The Mesoamerican ballgame /

This collection of essays on the first American pastime is both a pedantic and a fascinating volume. Played on masonry courts with a hard rubber ball, the popularity of the game lasted for 2,000 years and extended from Central America to what is today the American Southwest. What is known about the game is pieced together from iconography and figurines as well as accounts from Spanish sources that described the ballgames in their evolved state. The essays discuss more than the game and the size of its courts; they tell how the game itself reflected the politcal system its decentralization, centralization, and relations between competing elites and its differences among the Mayans and the Hohokam of Arizona. The game's religious symbolism varied greatly among ancient civilizations. Although written for scholars, general readers can gain much from this collection. The volume is moderately footnoted, has a good bibliography, and an excellent index.-R. Acu~na, California State University, Northridge