The Ballgame: A Language of Mesoamerican Society

In this era of understanding Mesoamerica, the ballgame and its associated courts
captivate interest like no other. The game required a heavy rubber ball crafted from Castilla
Elastica trees and an open space. Formal ballcourts were eventually deemed a necessity due to
the significance of the ritual in the broader Mesoamerican society. It should be noted that while
the rubber trees were predominantly found in Mayan lowlands, there were also clusters in the
Mayan highlands alongside extremely early versions of the ballgame and ballcourts. This fact is
evidence of the universality of the game since its inception. The rules of the game require the
players to use their hips to pass the ball back and forth to keep it off the ground. It can be
described as being similar to tennis, but with the use of appendages instead of rackets. The rules
also granted an automatic win when a competitor passed the ball through a wooden hoop that
was connected to the court. The history of the ballgame spans from the late Archaic Period to
Spain's encroachment. Originally, it was used as a tool for village-scale political organization.
The ritual became known as a secular game as time went on. This essay argues that, through
these periods, the emphases depicted in ballcourt activities—whether political, ritualistic, or
secular—directly reflect the broader Mesoamerican society. As maintained by Scarborough and
Wilcox in their book The Mesoamerican Ballgame, the ballgame operated at “the recreational
level of ‘shallow play’, the social status-role level, and the ideational level” (Scarborough and
Wilcox 1991). Thus, the essay will examine eras that predominantly exemplify each facet: the
Late Archaic to Late Formative periods for political or “social status role building,” the Classic
period for ritual or “ideation level,” and the Post-classic and Colonial periods for secularization or “shallow play”. This analysis will further demonstrate what the ballgame communicates about
Mesoamerican conditions during these times.

The foundation of the ballgame is a highly theorized topic. There are many hypotheses
about its origins and the conditions that surrounded its creation; none of which are concrete.
According to John Gerard Fox’s Playing with Power: Ballcourts and Political Ritual in Southern
Mesoamerica, the ballgame’s foundation lay in community creation. To contextualize, the Late
Archaic era saw the rise of sedentism, settlement establishment, and agricultural dependence.
Maize, along with the other crops that encompassed the “three sisters,” had just begun to become
food staples, and permanent communities were still a novel concept. In terms of social and
political conditions, egalitarianism was emphasized in villages during the Late Archaic period
where economic disparities could exist, but were not as determinant in society as they would
become later. Fox further comments on the conditions surrounding one legend of the ballgame’s
significance. According to Fox, the Native chronicler, Ixtlilochitl, “tells us that Topiltzin, the
ruler of Tula, proposed to his three rivals that the four of them rule his realm together and
presented them with a model of a ballcourt made of four kinds of precious stone” (Fox 1996).
This highlights the ballgame’s use as an equalizing space, enduring from the late Archaic period
to Topiltzin’s reign in the Classic Period.

Referring to Scarborough and Wilcox, the ballgame was utilized as a unit of
centralization. For civilization building, this provided a perfect foundation of political thought,
where stratified politics could foster a conducive polity. They say, “Political centralization is
therefore a characteristic of human organization which is variably manifested at different system
scales” (Scarborough and Wilcox 1991). The idea of political reflection being transposed into the
ballgame and court’s creation is verifiable. Jeffrey P. Blomster and Victor E. Salazar Chávez’s examination of early ballcourts in Etlatongo, Mexico, reflects this. They illustrate the evolution
of ballcourts from simple alleys between mounds, as seen in Paso del la Amada and Chiapas, to
the fully distinguished, I-shaped ballcourt of Capulac Concepción, Puebla, which was
constructed in the Middle to Late Formative period (Blomster and Salazar Chávez 2020).

The transition from the Late Archaic to the Formative Period marked the beginning of
significant social stratification. Culture, status (both ascribed and hierarchical), and power gained
new importance within the growing complexity of civilizations, positioning Mesoamerica to
embrace the ballgame. Etlatongo’s ballcourt exemplifies this well. There is evidence of
intentional efforts to manipulate and cultivate land to create alleys, similar to the alley courts of
the Late Archaic and Early Formative periods. There is also evidence for interregional contact.
This comes from Etlatongo’s unique perspective as a highland ballcourt. It is significant because
it challenges a leading hypothesis that the ballgame originated solely in the lowlands before
spreading to the highlands. Blomster and Salazar Chávez suggest that, with additional Elastica
trees in the highlands, there is sufficient proof for multiple ballgames being synthesized into a
final game. The ballcourt during this period in Mesoamerica reflected the Late Archaic and
Formative eras' roles as foundational for all civilization-building aspirations. With the rise of
standardized ballcourts and ballgame rules throughout the highlands and lowlands, conditions for
later empires were set.

