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Abstract

As we try to understand and assess the role sport plays in our own society, it is instructive to examine the role sport has played for past civilizations. In case after case, it seems that sport has functioned as a time-honored stage on which societies define conventions of interaction, especially conflict. The ball game of Mesoamerica's Classic Period provides a particularly revealing case study because its growth and decline was linked to the cultural processes which led to the dominance and subsequent downfall of the Maya civilization. The most salient contribution of the ball game to the Maya civilization is that it served as a public display of local political power, precluding the need for higher scale military actions. The peacekeeping ability of this violent, quasi-religious sport should serve as a lesson to those who mock the significance of sports in our own world.

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Sport as a Model for Cultural Interaction: The Classic Maya Ball Game

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