Richard Jernigan -> RE: Tauromagia vid? (Feb. 16 2021 1:04:29)
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ORIGINAL: rasqeo77 No, both the bull and the child have intrinsic rights. We don’t have the right to treat them as utensils for our own selfish ends. The corrida in its classic form arose in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when the relationship of humans to animals was different from that of "civilized" people of the present day. Modern people in cities have nearly no relationship to animals, except for their pets. After my grandparents retired from the ranch and moved to San Antonio they had a sweet little dog I remember. But Grandpa, true to his rural ways, raised and fattened two turkeys each year, one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. He repeatedly warned one of my younger cousins not to befriend the birds. He did anyhow, and the holiday season was traumatic for him. One Christmas when Don was about six he was inconsolable at the dinner table. He wept incessantly as the turkey was carved, despite being cajoled or enjoined to cut it out. It didn't take Grandma long to figure out that Grandpa had been giving Don a little wine as Grandpa enjoyed a glass or two while dinner was being fixed. Grandpa was in the doghouse for days. In town, Grandma still kept chickens. Despite her airs of southern gentility, either she or the cook pursued the chicken to be fried for Sunday dinner, and chopped off its head with a sharp hatchet. These days city people buy and eat plenty of dead animals, with little or no knowledge or thought of how they are raised, brought to market and slaughtered. The relationship to pets has shifted in my lifetime too. Dogs and cats used to have masters. Now they have "parents," at least in the USA. On the ranch animals were treated with respect, but the relationship was intimate every working hour. Cattle were raised for the market. Each year a few were slaughtered, butchered and aged for consumption by my family and those of the vaqueros. Friendly relationships were formed between people and horses, but the horses had to be skilled and reliable. They were not indulged in eccentricities or disabilities. Cattle were treated decently according to the standards of the industry, but no love was lost toward bulls which would kill you instantly if ever given a moment's opportunity. Cows could be dangerous, too, but were seldom actively murderous. It seems to me that the ranch culture toward animals was far more closely aligned to that of 19th century Andalucia than is the culture of modern cities. As the rural culture of 19th- and early 20th-century Andalucia fades into the Spanish background, so does the corrida. Flamenco survives, but in altered form. For nine months of the year as a child and full time as an adult I have been a city person. It shaped many of my attitudes. Stiil, I retain some of my multicultural childhood as an Air Force brat and Texas ranch boy. Our attitudes toward animals are clearly cultural, as long as we keep eating them, and would still be if we quit. Evolutionary biologists say we evolved as meat eaters to feed our large brains via attenuated intestines. At least we don't tear animals apart and eat them alive as some of our primate relatives do to the monkeys they catch. This is not to criticize vegans or vegetarians. As far as I am concerned they are welcome to their attitudes toward animals. That is, as long as they don't insist upon recruiting me or their dogs and cats into their culture. I suppose I am old and set in my ways. I was a bit set in my ways when I was young. I seldom lined up perfectly with the variety of cultures I was immersed in, but I learned to pretty much keep quiet about it. It's a prevalent characteristic of military children or others who have been exposed to a number of different environments. RNJ
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