Bulls, Bullfighting, and Spanish Identities

by Douglass, Carrie B.

• ISBN13: 9780816516520
• ISBN10: 0816516529
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-06-01
• Publisher: Univ of Arizona Pr

Summary

The matador flourishes his cape, the bull charges, the crowd cheers:this is the image of Spain best known to the world. But while the bull has long been a symbol of Spanish culture, it carries more meaning than has previously been recognized. In this book, anthropologist Carrie B. Douglass views bulls and bullfighting as a means of discussing fundamental oppositions in Spanish society and explains the political significance of those issues for one of Europe's most regionalized countries. In talking about bulls and bullfighting, observes Douglass, one ends up talking not only about differences in region, class, and politics in Spain but also about that country's ongoing struggle between modernity and tradition. She relates how Spaniards and outsiders see bullfighting as representative of a traditional, irrational Spain contrasted with a more civilized Europe, and she shows how Spaniards' ambivalence about bullfighting is actually a way of expressing ambivalence about the loss of traditional culture in a modern world. To fully explore the symbolism of bulls and bullfighting, Douglass offers an overview of Spain's fiesta cycle, in which the bull is central. She broadly and meticulously details three different fiestas through ethnographic fieldwork conducted over a number of years, delineating the differences in festivals held in different regions. She also shows how a cycle of these fiestas may hold the key to resolving some of Spain's fundamental political contradictions by uniting the different regions of Spain and reconciling opposing political camps--the right, which holds that there is one Spain, and the left, which contends that there are many. Bulls, Bullfighting, and Spanish Identitiesis an intriguing study of symbolism used to examine the broader anthropological issues of identity and nationhood. Through its focus on the political discourse of bulls and bullfighting, it makes an original contribution to understanding not only Spanish politics but also Spain's place in the modern world.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vii
List of Tables	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 3
"The Bulls" in Spain	p. 15
The Bull and Bull Festivals	p. 17
"Mental Constructions" of "Spain"	p. 46
From Rented Cows to Virgin Bulls: Relations between the Various Fiestas Taurinas	p. 66
Modernity: The Bulls and Europe	p. 89
The Bull that Ravished Europa	p. 91
Tradition: The Bulls and Regional Identity	p. 117
The Fiesta Cycle	p. 119
The North: Semana Grande in Bilbao	p. 140
The South: Feria de Abril in Sevilla	p. 160
"Spain" Resolved: Las Fiestas de San Fermin in Pamplona	p. 181
Conclusion	p. 206
Notes	p. 213
Literature Cited	p. 229
Index	p. 239
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.