Rituals and their importance in relation to the ballgame have varied greatly in
Mesoamerican history, but remain its most prolific topic. From the inclusion of figurines at
foundational courts like Etlatongo to its peak as an intricate religious cult, the ballcourt
developed a ritual culture that included dedications, interments, and sacrifices. It can be argued
that the Classic period represents the peak of religious observance in Mesoamerican society, as evidenced by the ritual complexity of the ballgame during this period. This period was the first
era in which the ballgame was almost universally adopted across Mesoamerica, with few
exceptions. An early thesis on the source of ritual importance comes from Marvin Cohodas’
work The Symbolism Function of the Middle Classic Ballgame in Mesoamerica, who suggests
that a synthesis occurred between a ballgame cult and other Mesoamerican cults to create a
martial cult that would then “dominate Mesoamerican religious activity from around A.D. 700
until the conquest” (Cohodas 1975). To understand the significance of such a ritual, we must
consider the conditions of the Classic period that ensured the success of the religious cult. The
Classic and Postclassic periods had societal contexts that showed a much more cohesive society-
building and solidification. While political power and facilitation were always facets of
Mesoamerican society, securing strength through militarism at the scale of civilizations like the
Teotihuacan provided the means to install political regimes and empires on a widespread scale.
Further evidence comes from Cohodas’ argument that the ballgame entered a period of secularity
during political exchanges between regimes before returning to prominence during the rise of the
Aztec Empire.

Cohodas summarizes multiple theories for the ballgame’s importance and meaning.
According to Zuckerberg, the ballgame represents the symbolic battle between light, dark, day,
and night. Knauth also relates to night themes, but instead associated the ball with the moon
goddess and decapitation rites linked to agricultural fertility. The ballgame also symbolized
sacrifice for agricultural means, as playing the game was believed to power the sun's rising.
Pasztory proposed a similar battle between the underworld and earth and agriculture. Cohodas
presents all these theories but argues that they complement each other. Some external factors
with ritual importance include the solstices or—as contended by Mary Ellen Miller—“the movement of heavenly bodies” (Miller 1989). The underworld theory is theoretically sound, as
evidenced by Popol Vuh’s narrative. The Hero Twins use the ballgame as one of many means to
best the deities. Despite being officially written down during the colonial era, the underworld
theory culminates generations of ritual thought. This leads to further arguments surrounding the
importance of the ballgame as a vehicle for religious thought. The ballgame and the ballcourt
were intermediaries by which mortals could communicate freely with the world beyond.

Orchestrating the conditions for playing the ballgame was more important than the act of
playing itself. This is evident in the concept of ballcourt dedication, which manifested in various
ways. For example, in the Popol Vuh, ballcourts are given names. One such ballcourt, where One
Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu played, is called Honor and Respect. It is related to the death gods
known as the Lords of Xibalba. Another ballcourt is named Fish and Ashes, a reference to “the
Kekchi-Maya town now known as San Pedro Carchá” (Christenson 2007). This region was
reputed to be a geographic entrance to the underworld, with the ballcourt likely serving as the
epicenter.

Further dedications were represented in the extensive monument culture of many late
Formative and Classic period ballcourts, though figurines have been found in ballcourts dating
back to the late Archaic period. John Gerard Fox states, “The dedication of ballcourts through
the internment of caches and burials transformed these structures into sacred and social places”
(Fox 1996). An analysis of the ballcourts shows them as a site for sacrifices and internments,
with caches often containing very precious goods. Archeological digs have revealed interments
at the Tikal Triple Ballcourt and other courts, most notably in the Mayan highlands.

Cohodas further argues that the three walls that comprised the ballcourt had a directional
significance based on cardinal directions. A north wall represented the night, summer solstice, or the underworld, a south wall represented the day or winter solstice. A west wall represented the
sunset, the vernal equinox, or the surface of earth, and an east wall signified sunrise, the
autumnal equinox, or another representation of the earth’s surface. Cohodas maintains that
having two walls representing the surface of the earth strengthens the religious significance
rather than diminishing it. Classic period ballcourts with three walls never utilized both east and
west, which I will call “terrestrial faces”. Instead, they often constructed north and south faces
(“spiritual faces”) accompanied by one of the terrestrial faces (Cohodas 1975). As ritual
containers, the ballcourts were also sites for other sports and ritual feasts. Some ceramics depict
more ballgame play on stairwells than at ballcourts, leading me to synthesize both Cohodas’ and
Fox's views that ballcourts were often ceremonial spaces and placeholders for social and
religious thought, rather than just being used for actual games.

