Bulls, bullfighting, and Spanish identities
By: Carrie B. Douglass.
Series: The anthropology of form and meaning
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Tucson
Language: eng
Number of pages: 245
Subjects: National characteristics, Spanish; Fighting bull -- Spain; Bullfights -- Social aspects -- Spain; Spain -- Civilization
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-238) and index.
Table of contents: title: The bull and bull festivals; title: "Mental constructions" of "Spain"; title: From rented cows to virgin bulls : relations between the various fiestas taurinas; title: The bull that ravished Europa; title: Tradition : the bulls and regional identity; title: The fiesta cycle; title: The north : Semana Grande in Bilbao; title: The south : Feria de Abril in Sevilla; title: "Spain" resolved : las fiestas de San Fermín in Pamplona.