When one first thinks of Spanish culture, it’s likely that its beautiful architecture, unique music style, or some other prominent feature comes to mind. Perhaps one of the most well-known—yet misunderstood—aspects of the culture of Spain is the traditional Spanish bullfight. People from all over the world flock to the largest cities in Spain to observe what they consider to be one of the greatest customs of the nation, yet most of them have very little idea of just how much historical, cultural, and symbolic meaning lies beneath its surface.
For many years, it was thought that bullfighting was a relatively new practice, yet in recent decades, there have been discoveries linking the practice all the way back to primitive cultures that existed nearly 2500 years ago. Pictures of bullfights have been found in Knossos, Greece, and it is thought that the Greek mythological figure, Theseus, may have been the …show more content…
Today the practice has evolved into bull dodging, in which many of the traditional techniques of bullfighting are performed, but the bull is not killed. In Cathryn Bailey’s work in Ethics and the Environment (2007), when interviewing a protester in Spain about why bullfighting was still practiced, the protester asserted, “Bullfighting is as pervasive in Spain as baseball in the U.S., and bullfighters claim the same celebrity status as do sports stars here. But Spain honors cruelties that are unthinkable in the U.S.” In 2000, the Superior Court of Madrid affirmed this, ruling that bullfighting was both lawful and culturally significant, stating that it represents “the ancestral struggle between man and beast with deep roots in our country, a mix of courage, knowledge, and skill on the part of man against the spirit and fierce aggressiveness of the animal.” (Bailey,