American Rodeo on the Borderline between Sport and Bullfighting, or Diffusion as a System of Transformations

Based on the example of the genesis and diffusion of the rodeo in the United States, this article shows the complexity of the processes of influence and reinterpretation within a modern world in which the European imperialist powers that first initiated sport performances have simultaneously opposed and penetrated each other. The author is thus able to radically criticize the evolutionist–diffusionist theory of sport that Norbert Elias put forward as an indisputable paradigm, in which England was presented as “the center of civilization.” Rodeo, Show, Torero, Clown, Sport