FW: [Aztlan] Mauls and Mesoamerican ballgame a la Cotzumalhuapa

Tue Jun 6 12:09:17 CDT 2006

Listeros,

Being my first post (although I've been lurking for some time), I thought a
quick introduction is in order.  I'm a recent Tulane graduate, just having
completed their interdisciplinary PhD program in Art History and Linguistics
(Maya focus).  I'm currently working under John Pohl as curatorial assistant
at the Princeton University Art Museum.

I found the thread on ballgame issues particularly timely, as I have been
writing about several Classic Veracruz ballgame sculptures in the Princeton
collection.  I have several tidbit remarks regarding the recent posts.

First off, I share Tim's opinion that the use of stone yokes as leather
molds is unlikely.  In addition to his points, I would add that the
fine-line incisions many of them carry would not transfer well, and the
intensive labor involved in burnishing greenstone, serpentine, etc. to a
shiny polish suggests they were intended to be seen, as finished products.

Second, I've been wondering whether these stone yokes may have actually been
worn during some form of ritual play.  Yokes tend to weigh in around 30
lbs., which to me doesn't seem impossible to move around in (I've often
hiked with a 30 lb. pack).  It wouldn't allow for very agile or graceful
movement, but perhaps we assume a certain sort of action to sport that may
skew our thinking.  Also, objects need not be practical or efficient to have
been used - the feather covered clubs given to captive warriors by the
Aztecs, for example, were not very effective weapons!  As something of a
wild thought - might stone yokes have been given to captive players as a
sort of immobilizing handicap (after which the yokes would become
'trophies')?  Or, might stone implements have been worn when captives were
tied up like balls to do some serious damage to them?  The prevalence of
'tuerto' imagery on yokes and other ballgame objects may depict such beat up
individuals.  Now, there are, of course, 'closed' oval variants of the
yokes, which I don't think could possibly have been worn...

Finally, just a note regarding Jerry Offner's recent note about
Cotzumalhuapa...the treatment of yokes in relief carving to me suggest
'stoniness.'  There are similarly designed and comparably 'stony' renditions
of yokes on Seibal Stelae 5 and 7 (actually panels).  Seibal is an
interesting case for Jerry's suggestion of compare-contrast investigations
of Cotzumalhuapan-Mayan ballgame visual culture.  Several other features of
Seibal's late sculpture also evince interesting similarities to Bilbao
sculpture in particular.  I touched upon this in my dissertation, but much
remains to be considered.

Regards to all,

Bryan

Bryan R. Just, Ph.D.
Pre-Columbian Art History

-----Original Message-----
From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
On Behalf Of Jerry Offner
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 5:07 PM
To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
Subject: RE: [Aztlan] Mauls and Mesoamerican ballgame a la Cotzumalhuapa

See also:  famsi.org for hand mauls in sculpture.

Search for:

"A Corpus of Cotzumalhuapa-Style Sculpture, Guatemala"

Go to 

List of Drawings

Observe #2, 7, 8,

perhaps also #3, 4, 5

for examples from what is probably a relatively early Nahua ("Pipil")
intrusion into the Maya realm, with control of cacao and a distinctive
sculptural corpus centered in considerable part around a particular style of
ball game.  Apparently, not a good place to lose, if the losers were even
given a chance in a "game" as Westerners might conceive of it. 

Drawings 10 and 11 may well represent rulers of towns conquered by
Cotzumalhuapa.  Note also the interesting Xipe mask in drawing 25. A simple
compare-contrast of Cotzumalhuapa-Maya ball game iconography presents
opportunities for some ambitous researcher...

-----Original Message-----
>From: David Hixson <aztlandave at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Jun 5, 2006 3:55 PM
>To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
>Subject: RE: [Aztlan] Yokes and the Mesoamerican ballgame
>
>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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