[Aztlan] Yokes and the Mesoamerican ballgame

[David Hixson]

Dr. Stan Freer forwarded a couple of images of what
many on this list (and in the literature) have called
"knuckledusters" (most common in Olmec Imagery - see
first image), and the "boxing gloves" of Oaxaca (see
second image).  Stan's descriptions are in his
original post (recopied below).

http://www.famsi.org/aztlan/uploads/San_Lorenzo_Ball_Playerjpg.jpg

http://www.famsi.org/aztlan/uploads/BallGlove.jpg

--- STAN FREER wrote:
------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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"

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