“Playing with the Bull”: Breeding, Blood, and Ritual in Multispecies Ethnography of Peruvian Bullfighting

Abstract

Turupukllay is a popular form of bullfighting in Peru that unfolds over several days. Social analysis of turupukllay has largely focused on the symbolic dimension of its most sensational form, Yawar Fiesta, in which a condor is affixed to the back of the bull. But regarding these animals merely as symbols results in a limited sense of “play,” particularly given how turupukllay encompasses the bull as a life-form. Based on fieldwork in Andagua, Peru, we argue that playing with the bull is more extensive: turupukllay can be seen as playing with tauromaquia broadly—the art, life, and regulation of Spanish-style bullfighting. In Andagua, turupukllay plays with the bull through local breeding practices that physically transform it while also engaging in an ongoing burlesque of the formal features in tauromaquia. This version of turupukllay highlights an ongoing historical dynamic at play in the wide popularity of corrida de toros in Peru.