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Paper short abstract:

The chegas de bois, like the Portuguese rural world, have known since the 70s, various changes. Nowadays these are maintained, and are related to the patrimonial ideology and the rights of nonhuman animals, among other criticisms. These are the changes that this paper intends to explain.

Paper long abstract:

In the last decades, especially after the 70s, the reality of the rural world in Portugal underwent through profound changes (here we can note the increase in subsidies and financial capacity of populations), which are manifested in the most diverse economic and symbolic practices, changing the forms of grazing and, as a consequence, also altering the chegas de bois (bullwrestling), a form of animal fighting between two bulls that had hitherto occurred between animals in community possession and now occurring among animals of private owners.

It is also in the 70s, with the work of Peter Singer, that the awareness for the defense of the rights and dignity of nonhuman animals began to generalize.

This leads to greater opposition to practices that undermine the well-being of non-human animals, which are reinforced when these practices present a cultural and patrimonial character and can, nowadays, after the 2003 UNESCO Convention, be safeguarded, even if only at national level.

Based on these three points, it is intended, with this work, mainly resorting to qualitative methods (interviews and observation), to answer the following questions: how were the chegas de bois organized and occur? What is the current state of the chegas de bois and what are the main changes that occurred in this manifestation over the years? what are the criticisms about these combats made by non-human rights defenders? have measures been taken to promote the chegas de bois turistically as well as to safeguard the chegas de bois?