[Aztlan] Yokes and the Mesoamerican ballgame

[huehueteot at aol.com]

Ruben, Sam et. al:

  I have seen modern "knuckle dusters" that are used in the current form 
of the Ball Game in Oaxaca in the very early 70's. These were wooden 
glove like contraptions with decorative studs covering the business 
end. Some kind of decorative carpet tack I think. They looked quite 
intimidating, but were just used to protect the hand, according to the 
owner, from the ball which is quite large and not very soft. Being a 
large mass of rubber both heavy and sort of hard. I saw these in either 
1969 or 1970 in a small Mixe village up behind Mitla near the 
fossilized agricultural terraces that Kent Flannery reported in his 
early Valley of Oaxaca work.

 Cheers,

 Hugh G. "Sam" Ball

 And remember:

 "This too Shall Pass!

 -----Original Message-----
 From: Archaeology Institute <Institute at csumb.edu>
 To: Sam Edgerton <Samuel.Y.Edgerton at williams.edu>
 Cc: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
 Sent: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 15:57:20 -0700
 Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Yokes and the Mesoamerican ballgame

 Dear All,

  As for ideas regarding the uses of yokes, hachas and palmas, it would 
first
  be necessary to clearly segregate these items as they are not all 
consonant with
  ball player paraphernalia. The hachas, for instance, by and large 
constitute
 ball court
  markers and related ballcourt devices, and not ball player protective 
gear as
  such. Palmas and yugos, by contrast, are portrayed as such in the 
clothing and
  protective gear of ball players and should as such be examined 
jointly.
 Finally, in those
  rare instances where such items have been recovered in situ, they are 
generally
  found in contexts that can just as easily be construed as craft 
workshops or
  ritual caches. To that end, I refer readers of Mexicon back to an 
article that
 appeared in
  that venue back in the late 1970s or early 80s. Said article, which I 
then
  thought to be the most plausible explanation available then, and now, 
presented
  an experimental study of just how said yugos and palmas may have been 
employed
 as stone
  "molds" or "anvils" for the crafting of leather gear...the stones 
serving as the
  anvils atop which the leather goods were wetted down and burnished, 
and then
  dried, for the purposes of creating hardened leather hollow yokes and 
palmas
 that could
  then be stuffed with cotton and related fibers for the purposes of 
padding and
 protecting the players so pictured with said paraphernalia.

  On a final note, I should acknowledge that recent studies by Karl 
Taube and
  others now make clear that not all ball courts were necessarily used 
for "ball"
  play, unless of course one construes bloodsport with stone mauls and 
"knuckle
 dusters" a
  form of "ball" play According to this latter argument, an ancient form 
of
  "boxing" documented by early chroniclers, may well constitute the very 
same
  sport that continues in vogue in the region of Guerrero, Mexico. Many 
of those
 depictions of
  "ball players" noted to date by a variety of publications and museums 
are in
  effect inaccurate...as they more likely portray boxers sporting 
"knuckle
 dusters," large and heavily padded leather helmets, and stone boxes or
 "paddles." Anyway, I do
  believe that given these other considerations, it is likely that the 
question of
 "ballgame" paraphernalia is far from a done deal!

 Best Regards,

 Ruben G. Mendoza, Ph.D., Director
 Institute for Archaeological Science, Technology and Visualization
 Social and Behavioral Sciences
 California State University Monterey Bay
 100 Campus Center
 Seaside, California 93955-8001

 Email: archaeology.csumb at gmail.edu
 Voice: 831-582-3760; Fax: 831-582-3566
 http://archaeology.csumb.edu; http://archaeology.csumb.edu/wireless/


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