The Bullring: A Classroom Experiment in Moral Education describes a way in which the principle of encouraging children to find out for themselves and to conduct their experiments with the raw material of common everyday objects—so well understood in the earlier years of schooling—may be adapted to help older children understand the world of persons. The Bullring is a free-discussion lesson; in it the children push the desks to one side, and, with the teacher, sit around in a circle facing one another. Their task is to study their behavior as it occurs and the teacher's task is to help them to do this. What distinguishes the Bullring from an ordinary discussion period is the freedom of students to say what they like and just about do what they like. The Bullring tries to provide a safe area in which young adolescents could find out for themselves what sort of persons they and their friends and their enemies were in relation to one another. It thus attempts to extend the principle of free discovery into the realm of personal relationships, to help children to discover themselves and to discover a morality by which to live.

This book investigates the popularity and success of contemporary women performers in bullfighting culture, which has been framed by a discourse of 'traditionalist' masculinity. This examination of the changing situation of women in the bullfighting world is used to explore the ways in which gender is represented, enacted and negotiated in contemporary Spain. The bullfight in the 1990s is in an ambiguous position: it is a 'traditional' performance in a changing consumer society. In order to survive, it needs to adapt itself to a wider social context and, in particular, to international media coverage. It is in this context that the current success of women performers is located. However, women performers are a contested phenomenon in the bullfighting world: there is heated debate over their acceptability, much of which focuses on the body. Moreover, the entry of women into the bullfight questions existing definitions of the sport's ritual structure and of gender relations in Spain. Thoroughly researched and compelling to read, Women and Bullfighting addresses these issues and argues that existing traditionalist approaches to gender, bullfighting and ritual in Spain need to be revised in order to locate women bullfighters in the context of a richly varied culture which is increasingly affected by the media and contemporary patterns of consumption. This provocative book will be of interest to researchers and students of anthropology, gender studies, sociology, cultural studies, media studies and Spanish studies.

There is sometimes a fine line between history and folklore. This Publication of the Texas Folklore Society features articles that tell stories about real-life characters from the historical past of Texas, as well as offer personal reflections about life from diverse perspectives throughout the last century. These contributors go beyond merely stating facts about dates or locations or names of the events and people that can be found in court documents or genealogical records; several of these authors provide a very intimate connection to the tales they share. These articles are not just about people that we read about as school children, and they do not merely describe how our culture used to be, or how vastly it has changed; rather, they emphasize the ways we keep our culture alive through the retelling of the events and customs and major figures that are important enough to pass on from one generation to the next. The first section covers legendary characters like Davy Crockett, Mody Boatright, Sam Houston, and Cynthia Ann Parker from our state’s past, as well as people who were bigger or bolder than others, yet seem to have been forgotten. Some of those characters came from different countries, while others are connected directly to our Texas Folklore Society family tree. The second section includes works that examine songs of our youth, as well as the customs and social constructs associated with music, whether it’s on a football field or in a prison yard. The works in the final section recall memories of a simpler time, when cars and home appliances lacked modern conveniences we now take for granted, before Facebook and YouTube allowed us to become Internet movie stars, and when it was a treat just to go and “visit” with family and friends.

"Muriel Feiner's Women and the Bullring is a ground-breaking work--a feminist treatise sprung from one of the last bastions of male dominance and chauvinism."--Allen Josephs, University of West Florida, author of Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida: The Saga of Cesar Rincon The presence of women in the bullring was literally banned in Spain until 1975, when the country's political transition to democracy recognized equal rights for women in every aspect of society. After centuries of brave and relentless crusading, women have managed to make inroads into this male domain. The story of Women and the Bullring is one of daring and determined women who overcome countless obstacles and sexist barriers to realize a unique dream--that of becoming a "matadora de toros." In the first English translation of this award-winning book on the subject, Muriel Feiner chronicles the struggle of women to become matadors--not only Spanish and Latin American women but also American, French, and British--from the 17th century to the present day. She also includes women who have attempted to make inroads into the bullfighting world as bull breeders, journalists, photographers, managers, artists, and impresarios, as well as a section devoted to the wives and mothers of some of the most prominent male toreros. Feiner's extensive research included interviews with noteworthy authorities and with the protagonists themselves. The text is complemented by an extraordinary collection of historical and recent photographs. Feiner's investigation into the fears, frustrations, determination, and motivations of these remarkable women provides a unique insight into an often misunderstood spectacle. Muriel Feiner is a freelance editor, writer, and translator living in Madrid.

Bullfighting has long been perceived as an antiquated, barbarous legacy from Spain's medieval past. In fact, many of that country's best poets, philosophers, and intellectuals have accepted the corrida as the embodiment of Spain's rejection of the modern world. In his brilliant new interpretation of bullfighting, Adrian Shubert maintains that this view is both the product of myth and a complete misunderstanding of the real roots of the contemporary bullfight. While references to a form of bullfighting date back to the Poem of the Cid (1040), the modern bullfight did not emerge until the early 18th century. And when it did emerge, it was far from being an archaic remnant of the past--it was a precursor of the 20th-century mass leisure industry. Indeed, before today's multimillion-dollar athletes with wide-spread commercial appeal, there was Francisco Romero, born in 1700, whose unique form of bullfighting netted him unprecedented fame and wealth, and Manuel Rodriguez Manolete, hailed as Spain's greatest matador by the New York Times after a fatal goring in 1947. The bullfight was replete with promoters, agents, journalists, and, of course, hugely-paid bullfighters who were exploited to promote wine, cigarettes, and other products. Shubert analyzes the business of the sport, and explores the bullfighters' world: their social and geographic origins, careers, and social status. Here also are surprising revelations about the sport, such as the presence of women bullfighters--and the larger gender issues that this provoked. From the political use of bullfighting in royal and imperial pageants to the nationalistic "great patriotic bullfights" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this is both a fascinating portrait of bullfighting and a vivid recreation of two centuries of Spanish history. Based on extensive research and engagingly written, Death and Money in the Afternoon vividly examines the evolution of Spanish culture and society through the prism of one of the West's first--and perhaps its most spectacular--spectator sports.

The excavations in the centre of Birmingham uncovered evidence of habitation from prehistoric and Roman times, but the 12th to 19th centuries presented by far the most evidence, from artefacts, environmental samples and structural remains. The medieval industrial past was of particular interest, with tanning and the manufacture of hemp and linen all playing a large role in the city's prosperity. Metal working reached its peak in the seventeenth century, with brass founding becoming important from the eighteenth century onwards. Most of the artefactual evidence attests to Birmingham's industrial past, indeed the evidence for domestic life is comparatively scant, with an anomalous burial of two people at Park Street presenting something of a mystery. This volume presents insights into the early industrial past of this important city and is an invaluable record covering eight hundred years of occupation.