Ancient, sacred bloodsport to be focus of Anthropology talk

“Of Jaguars and Men:  The Ballgame, Boxing and Sacred Bloodsport in Ancient Mesomerica” is the title of a lecture to be presented by Karl Taube of the University of California, Riverside on Tuesday, Oct. 7. Scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in Davis Auditorium, Palamountain Hall, the event is sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, with support from the Latin American Studies Program. The public is invited.

One of the more frequently noted aspects of the rubber ballgame in Mesoamerica is its close relation to human sacrifice, especially in terms of decapitation. However, there tends to be little discussion of the underlying motivations and meanings of this ritual act. In this presentation, Taube will discuss how human sacrifice and the ballgame relates to agricultural fertility and abundance, including the ritual flooding of ball courts to denote them as sources of fertility growth. He will trace this symbolic complex to the early Olmec (ca. 1200-500 B.C.) who offered rubber balls to the sacred spring at El Manatí and portrayed the feline Olmec rain god as a ballplayer. The Olmec also related their "were-jaguar" rain deity to ritual boxing, a widespread but little studied sport in ancient Mesoamerica. The early Zapotec site of Dainzu features many monumental reliefs of ritual boxers wearing jaguar helmet masks, at times with the facial features of Cocijo, the Zapotec rain god. In addition, the Zapotec hand held stone manoplas often used in boxing often portray jaguar faces. The tradition of ritual boxing continues to this day in highland Guerrero, where youths dressed as jaguars engage in combat atop mountains, with their falling blood symbolizing fertile rain.

In addition to extensive archaeological and linguistic fieldwork in Yucatan, Taube has participated on archaeological projects in Chiapas, Mexico, coastal Ecuador, highland Peru, Copan, Honduras and in the Motagua Valley of Guatemala. Taube is currently serving as the project iconographer for the San Bartolo Project in the Peten of Guatemala. His broad interests in the archaeology and ethnology of Mesoamerica and the American Southwest include the development of agricultural symbolism in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica and the American Southwest, and the relation of Teotihuacan to the Classic Maya. Much of his recent research and publications center upon the writing and religious systems of ancient Mesoamerica.

Taube’s publications include the following books and monographs: The Murals of San Bartolo, El Peten, Guatemala, Part 1: The North Wall (2005) with William Saturno and David Stuart); Olmec Art at Dumbarton Oaks (2004); The Writing System of Ancient Teotihuacan (2000); The View from Yalahau: 1993 Archaeological Investigations in Northern Quintana Roo, Mexico (1995, editor with Scott Fedick); Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya (1993, with M.E. Miller); Aztec and Maya Myths (1993); The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan (1992).