Editing Mesoamerican ballgame (section)

==Cultural aspects==

===Proxy for warfare===

The Mesoamerican ballgame was a ritual deeply ingrained in Mesoamerican cultures and served purposes beyond that of a mere sporting event. [[Fray Juan de Torquemada]], a 16th-century Spanish missionary and historian, tells that the Aztec emperor [[Axayacatl]] played [[Xihuitlemoc]], the leader of [[Xochimilco#Precolonial|Xochimilco]], wagering his annual income against several Xochimilco [[chinampas]].<ref>[[#Taladoire2001|Taladoire (2001)]] p. 97.</ref> [[Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl|Ixtlilxochitl]], a contemporary of Torquemada, relates that [[Ce Acatl Topiltzin|Topiltzin]], the Toltec king, played against three rivals, with the winner ruling over the losers.<ref name=s14>[[#Santley|Santley]], pp. 14–15.</ref>

These examples and others are cited by many researchers who have made compelling arguments that the game served as a way to defuse or resolve conflicts without genuine warfare, to settle disputes through a ballgame instead of a battle.<ref>[[#TaladoireColsenet|Taladoire and Colsenet]], p. 174: "We suggest that the ballgame was used as a substitute and a symbol for war."</ref><ref>[[#Gillespie|Gillespie]], p. 340: the ballgame was "a boundary maintenance mechanism between polities".</ref>  Over time, then, the ballgame's role would expand to include not only external mediation, but also the resolution of competition and conflict within the society as well.<ref name=Kowalewski/>

This "boundary maintenance" or "conflict resolution" theory would also account for some of the irregular distribution of ballcourts.  Overall, there appears to be a negative correlation between the degree of political centralization and the number of ballcourts at a site.<ref name=s14/>  For example, the Aztec Empire, with a strong centralized [[Sovereign state|state]] and few external rivals, had relatively few ballcourts while Middle Classic [[Cantona (Mesoamerican site)|Cantona]], with 24 ballcourts, had many diverse cultures residing there under a relatively weak state.<ref>[[#Day|Day]], p. 76</ref><ref>[[#Taladoire2001|Taladoire (2001)]] p. 114.</ref>

Other scholars support these arguments by pointing to the warfare imagery often found at ballcourts:

*The southeast panel of the South Ballcourt at El Tajín shows the protagonist ballplayer being dressed in a warrior's garb.<ref>[[#Wilkerson|Wilkerson]], p. 59.</ref>
*Captives are a prominent part of ballgame iconography.  For example:
:::Several ceramic figurines show war captives holding game balls.
:::The ballcourt at [[Toniná]] was decorated with sculptures of bound captives.
:::A captive-within-the-ball motif is seen on the Hieroglyphic Stairs at Structure 33 in [[Yaxchilan]] and on Altar 8 at [[Tikal]].
*The modern-day descendant of the ballgame, ''ulama'', "until quite recently was connected with warfare and many reminders of that association remain".<ref>[[California State University, Los Angeles]], Department of Anthropology, [http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/anthro/jbrady/ulama/photohi.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004222321/http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/anthro/jbrady/ulama/photohi.htm|date=October 4, 2013}}.</ref>

===Human sacrifice===
[[File:Panel9SBCTajin.JPG|thumb|One of a series of murals from the South Ballcourt at El Tajín, showing the sacrifice of a ballplayer]]
The association between human sacrifice and the ballgame appears rather late in the archaeological record, no earlier than the [[Mesoamerican chronology#Classic Period|Classic era]].<ref>Kubler, p. 147</ref><ref name=Miller/> The association was particularly strong within the Classic Veracruz and the Maya cultures, where the most explicit depictions of human sacrifice can be seen on the ballcourt panels—for example at El Tajín (850–1100 CE)<ref>[[#Uriarte|Uriarte]], p. 46.</ref> and at Chichen Itza (900–1200 CE)—as well as on the [[:Image:Jugador de pelota decapitado. Museo de Jalapa. México.jpg|decapitated ballplayer stelae]] from the Classic Veracruz site of Aparicio (700–900 CE).  The Postclassic Maya religious and quasi-historical narrative, the [[Popol Vuh]], also links human sacrifice with the ballgame (see below).

Captives were often shown in [[Ancient Maya art|Maya art]], and it is assumed that these captives were sacrificed after losing a rigged ritual ballgame.<ref>[[#Schele|Schele and Miller]], p. 249: "It would not be surprising if the game were rigged"</ref>  Rather than nearly nude and sometimes battered captives, the ballcourts at El Tajín and Chichen Itza show the sacrifice of practiced ballplayers, perhaps the captain of a team.<ref name=c255>[[#Cohodas|Cohodas]], p. 255</ref><ref>[[#Gillespie|Gillespie]], p. 321.</ref> Decapitation is particularly associated with the ballgame—severed heads are featured in much Late Classic ballgame art and appear repeatedly in the Popol Vuh. There has been speculation that the heads and skulls were used as balls.<ref>[[#Schele|Schele and Miller]], p. 243: "occasionally [sacrificial victims'] decapitated heads (sic) were placed in play"</ref>

===Symbolism===
Little is known about the game's symbolic contents. Several themes recur in scholarly writing.

