The ballplayer is both dedicating the marker (or its court) through the ritual of och-k’ahk’, “fire-entering” (Stuart 1998:387–389), and referring to the kneeling shown on the stone.įigure 1 Colonia La Esperanza Ballcourt Marker (right, cropped photograph by Wolfgang Sauber, Creative Commons close-up, lower center, photograph by Stephen Houston).Īn important essay by Karl Taube and Marc Zender (2009) details the many acts of violence that took place in Maya ballcourts. The text reads u-BAAH ta-OCH-K’AHK’ ta-ke-hi-na?, u baah ta ochk’ahk’ ta kehiin?, “his image/body in of fire-entering, in of… That final element recalls colonial Tzoztil, kejan ba, “bow, kneel” and kejel, “to be kneeling,” along with kehi, “kneel,” kehleh, “kneeling,” and kehuh, “genuflect” in present-day Tzotzil (Laughlin 1975:171 1988, I:22) for its part, Tzetal has kejaj, “kneel,” and kejel, “kneeling” (Berlin and Kaufman 1997:35). There may even be an expression for the kneeling that takes place when a player is about to strike a ball, as on the Colonia La Esperanza marker from Chiapas, Mexico ( Figure 1, Kowalski 1989:22fn.1).
A cunning and aggressive competitor, Diocles might lead from the beginning of the race ( occupavit et vicit), dart around in the final moments ( eripuit et vicit) or accelerate from far behind to swift victory ( successit et vicit Devitt 2019:186 fn.488).įor Maya ballplay, there is growing awareness of how big rubber balls might be - very big, as pointed out by Michael Coe (2003) - and the various acts by which they were thrown, yahlaj or possibly tz’ohnaj(?) being two such motions (see Beliaev and Houston 2020:fn.1 Stuart 1997 for an alternative reading of the second as jatz’naj, see Taube and Zender 2009:202–203, fig. Many dead Romans are forgotten, but not so Gaius Appuleius Diocles, who, in the early 2nd century AD, raced his chariot to many victories and a fortune greater than that of many Roman senators (Bell 2014:498 Struck 2010). Leadership might be bestowed, as in soccer, on stars who manage better than others to dribble around opponents and land a shot, or, in the sports that involve horses, bring a team of them past the finish mark. The wrong person is put in charge, bungles things, and is kept there only by social pressures. The tasks are heavy, and selection cannot be undertaken lightly (Cotterill and Cheetham 2016), yet bonds of affection and kinship, a mistaken evaluation of someone for leadership, tend to operate more often than not (Fransen et al. Not surprisingly - there is much money and prestige involved - scholars of sports give occasional thought to who might be chosen captain.
But it is the team events that crowd with social drama, including athletes who languish on the bench and others, the captains, who toss the coin, lead the charge, and argue with referees.
There is exhaustive training that leads to heartbreak or a medal and coveted position on the podium. Sporting events are much in mind these days, as we watch the end of the Tokyo Olympics. Stephen Houston (Brown University) and David Stuart (University of Texas, Austin)