Cowboys a Dying Breed?
Posted on | July 29, 2010 | 2 Comments
With August’s long weekend fast approaching, my community is gearing up to host its annual Heritage Days Stampede … one of the top five rodeos in Canada and a five-day event which offers everything from classic rodeo and chuck wagon races, pancake breakfasts, a parade, Farmers Market, mini-midway, shows, food, livestock, a trade show along with Canada’s only Running With The Bulls experience.
Quickly following on the heels of the renowned Calgary Stampede, Heritage Days proudly celebrates the town’s western heritage in grand western style. At this time of the year, you’d be hard-pressed not to find a cowboy in our area.
But in an opinion piece in the Globe & Mail, Ray Pennings wonders if Alberta’s cowboys will soon bite the dust. That is, as Calgary – and, by default I would add, the larger region – becomes a region of immigrants, how can it retain its rodeo sensibilities? And should it?
I agree that it should. However, all customs change over time; Pennings points out, quite correctly, that traditional rodeo events such as ‘calf-roping’ have now been renamed and steer wrestling has been eliminated entirely due to growing ‘urban sensibilities.’
But this, in my opinion, is precisely why such events need to be celebrated. As physical, social and economic changes occur in an area, it often results in a dilution or disintegration of cultural traditions. When changes happen in a compressed time-frame – such as a generation or two – struggles to understand local history and culture appear.
Canada’s West has a strong western tradition, founded on farming, ranching, and rodeo. And this weekend, my family and I will be proudly celebrating that heritage.
Yee-haw!
Update 30 July 2010 – Interestingly enough, an article in the the National Post today outlines how Spain is struggling with this exact same issue … namely, the cultural traditions surrounding bullfighting. Click here to read.
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Tags: cowboy > culture > Heritage Days > rural > rurban > Stampede > tradition
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July 30th, 2010 @ 10:43 am
Most folks are at least four generations removed from production agriculture and with less than 2% of the American population involved in the industry, it gets harder and harder for the masses to understand the ranching/cowboy way of life. Thank you for your great post on this similar issue in Canada and visit http://www.realranchers.com to see how ranchers are living and thriving on the land!
July 30th, 2010 @ 12:30 pm
@ Liz – Absolutely … my husband’s family farms, and our kids are thrilled whenever they have the chance to go out and visit, but we’re increasingly in the minority – even though we live in the Canadian prairies. Thanks for the site link!