Bulls, Bullfighting, And Spanish Identities; Author: Douglass, Carrie B.; Paperback

Author: Douglass, Carrie B.
Anthropology of Form and Meaning; Paperback; Illustrated
Published: September 1999
University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816516529

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.Carrie 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, she observes, 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.