by Mildred Boyd

      Virtually every important ceremonial center in Meso America had at least one tlachtli or ball court. EI Tajin had eleven! Yet, even though a game called ulama de cadera (hip ball) still survives in rural areas of Western Mexico, very little is known of how the ancients actually played the game or, except in rare in-stances, how winners were determined. Even its ritual meanings had become blurred by the time of the conquest when games were often purely athletic contests or spectator sport involving drinking and gambling.
      Originally, however, the game symbolized the eternal struggle between the powers of light/life and darkness/death which was central to their beliefs. The Popol Vuh, one of the few surviving religious narratives of the Maya, has the Hero Twins playing against the Gods of the Underworld to resurrect their father, the Maize god, and save the earth from destruction. The ball itself, which seems to have been a solid sphere of natural rubber, varied in size but most commonly was six inches in diameter and weighed about two kilos. It represented the sun, giver of life, and the game exemplified its nightly journey through the perilous realm of darkness. To emphasize that symbolism presiding priests sometimes hurled a flaming ball into the court at the beginning of the contest.
      Like most Meso American rituals, this one involved human sacrifice and at least the Captain, if not the entire team, faced death on the altar as the price of losing or, to add to the confusion, in some cases winning the game. Perhaps it didn’t matter. According to their beliefs, those who died on the altar were assured of immediate entry into paradise.

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