Bull and Cow in Religion, Myth and Folklore

The most notable example of the survival of animal sacrifice may be the bullfights of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America. Barbaric as the sport may seem, bullfighting began gaining popularity at the start of the modern era around the sixteenth century. The elaborate ceremony and pageantry that accompany bullfighting date only from around the end of the eighteenth century. The bull is enraged by being kept in darkness and then abruptly exposed to the bright lights of the arena. Lancers on horseback systematically goad the bull, and then, when the animal has been worn out, the matador delivers the fatal thrust with his sword. The contest symbolizes the triumph of the matador’s finesse and skill over brute power. Despite the obvious cruelty, matadors insist that they respect and even love the bulls. Fervent aficionados of the bullfight find themselves unable to explain the appeal to others. On a barely conscious level, it is based on the idea that death can release a cosmic energy that may then nourish all of life.

Today, most people live in urban areas and rarely see a bull or cow, yet hamburger is perhaps the favorite food of all. Restaurants and packaging plants constantly invoke the romance of cowboys and the old West. The meat is mixed together to a point where nobody knows which part, much less which animal, is being eaten. The fastfood hamburger is now a symbol of the homogenization of global culture, where all origins and peculiarities are obscured. Chains like Mc-Donald’s are constantly vilified, yet they retain enormous popularity. Cows and bulls, perhaps more than any other animals, have seemed through most of history to embody cosmic energy, which might be worshipped, harnessed, absorbed, or contained. People have felt they drew strength from contact with them, whether by eating or by tending these animals. But today, that cosmic energy has come to seem anonymous, much like the hamburger from a giant franchise.