In terms of monument culture, I would like to delve further into what John Gerard Fox
terms “ballgame paraphernalia,” which included rubber balls, game equipment, and other
precious trinkets. Returning to the earlier example of Topiltzin facilitating the ballcourt model
with three other rulers, the model famously uses caches of precious stones at each corner to
represent each ruler. This tale represents a prevalent trend later in the Classic period of elites
utilizing their funds to make grand ritual gestures. Ritual meals on the ballcourts were facilitated
by the elites to both boast their wealth and show their devotion to the gods. Facilitating these
feasts alongside the abundance of interred caches as a “ritual meal” for the Ballcourts made it so
the deities would benevolently preside over the game as it transpired.

The figurines reveal regional differences and how universal the ritual of the ballgame
became through Mesoamerica. Blomster and Salazar Chávez summarize this with Olmec-style
players sporting thick padded belts, yokes, loincloths, and round pendants, while Central Mexican players wore suspenders of cross bands (Blomster and Salazar Chávez 2020). Mary
Ellen Miller also examines other trinkets that held ritual importance: courts were often adorned
with vast murals depicting gods, and some players even wore the heads of sacrificial victims
while they played (Miller 1989). Mural usage was further discussed by María Teresa Uriarte in
her piece The Teotihuacan Ballgame and the Beginning of Time, where she discusses the
depicted glyphs on each wall. Her interpretation of these glyphs is “the city as a concept, Tollan,
the Celestial Jerusalem” (Uriarte 2006). While the city was important to the ballgame cult and
Mesoamerican religion, the act of funding these murals likely fell directly on the boasting elites.
This rise in competition between the elites began the trend of attaching monetary value to the
ballgame, leading to its secularization.

“Shallow play,” or the recreational use of the ballcourts for ballgame play, was most
common in the early stages of its conception and during the colonial period, as the ritual became
less associated with the game itself. The implication of elites utilizing the ritual to advance
themselves politically is a “spirited betting culture” among all classes (Scarborough and Wilcox
1991). Scarborough and Wilcox state, “The rubber-ball game also functioned at the level of
‘status gambling’ and alliance maintenance. It brought opposing groups together to vie for social
and political status” (Scarborough and Wilcox 1991). These were the stakes and conditions for
elites who attended the games. For the lower classes who flocked to the events, gambling had an
“immediate though less consequential economic effect,” likely involving the circulation of
money and goods among the more modest populations. Miller concurs with this assessment,
saying, “Spectators wagered their finely woven mantles, with loser fleeing the courts, leaving a
trail of garments behind them” (Miller 1989). By the Postclassic period, the collapse of the
Teotihuacan empire created a political vacuum. With no centralized power, the universal standardization of the Classic period, which was translated into ritual importance, was lost in this
period of political transition. Cohodas previously argued that transitional periods, particularly
leading to the rise of the Aztec Empire, often resembled more secular ballgame conditions. It is
important to note the consistent presence of secularity even at the height of the Aztec Empire,
suggesting that the Teotihuacan and other Classic Period regimes may have had a stronger
cultural impact than the Aztecs, who prioritized militarism.

The Spaniards observed this game with disgust, ultimately crushing it and ending its
thousands of years of history. The ballgame’s tragic end is the best representation of the
widespread erasure of Mesoamerican culture in the face of the Christian colonial model. Today,
the ballgame is perceived more as a topic of study than a recreational game or act of worship.
New ballcourts and findings are being assessed daily, bringing experts closer to deciphering the
mysteries of the ballgame. An interesting development in recent years has been the restoration
and reenactment of the ballgame with Native people adorning traditional game wear and playing
on a recreational level. Will this effort eventually bring the ballgame to its former glory among
the greater Mesoamerican community? No, but instead of lamenting what is lost, we must
appreciate and embrace the ballgame and ballcourts for what they are: a fantastic representation
of Mesoamerican ritual, political, and cultural life.

References Cited

Blomster, Jeffrey P., Victor E. Salazar Chávez. 2020. Origins of the Mesoamerican Ballgame:
Earliest Ballcourt from the Highlands Found at Etlatongo, Oaxaca. Science Advances
Christenson, Allen J. 2007. Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya People. University of
Oklahoma Press

Cohodas, Marvin. 1975. The Symbolism and Ritual Function of the Middle Classic Ball Game in
Mesoamerica. American Indian Quarterly 2: pp. 99-130.
Fox, John Gerard.1996. Playing with Power: Ballcourts and political ritual in Southern
Mesoamerica. Current Anthropology 37: pp. 483-509
Miller, Mary Ellen. 1989. The Ballgame. Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 48:
pp. 22-31
Scarborough, Vernon L., Wilcox, David R. 1991. The Mesoamerican Ballgame, University of
Arizona Press
Uriarte, María T. 2006. The Teotihuacan Ballgame and the Beginning of Time, Cambridge
University Press, Ancient Mesoamerica 17: pp. 17-38.