Ballgame (Other Keyword)
1-6 (6 Records)
One of the characteristic features of the Classic Veracruz style complex is ballgame imagery on ballcourt panels, molded ceramic vessels, paraphernalia such as yokes, hachas and palmas, not to mention the presence of courts, markers, and stelae or other monuments. Various components of the Classic Veracruz style have been documented throughout the Gulf lowlands and adjoining regions of Mesoamerica. Few examples, however, derive from stratigraphic excavations of in situ deposits. In this...
The Late Classic Ballgame and Cross-Cultural Interaction at Xochicalco, El Tajín, and Copán (2017)
The proliferation of ballcourts at major sites such as El Tajín and Xochicalco during the Late Classic period suggests that the Mesoamerican ballgame and its associated architectural features played a crucial role in the expression of power and identity in the tumultuous centuries that followed the collapse of Teotihuacan. This paper investigates the role of Late Classic ballcourts in fostering, shaping, and manifesting cross-cultural interaction through focus on sites from three different...
The Practice of Play in the Sport of Life and Death: Exploring Regional Variation in Ballgame Material Culture and Ideology (2015)
There is little argument that the Mesoamerican ballgame was a ritualized and politicized communal sport with great geographical breadth and incredible time-depth. It is also commonly accepted that the ballgame, as a cultural institution, was intimately linked to a political, elite-centered ideology based on cosmology, sacrifice, and agriculture, related to sociocultural themes of conflict, competition, and the resolution or negotiation of both. This interpretation of the ballgame as ritual...
Role of Handstones in Mesoamerican Ballgame (2015)
Handstone is one of the artifacts that is associated with the Mesoamerican ballgame. However, barely any research has been published about them, since 1961, when Stephan Borhegyi first analyzed them. He identified that the handstones vary in size and shape. In the past, it has been suggested that they could be used to serve the ball when initiating the ballgame. Recent analysis of their size, abrasion, and context in imagery identifies the improbability of using them as a serving tool. Not a...
The roles of the figurines of Oaxaca (2015)
The figurines were an essential part of prehistoric people in Mesoamerica. In Oaxaca, these figurines were essential for daily and religious life in the village stages. It has been subject of several hypotheses in its role and significance in life due to the same range and presence in most places in the Oaxaca region. However, we were unable to determine a specific role for each stage or a decisive site because we need to carry out further excavations in contexts that include them. In this...
Sport and Ritual as Social Bonding: The Communal Nature of Mesoamerican Ballgames (2015)
For over a century, the Mesoamerican ballgame has received copious attention in the academic literature. Much of this attention, however, has focused on either the control and promulgation of the game by elite actors, or the game’s interconnections with indigenous cosmogonies. Because of this intense focus on the game as elite and/or ritual practice, we often lose sight of the communal role it may have held. Anthropological research into the cultural role of sport suggests that while sport...