Academic literature on the topic 'Views on bullfights'

This article investigates how the traditional attire and religious iconography of Cristóbal Balenciaga's (1895–1972) country of origin inspired his designs. The arguments presented here build on what has already been established on the subject, provide new data regarding the cultural context that informed the couturier's creative process (with which the Anglo-Saxon world is less familiar) and conclude by investigating the reasons and timing of his exploration of these fields. They suggest why this Spanish influence is present in his innovations in the 1950s and 1960s and go beyond clichéd interpretations of the ruffles of flamenco dress and bullfighters’ jackets. The findings derive from research for the author's doctoral thesis and her curatorial contribution to the exhibition Coal and Velvet. Balenciaga and Ortiz Echagüe. Views on the Popular Costume (Balenciaga Museum, Getaria, Spain, 7 October 2016–7 May 2017).

Since Darwin, emotions have been defined as adaptive reactions that increase the probability of survival. In this framework, a situation in which individuals fight for their life with an imposing, aggressive animal should be an ideal elicitor of emotions and their corresponding facial expressions. We tested the correspondence between the facial expressions of 22 bullfighters (toreros) and their reported emotions at different stages of the fight. Toreros reported intense experiences of happiness or fear, but there were no observable instances of the facial expressions predicted for these emotions (e.g. smiles). Instead toreros displayed frowning, nostril dilatation, parted lips, and, protruding funneled lips in particular. In a second study we found that 149 judges could not recognize toreros’ facial movements as expressions of emotion. Absence of a universal signal value strongly suggests that toreros’ expressions are not an undescribed expression of basic emotions. The observed non-correspondence between intense reported emotions and their predicted expressions casts doubt on one of the most popular assumptions in contemporary psychology and provides new evidence for an alternative theoretical view. In this view, facial expressions are not signals of emotion, but actions that are roughly coextensive with other processes and structures in the framework of an emotional episode.

La pregunta sobre la distinción entre el reino animal y la especie humana es tan antigua como la razón misma. Dos extremos pueden ser identificados: la idea del ser humano como dictador de la naturaleza, que gobierna la vida y la muerte de las especies según su utilidad al proyecto humano; y la conceptualización del ser humano como administrador de la naturaleza, como responsable de su desarrollo armónico. El Concilio Vaticano II marcó un viraje hacia la segunda alternativa. En este contexto, la tauromaquia —como ejemplo paradigmático— puede ser cuestionada desde el catolicismo posconciliar y, más específicamente, desde la ecología integral de Francisco. The inquiry about the distinction between human beings and animals is as old as hu- man reason. We can identify two extreme positions: the conceptualization of the human kind as a dictator over nature who rules the species’ life and death according to its utility to the human project, and the view of the human being as nature’s administrator, as the one in charge of its harmonic development. The Second Vatican Council oriented the Catholic Church towards the second alternative. In this context, bullfights –a paradigmatic example– can be questioned by post-conciliar Catholicism and, more speci cally, from Francis’ integral ecology.