The Cockfight: A Casebook

The Gaucho Cockfight in Porto Alegre, Brazil

ONDINA FACHEL LEAL The Gaucho Cockfight in Porto Alegre, Brazil Thus far we havepresented essays treating the cockfight in Asia, SoutheastAsia, the South Pacific, Europe, NorthAmerica, and the Caribbean. Yet one ofthe areas ofthe world where the cockfightflourishes most is LatinAmerica. No survey ofcockfighting scholarship can be complete without some cuverage ofthe active traditions found in Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela and the othercountries in Central andSouth America. Thefollowing study ofthe Gaucho traditionalcockfight which takesplace in the border area between BrazilandArgentina was partofadoaoral dissertation in anthropology at the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, in 1989. What makes this splendid reportageso remarkable is thefaa that the author is notonly a nativeofBrazil, butafemale anthropologist. The cockfight, as has been amply demonstrated, is typically a male preserve, making it all the more difficultfor a woman to carry out extensivefieldwork on this subjea. The extraordinary ethnographic detail Dr. Ondina Leal was able to elicit is a testament to herfieldwork expertise. Dr. Leal is Professora Titular at the Programa POs GraduOfiio emAntropologia Socialat the UniversidadeFederal do Rio Gran.de do Sui. in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Not only does Lealpresent one ofthe most complete descriptions ofcockfighting in a particular cultural context to date, but she also offers some imaginative interpretive remarks as a result ofcombining Livi-Straussian binary oppositional theory with center-and-periphery theory. (For a consideration ofthis latter theory, see EdwardA. Shi/s, Center and Periphery: Essays in Macrosociology [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975J.) What do the two bleeding cocks fighting to their deaths mean to the breathless gauchos watching them? What understandings and emotions regardingwhat is at stake in each fight do these watchers share? In this essay I will search for an answer to these questions through an analysis ofthe cockfighting activities in Rio Grande do SuI, Brazil. Cockfighting is one amongvarious discourses-an Reprinted from Ondina Fachel Leal, "The Gauchos: Male Culture and Identity in the Pampas ,» unpublished doctoral dissertation in anthropology, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, 1989, pp.210-247. 208 The Gaucho Cockfight especiallydramatic one-whichcelebrate gaucho identityand express the content ofthe gender-demarcated gaucho culture. All such discourses on gaucho identity use animal metaphors and involve conflict and notions of honor, but perhaps none of them possesses the enunciatory power of cockfights. Cockfighting is a celebration of masculinity where men, through their cocks, dispute , win, lose, and reinforce certain attributes selected as male essence. In the fighting, that which is assumed to be animal nature-courage, fierceness, strength, and pride-becomes human nature, or, more precisely, men's nature : the animal's attributes are symbolically transferred to the men who possess the cocks. Cockfighting is not just a localized cultural survival,I nor is it an activity restricted to rural gauchos. In southern Brazil, itis an urban eventwhich draws together cocks and men from different places. Wherever cockfights take place, the involvement ofthe audience and the intensity offeelings aroused by these performances are so strikingthat I believe this subject deserves further anthropological attention and analysis. Quantitatively considered, cockfighting is perhaps not very representative ofgauchos. Not all gauchos, nor even the majority ofthem, are cockers (galistas, i.e., cock breeders, trainers, or cockfighting addicts).2 Nevertheless, the symbols , meanings, and feelings that surround cockfighting can be taken as those most representative ofgaucho ethos. The gauchos themselves (gauchos here in its restricted sense ofestanciaworkers) consider the breeding offighting cocks and cockfighting as a practice peculiar to the gaucho.3 Cockfighting is an ancient and worldwide sport with historical and geographical differences, and with statuses thatvary from illegal, illegal but tolerated , to legal or even royal, according to national laws and circumstances. Regardless ofits variations, cockfighting is always a male activity. In this essay, Iwill introduce cultural data from cockers' own specialized literature on cocking , when relevant, to support possible generalizations. Cockfighting originated in the Orient and was introduced into Europe in the fifth century B.C. It was popular in Greece, and the Romans spread it throughout their empire. Itwas anational traditionin early England, and Spaniards carried cockfighting to the Americas.4 Argentina was colonized by Spain and, later, strongly dependent economically , politically, and culturally on England. In both Spain and England, cockfighting has been a strong cultural tradition, and we find references to cockfighting as early as the 1700s among Argentinean gauchos. For this reason, the Argentinean gauchos are usually identified as the source of cockfighting among gauchos. Brazilian societyin general considers cockfightingto be Spanish or Gaucho, rather than Portuguese or Brazilian. Nowadays, however, cockfights are more popular, better-organized,'and institutionalized in Brazil...