Mesoamerican ballgame (Other Keyword)
1-2 (2 Records)
As a specially marked category of public architecture, ballcourts were both socially-integrative and socially-divisive spaces through hosting games and other important ritual activities. Moreover, research has shown that ballgames in Oaxaca acted as mechanisms of social mediation within and between different ethnolinguistic communities. The distribution of ballcourts is therefore significant and expresses underlying social and political relationships. The Nejapa region is a frontier zone between...
Playing for Power: Ballcourts, Political Negotiation and Community Organization in Postclassic Nejapa, Oaxaca, Mexico (2016)
In the politically dynamic Postclassic period (AD 1000-1521), multiple ballcourts were built in different communities throughout the Nejapa region of Oaxaca during a time of significant settlement shifts and pressure from expanding Zapotec and Aztec empires. As a specially marked category of public architecture, ballcourts would have distinguished communities from each other while also serving as socially-integrative locations through hosting games and other important ritual activities. Given...