We explain what bullfighting is, its history, the cultural manifestations it encompasses and why it is criticized.
What is bullfighting?
Bullfighting is a typically Spanish ancestral tradition, although with identifiable roots in various Western peoples that go back to the Bronze Age, which consists of a series of shows, celebrations and rites that in one way or another have a bull as the protagonist.
The term bullfighting, in fact, comes from the Greek roots taurus (“Bull”) and makhe ("struggle"), although it does not appear in any surviving classical text. This makes many assume it is a cultism created in the 19th century to refer to a tradition ancestral, that already in ancient times the bull was seen as a symbol of bravery and animal strength against which human beings could be measured.
In fact, the bull is the protagonist of numerous myths Greco-Roman, in particular the one that starred the minotaur, a half-man, half-bull creature that lived in the center of a labyrinth in the Greek city of Knossos.
Understood in this way, bullfighting encompasses numerous cultural manifestations. However, today it has its main exponent in the so-called bullfight or bullfight.
This show originated in 18th century Spain, takes place in a bullring, where different actors (called bullfighters, banderilleros, picadores, matadors, etc.) face a brave bull and perform a series of pirouettes around it called “luck”, throughout a task that traditionally culminates with the public death of the bull.
Around these shows there is a whole popular culture, which includes feasts, costumes and the making of posters, to the point that bullfighters are considered a profession.
Although this is its most popular expression, bullfighting also encompasses other typically Iberian traditions such as the San Fermín festivals or San Fermin, in which a group of bulls is released and the participants must run in front of them along a delimited path.
Bullfighting in the modern world is considered a typically Hispanic element, although it also has a presence in Portugal and the south of France. It was exported in colonial times to numerous countries in America where it is still preserved today, including Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. Bullfights have also been held in countries such as China, the United States or the Philippines.
Criticism of bullfighting
Criticism of bullfighting and, in particular, of bullfighting, come from the sectors of animal protection or defense of the animal rights, who accuse these practices of being cruel to the bulls, who are punished for hours before being killed, all for the mere entertainment of the public.
In particular, the use of sharp weapons, banderillas and swords with which the animal that is "faenada" (that is, mocked, handled) by the bullfighter is rejected. There are also those who defend the historical and cultural importance of bullfighting, alleging that the bull's suffering is minimal or that after it dies it is used in the local cuisine.