Diversity of bull-fighting cultures around the town of Arles

Opening remarks

The Mediterranean area has a rich heritage of bulls and bull-fighting. Everyone knows the images from Minoan Crete, showing bulls being used in games not so different from those in Gascony nowadays. But there is also Mount Bego, above Nice, and the thousands of engravings on horns dating from the age of bronze or copper, evidence left to us by the ancient Ligurians. There is also, of course, the Spanish bull, renowned for his fighting qualities since ancient times and still honoured today in the north-western sector of the Mediterranean by the bullfight.
 
Arles, very much a Roman city, is also the capital of the Camargue, where bulls similar to the ones in the Cretan frescoes are an important part of the culture. The culture of the gardiane, with his herds and vast farmhouses in the Rhone delta, is built around the bull and the Camargue horse. The region’s popular games have made it famous, and if you don't know the culture first hand, read Jean Giono’s Ennemonde and other characters to get a flavour. It is natural that Spanish bullfighting arrived in the region of Arles, and this diversity of bull-fighting culture will be the subject of this essay.
 
There are five videos:
·         the first deals with the history of the arena at Arles and its status as a re-discovered treasure which was its great appeal when it reopened in 1830;
·         the second tries to describe the culture of the Camargue through its herds of horses and bulls;
·         the third gives a detailed overview of the presence of the bull in the Camargue but also in other regions of southern France;
·         the fourth is an essay on bullfighting made up of interviews with personalities in the bullfighting world and artists such as Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau;
·        Finally, the fifth is a news report of the early-autumn bullfights in Arles, proof that this culture is changing and survives through events.

Opening remarks

I. Arles: the Roman amphitheatr...

II. Herds and traditions in the...

III. The bull in our region: co...

IV. Essay on the corrida

V. The early autumn wine-harves...

Bibliography

Abstract

The Mediterranean area has a rich heritage of bulls and bull-fighting. Everyone knows the images from Minoan Crete, showing bulls being used in games not so different from those in Gascony nowadays. But there is also Mount Bego, above Nice, and the thousands of engravings on horns dating from the age of bronze or copper, evidence left to us by the ancient Ligurians. There is also, of course, the Spanish bull, renowned for his fighting qualities since ancient times and still honoured today in the north-western sector of the Mediterranean by the bullfight...

Author

Leach Caroline
Student master European Studies (University of Aix-Marseille).

Gibelin Thibaud
Student master European Studies (University of Aix-Marseille).