LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF BULLFIGHTING AND SOCIETAL CONTEXT IN COLOMBIA (original) (raw)

A Critique of Mario Vargas Llosa's Putative Justifications of Bullfighting

Journal of Animal Ethics, 2021

The Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa praises the legal protection of bullfighting by a Peruvian law that prohibits the torture of animals except in the case of cultural traditions, such as bullfighting and cockfighting. He claims that his defense of bullfighting follows from his liberal point of view and advances three reasons in favor of its preservation: It is a tradition, it is a fine art, and the individuals should be constitutionally free to choose what to see and where to go. I argue that his arguments are morally irrelevant and logically unsound.

"Playing with the Bull": Breeding, Blood, and Ritual in Multispecies Ethnography of Peruvian Bullfighting

The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, 2022

Turupukllay is a popular form of bullfighting in Peru that unfolds over several days. Social analysis of turupukllay has largely focused on the symbolic dimension of its most sensational form, Yawar Fiesta, in which a condor is affixed to the back of the bull. But regarding these animals merely as symbols results in a limited sense of "play," particularly given how turupukllay encompasses the bull as a life-form. Based on fieldwork in Andagua, Peru, we argue that playing with the bull is more extensive: turupukllay can be seen as playing with tauromaquia broadly-the art, life, and regulation of Spanish style bullfighting. In Andagua, turupukllay plays with the bull through local breeding practices that physically transform it while also engaging in an ongoing burlesque of the formal features in tauromaquia. This version of turupukllay highlights an ongoing historical dynamic at play in the wide popularity of corrida de toros in Peru. [Turupukllay, Yawar Fiesta, Andes, José Arguedas, bovine idiom, castas] R e s u m e n: El turupukllay es una forma popular de toreo en Perú que se desarrolla durante varios días. Su análisis social se ha centrado en gran medida en la dimensión simbólica de su forma más sensacional, la Yawar fiesta, en la que se coloca un cóndor en el lomo del toro. Pero considerar a estos animales solo desde lo simbólico limita el "juego", pues el turupukllay comprende al toro como ser viviente. Con base en el trabajo de campo en Andagua, Perú, argumentamos que jugar con el toro es más extenso: el turupukllay puede entenderse como jugar con la tauromaquia en general, el arte, la vida y la regulación de la tauromaquia española. En Andagua, el turupukllay juega con el toro a través de prácticas de cría locales que lo transforman físicamente mientras se involucra al mismo tiempo en una continua parodia de las características formales de la tauromaquia. Esta versión del turupukllay destaca la dinámica histórica en juego en la gran popularidad de la corrida de toros en Perú. [Turupukllay, Yawar fiesta, Andes, José Arguedas, lenguaje bovino, castas]

Cultural Identity, Tradition, and the Ritual Killing of Bulls – a Note on a Recent Decision of the French Constitutional Council on the Legality of Bullfighting

Obiter, 2021

In a recent two-part article in this journal, the authors of this note analysed the controversy surrounding the ritual bull-killing which takes place during the Ukweshwama “first fruits” ceremony held each year in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. While much of the Ukweshwama ceremony is uncontroversial, the ritual killing of a bull by young Zulu warriors with their bare hands attracted strong opposition from certain animal-rights groups, which resulted in legal action and public controversy. The authors attempted to disentangle the different legal, historical, political and philosophical strands which combined to make up a complex story about the place of ancient rituals in the modern world, particularly those involving animal sacrifice. They also attempted to situate the controversy around the Ukweshwama bull-killing ritual within a contemporary global context, by comparing and contrasting the Zulu bull-killing ceremony on the one hand, and Spanish bullfighting on the other. T...