Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida

the long version

"Probably no other Western tradition provokes greater misunderstanding and aesthetic scrutiny than the Hispanic corrida, or bullfight. In Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida, taurine expert Allen Josephs paints an accurate and intimate portrait of life in and around the world's most prestigious bullrings to demonstrate how and why the corrida remains a sacred and integral part of Hispanic culture." "Drawing on more than thirty years of personal participation in the culture of the Spanish Fiesta Brava, Josephs brings an intimate knowledge of taurine technique to his account. He will put you in the ring with Cesar Rincon, and through afternoons of great peril and great triumph you will come to understand the deep, abiding - and ultimately mythic and religious - significance of such afternoons and why this ritual still flourishes today as it has for centuries."--Jacket.