I recently visited the fronton in Denai, Florida. Let me tell you, hell, if it exist, must be a fronton. Still, while watching the embarrassed-looking players shuffle defensively on stage to cheesey recorded fanfare, it occurred to me that jai-alai seemd to have something in common with the game once played by the ancient Mayans before their civilization was wiped out by the beneficent hand of Christianity. At the end of each important match the losing players would be sacrificed unless it was a particularly august occasion, in which case it was the winners who were honorarilly slaughtered. I wonder; what, if any, is the connection?
Well, if this is the basis of your argument, start again. Christianity had nothing to do with the demise of Maya civilization, beneficent or otherwise.
The Mayans are still around, actually. They’re in Central America, and they can get pretty loud in political discussions on various topics.
Of course, Yax. Christianity had nothing to do with the Spanish conquest of Latin America. They were Jewish. And forced conversion never, ever occurred. Thanks for setting me straight.
And, Sinungaling, you may note I wrote “Maya (sic) civilization” not “The Mayans.”
Oh, and if it isn’t too much trouble, can we please get back to jai alai?
Well, seeing as how jai alai is derived from the Basque game of pelota, I can’t imagine it’s got much to do with the Maya civilization at all.
I think the game you’re thinking of is the game from Chichen Itza known as the “Ball Court” game. That game was akin to basketball, as two teams competed to throw a rubber ball through a stone ring.
braintree, this place is about fighting ignorance - so with that in mind:
First off it is yax not Yax. Second, yax is a mayan word, and I know of what I speak (A degree in archaeology and work at mayan sites).
The exact cause of the downfall of Maya culture is not known. There are two ideas that hold sway in current thought.
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Envrionmental collapse. A change in climate meant that the farms could no longer support the large populations in the cities.
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Unending war. War was a ritual activity for the Maya, as captured enemies ofter were sacrified (maybe in the ball game you alluded to in the OP).
Most likely the true cause is a combination of the two. One thing that is certain, the Maya were past the height of their civilization and well into their decline by the time that Europeans arrived on the New World scene. Therefore, Christianity had nothing to do with the end of the Maya. However, certain people like the bishop Landa essentially killed any chance at a greater understanding of their society by destroying most of the Maya writting that he came across. Only 5 codices remain.
True.
This however does not follow from the above. That the Maya were in decline is correct, but numerous small Mayan states were still in existence. Many had to be out and out conquered. For example the states of the Yucatan were invaded 1526-1528, 1531-1535, and finally conquered in the campaign of 1540-1546. Perhaps the last of them, Peten Itza, was attacked in 1622, 1624, 1696, and finally conquered in 1697.
So it is fair to say the Spanish/Christianity did have something to do with the ‘end of the Maya’, in that it terminated Mayan successor states that could have re-cohered at some point.
- Tamerlane
I think you mean Dania unless there’s some city in Florida called Denai that I’ve never heard of.
It’s quite the strange mix of people you find at Dania Jai-Alai. It’s worth it to go there just to people watch. People yell some of the most amuzing things at the players, trying to get the players off their game so they can win their bets. Good stuff.
Sorry about the misspelling of Dania. Actually when I was there there were virtually no people. That’s just one of the things that made the joint so depressing. It was analagous to sitting in Cleveland Municipal Stadium watching the pre-Jacobs Field Indians.
What little crowd there was reminded me of the passengers in Woody Allen’s railroad car at the beginning of “Stardust Memories.” Like them, not counting a few dying catcalls, the paying customers were creepilly non-reactive.
And,exactly right, Tamerlane. Yax does have a point in that there might have been comparatively little Mayan culture left but what there was the Spaniards and their missionaries did their enthusiastic best to obliterate. The way I score it, I overstated the case on the one hand — albeit as a stray wisecrack — while Yax made the arguably unwarranted assumption that Mayan culture would have continued to vanish without outside interference on the other.
You know, I was really falling in love with the idea of associating hai alai with human sacrifice. Thanks, Duke, for destroying some more of the beauty in my life.