[[Image:Xiuhtecuhtli, Codex Borgia, 14, w rubber balls offering.jpg|thumb|In this detail from the late 15th century [[Codex Borgia]], the Aztec god [[Xiuhtecuhtli]] brings a rubber ball offering to a temple. The balls each hold a [[quetzal]] feather, part of the offering.]]

*Astronomy. The [[bouncing ball]] is thought to have represented the sun.<ref>The ball-as-sun analogy is common in ballgame literature; see, among others, [[#Gillespie|Gillespie]], or Blanchard. Some researchers contend that the ball represents not the sun, but the moon.</ref> The stone scoring rings are speculated to signify sunrise and sunset, or equinoxes.
*War. This is the most obvious symbolic aspect of the game (see also above, "Proxy for warfare"). Among the Mayas, the ball can represent the vanquished enemy, both in the late-Postclassic K'iche' kingdom (Popol Vuh), and in Classic kingdoms such as that of Yaxchilan.
*Fertility. Formative period ballplayer figurines—most likely females—often wear [[maize]] icons.<ref>{{cite book |author=Bradley, Douglas E. |year=1997 |title=Life, Death and Duality: A Handbook of the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C. Collection of Ritual Ballgame Sculpture |series=Snite Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 1 |location=Notre Dame, IN|publisher=University of Notre Dame |oclc=39750624}}. Bradley finds that a raised circular dot, or a U-shaped symbol with a dot in the middle, or raised U- or V-shaped areas each represent maize.</ref>  At El Tajín, the ballplayer sacrifice ensures the renewal of [[pulque]], an alcoholic [[Agave americana|maguey]] beverage.
*Cosmologic duality. The game is seen as a struggle between day and night,<ref name=c255/> or a battle between life and the underworld.<ref>[[#TaladoireColsenet|Taladoire and Colsenet]], p. 173.</ref> Courts were considered portals to the underworld and were built in key locations within the central ceremonial precincts. Playing ball engaged one in the maintenance of the cosmic order of the universe and the ritual regeneration of life.

====Nahua====
According to an important [[Nahuan languages|Nahua]] source, the Leyenda de los Soles,<ref name=Velazquez/> the Toltec king Huemac played ball against the [[Tlaloc]]s, with precious stones and quetzal feathers at stake. Huemac won the game. When instead of precious stones and feathers, the rain deities offered Huemac their young maize ears and maize leaves, Huemac refused. As a consequence of this vanity, the Toltecs suffered a four-year drought. The same ball game match, with its unfortunate aftermath, signified the beginning of the end of the Toltec reign.

====Maya====
[[File:Pelota player - Chikultic Disc (591 CE) - Maya - National Museum of Antropology - Mexico 2024.jpg|thumb|A ballcourt marker, from the [[Maya civilization|Maya]] site of [[Chinkultic]], dated to 591.  The ball displays the finely incised portrait of a young deity.]]

The [[Maya Hero Twins|Maya Twin myth]] of the Popol Vuh establishes the importance of the game (referred to in Classic Maya as ''pitz'') as a symbol for warfare intimately connected to the themes of fertility and death. The story begins with the Hero Twins' father, [[Hun Hunahpu]], and uncle, Vucub Hunahpu, playing ball near the underworld, [[Xibalba]].<ref>These excerpts from the Popol Vuh can be found in Christenson's recent translation or in any work on the Popol Vuh.</ref>  The lords of the underworld became annoyed with the noise from the ball playing and so the primary lords of Xibalba, One Death and Seven Death, sent owls to lure the brothers to the ballcourt of Xibalba, situated on the western edge of the underworld. 

Despite the danger the brothers fall asleep and are captured and sacrificed by the lords of Xibalba and then buried in the ballcourt. Hun Hunahpu is decapitated and his head hung in a fruit tree, which bears the first [[calabash]] [[gourd]]s. Hun Hunahpu's head spits into the hands of a passing goddess who conceives and bears the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque. The Hero Twins eventually find the ballgame equipment in their father's house and start playing, again to the annoyance of the Lords of Xibalba, who summon the twins to play the ballgame amidst trials and dangers. 

In one notable episode, Hunahpu is decapitated by bats. His brother uses a squash as Hunahpu's substitute head until his real one, now used as a ball by the Lords, can be retrieved and placed back on Hunahpu's shoulders. The twins eventually go on to play the ballgame with the Lords of Xibalba, defeating them. However, the twins are unsuccessful in reviving their father, so they leave him buried in the ball court of Xibalba.