, have some beautiful and extremely virtuous aspects to our psyche. Yet, we all have the penchant for violence when pushed far enough - some of us don't need much of a push, and some need to see family and friends in grave danger - but the latent capacity for violence is there. Don't let someone tell you that martial arts is about peace and harmony - its purpose is to give you a set of principles and skills that allow you to be a more effective and efficient combatant - combat being violent. However, many fighting societies and cultures have put in place rules to prevent skilled fighters from going out and selfishly hurting or killing others... be this the Knight's Code of Chivalry, or Bushido, or the Geneva Convention, or whatever... just a thought.
..and another point.
We use weapons.
I like weapons. They allow anyone to do more damage than normally possible. You'd think if we spent the last 100,000 years ONLY using our bodies for combat, we'd have sharper knuckles, harder temples, and tougher ribs... honestly, since man became man, we used stone tools and sticks... and if you look at today's melee weapons, they seem MOSTLY descended from the stick and the blade. A doubled edged knife is a dagger, a long long dagger is a two edged sword, a long single edged blade is a machete, make it longer it's a saber or some sort of chopper. tilt it downwards and it's a kukri or kopis, curve it down and it becomes a falx or billhook or aruval. Give it a longer handle and its a glaive, or da-dao, or katana. Similarly with the stick, give it a weighted head it's a club - make that weight sharpened and it's an ax. Make it longer, a cane, and longer still, a staff. Give that staff a blade, it's a spear. Give that spear an ax head as well and it's a polearm or halberd. There are myriad variations. At one point, javelins, atlatls, bows, and crossbows were primary ranged weapons - for hunting animals, four and two-legged. Today we also have air-powered and fire-powered guns, for hunting animals, four and two-legged. Artillery, bombs, jets, tanks, and choppers are mostly in government run militaries - which in most cases is a good thing. But anyways, our combat evolved with weapons, and weapons evolved with combat and technology.
Those are my thoughts on combat as a human practice. Much of this was formulated from reading the works of others, and some are connections I made myself. Feel free to comment, or simply to ponder and decide if you agree, disagree, would add more, or whatever...
