Bullfighting is a reprehensible spectacle. Cockfighting is far, far worse. The former is bathed in art, history and high culture, while the latter....well, the latter just needs a good bath. Both are bathed in blood, no doubt, and both result in death.
A week at a bullfighting feria in Madrid did little to change my mind, having to admit that I was trying to recreate the sepia photographs from Hemingway's "Death in the Afternoon." There is something undeniably majestic and eerily hypnotic about the corridas de toros, which are covered on the arts pages and not the sports section. It is far more dance performance than athletic competition, since the bull stands no chance. It's horrible, but who am I as a gringa to push that case too far?
Cockfightng on the other hand is truly ghastly, especially when a pleasant group of old men buys you -- you guessed it, beer and fried chicken -- to enjoy while watching two birds peck each other to death on a steamy night in San Juan. It was all sponsored by Marriott Hotels, too, which would make for an interesting Board Room discussion there.
In his study of the Balinese cockfighting culture, Clifford Geertz wrote compellingly of the spectacle:
"In the cockfight, man and beast, good and evil, ego and id, the creative power of aroused masculinity and the destructive power of loosened animality fuse in a bloody drama of hatred, cruelty, violence and death." Indeed!
Reference
Geertz, C. (1973). Deep play: Notes on the Balinese cockfight. The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.
A week at a bullfighting feria in Madrid did little to change my mind, having to admit that I was trying to recreate the sepia photographs from Hemingway's "Death in the Afternoon." There is something undeniably majestic and eerily hypnotic about the corridas de toros, which are covered on the arts pages and not the sports section. It is far more dance performance than athletic competition, since the bull stands no chance. It's horrible, but who am I as a gringa to push that case too far?
Cockfightng on the other hand is truly ghastly, especially when a pleasant group of old men buys you -- you guessed it, beer and fried chicken -- to enjoy while watching two birds peck each other to death on a steamy night in San Juan. It was all sponsored by Marriott Hotels, too, which would make for an interesting Board Room discussion there.
In his study of the Balinese cockfighting culture, Clifford Geertz wrote compellingly of the spectacle:
"In the cockfight, man and beast, good and evil, ego and id, the creative power of aroused masculinity and the destructive power of loosened animality fuse in a bloody drama of hatred, cruelty, violence and death." Indeed!
Reference
Geertz, C. (1973). Deep play: Notes on the Balinese cockfight. The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.