Turns out there's
a lot of running involved in running an empire.
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The Aztecs were a nimble
bunch, whether they were delivering imperial messages or playing
ballgames. TOBES STUDIO FOR ATLAS OBSCURA
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With gyms, pools, and spin studios around the world temporarily
shuttered, it can be hard to find ways to exercise the way we used
to. Atlas Obscura is taking this time to look back at different
groups from history, to see what lessons they might have for working
out in ways that help us maintain social distance.
LONG BEFORE SPORTS LEAGUES AROUND the world were abruptly put on
hold, and centuries before they were founded, Mesoamerican cultures
were having a ball on courts of their own. The Olmecs, Maya, and
Aztecs all had variations of a ball game, but the Aztecs may have
had the most well-known version of the affair, which sometimes culminated
in heads rolling, along with the ball.
Though human sacrifice is thankfully off the table today, the gameor
a makeshift analog thereofis still playable, at home, with
the right equipment. And in the midst of a global pandemic, it helps
to have the right conditions too.
In some parts of the world, life as we knew it is beginning to
resume. (This may change when a second wave of coronavirus infections
occur, but for now, many countries in Asia and Europe, and some
U.S. states, have begun slowly returning to business as usual.)
For team sports, from Korean baseball to Spanish soccer, that means
playing in stadiums and arenas without fans. And if those athletes
can do it in those eerily quiet venues, so too can you in your local
park.
Mesoamerican ballgames long precede the Aztecs, though they were
a mainstay by the time Aztec society developed, in the early 14th
century. The rules are still a matter of debate, as archaeologists
have had to work backwards from the court remains to figure out
how these games may have been played. But they likely featured two
teams and players acrobatically moving a rubber ball up and down
the court. Some ballcourts, like the large one at Chichén
Itzá, had tall wall-mounted hoopsa forerunner of modern
basketball, perhaps, albeit one with far less scoring.
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Many ballcourtsincluding
this one in Monte Albán, in the Mexican state of Oaxacaare
still preserved today. ANDREW MCMILLAN / PUBLIC DOMAIN
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Needless to say, reenacting the games played under those conditions
is impossible at home (or without a critical mass of players). But
if you're in a part of the globe that's been hit especially
hard by the coronavirus, there's an alternative.
"One of the ways in which modern scholars can begin to enter
into the nuances of Mexica [aka Aztec] culture is through language,"
writes John Schwaller, an Aztec historian at the University of Albany,
on the educational company Mexicolore's
website. Schwaller enumerates the instances of Nahuatl (the Aztec
language) words that refer to runningpaina, tlaloa,
totoca, and tlaczain the Florentine Codex, a
fairly comprehensive 16th-century study of Mesoamerica.
Not all of that running was recreationalthere were messages
that needed delivering, and some runs had a ritual purposebut
the distances were great enough that extensive training was required.
Luckily for you, running hasn't gone out of style, unlike the
Mesoamerican ball games. Plus, with no other people and few materials
required, it makes for attainable exercise.
Though not Aztec per se, the indigenous Rarámuri of Chihuahua,
Mexico, make for a good modern equivalent. Famous for their distance
runningthe lengths of which vary, but a relatively "low-distance"
jog can total 150 milesthe Rarámuri make ultramarathons
look like walks in the park.
The long runs are a regular part of Rarámuri lifea
far cry from the months of focused training many of us do for a
single 26-mile marathon. As John Kennedy, a UCLA anthropologist,
told The
New York Times in 1994, if running "were removed from Tarahumara
life, the effect would be greater than if some sporting activity
were dropped from our own culture.
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Modern iterations of
the Mesoamerican game are a bit tamer, with lower hoops, but
still physically taxing. TONY HISGETT / CC BY-2.0
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For the Aztecs, the ballgames and running were similarly essential
institutions. Ballgames were played on every social level, and sometimes
had ceremonial or state-related functions. And running was a key
part of communicating across the vast Aztec empire.
In The Fifteenth Month: Aztec History in the Rituals of Panquetzaliztli,
Schwaller describes the extensive messenger network that vined across
the empire, where couriers would run messages to the next courier,
in a relay to get the mail to its destination. Hernán Cortés,
the conquistador, once estimated that a team of Aztec runners could
cover 260 miles10 marathonsin a single day.
Though the invading Spanish eventually killed off the Aztecs and
their empire, some Aztec traditions have continued to this day.
If you're stuck at home, you can don some sneakers and run
like an Aztec (or at least like a Rarámuri). And once your
quarantine ends, you can find a rubber ball, grab some friends,
and get to work on your own iteration of a revived
Mesoamerican pastime.
Whatever you do, remember the fundamental rule of getting fit,
which hasn't changed in millennia: No pain, no gain.
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