From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ulama game is a Middle-American ballgame descended from an Aztec game ritual.
The word Ulama comes from the Nahuatl word ullamaliztli ("ballgame"). In its heyday in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, ulama was played among the Aztecs, Miztecs and Mayans in an area from modern-day Mexico to El Salvador and possibly in modern-day Arizona and New Mexico. Archeologists have uncovered 700 ball courts, rubber balls that have been dated as far as 1500 BCE and figurines recognizable as ulama players dated c. 400 AD.
Ulama playing fields were build in city center near the temples. The long oblong fields ? like the one at Monte Alban - have a wider part at each end and have banked or vertical stone walls.
Although archeologist and historians disagree on specifics, game had mythical and religious significance. According to Popol Vuh, Mayan hero twins were summoned to Xibalba, Mayan underworld, won a game against the lords of death and resurrected their father and uncle who became the maize god.
Aztecs brought their prisoners to their cities, let then grew famished and them made them to partake in a match of ulama. Weakened prisoners usually lost and were decapitated. Northern Aztec province of Tochtepec was taxed for 16.000 rubber balls a year - although not all the rubber was necessarily used for ballgames. Historians assume that Spanish Catholics suppressed the game as a pagan practice.
The modern forms have some following in the Mexican state of Sinaloa in the Mexican west coast. Beyond its players, it seems to interest mainly archeologists and historians who study it to draw conclusions about the nature of the original game.
The game has three main forms: most common ulama de cadera or hip ulama; ulama de antebrazo - where dominantly female players with three-player teams hit the smaller ball with their forearms; and ulama de palo or de mazo, played with a wooden bat. According to historians, the hip ulama is the form closest to the original ballgame.
The hip ulama is played with two five-man teams who can bounce the ball only with their hips ? after the first throw. The modern form uses knitted loincloths and rubber balls that weighs about 4 kg (9 lbs). The court is about 50 m (165?) long and 4 m (13?) wide and is divided by a central line separating the two teams.
The object of the game is to keep the ball in play and in bounds. Depending on the score - and the local variant of the rules - the ball is played either high or low. Team scores a point when a player of the opposing team hits the ball out of turn; misses the ball; knocks the ball out of bounds; touch the ball with their hands or some other body part aside from the hips; accidentally touches a teammate; lets the ball stop moving before it reaches the center line or even if they fail to announce the score after they have scored a point.
The team that first scores eight points wins. The scoring is rather complicated process; the score jumps directly from one point to three points, for example. If the both teams end up having the same amount of point after a turn, both sides begin again from zero. One record game reputedly lasted for eight days but most modern games are stopped after about two hours.
Modern ulma balls are made with a technique that is probably reminiscent of original one; rubber sap is boiled with other ingredients to help vulcanize it and make it less sticky. Technique also makes them hard to come by.History
Modern-day ulama
