[Aztlan] Yokes and the Mesoamerican ballgame

[David Hixson]

PLEASE NOTE: THE FOLLOWING EMAIL WAS ACCIDENTALLY
REJECTED BY THE LIST.  IT IS NOW BEING FORWARDED "AS
WRITTEN" BY THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR (STAN FREER):
------------------------------------------------

Bill Swezey told our class at UDLA back in the early
70's how they played a "ball-game" in the train
station area of Oaxaca City on Sunday afternoons and
how they wore these large "Knuckle-Dusters" to hit
this hard ball.  He said that there was a guy called
the "Butcher" who wore one on each hand but missed the
ball one time and that was "all she wrote" as they
say.  It hit him in the head!    Swezey suggested that
the one Olmec carving (which I believe is at the
Xalapa Museum) of a snarling faced guy with what
looked like gloves on his hands was one of these
ancient ball players and suggested there were Ball
Games not a Ball Game.   
I have attached an outline of it (Monument 10, San
Lorenzo from an article by Swezey  titled "The
Ballgame La Pelota Mixteca"  in Revista de La
Universidad de las Americas   Vol. 1, No. 1 1973
 
He actually has a drawing of a ball glove  in the
article.
It looks like one big knuckle buster that was strapped
to the hand and held in the palm of the hand.
 
 
Stan Freer, Ph.D.
Archaeologist,
Department of Anthropology
Rm 435 Fletcher Argue Bldg.
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada 
R3T 2N2
Phone Work: 204-474-6814  Home: 204-269-7584  Fax::
204-474-7600
E-Mail: sfreer at ms.umanitoba.ca
Web site: (genealogy)  
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~sfreer/index.html
Minds are like Parachutes...they work best when they
are open"


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com