What Games Did Maya Children Play?

Play as preparation for adult life

Maya children played many of the same games that their parents played, and their play was understood as a form of training for adult roles. Boys played ballgames that simulated warfare, girls learned to spin and weave with miniature tools, and both sexes played with miniature versions of the ritual objects and household items they would one day use. The games were a central part of Maya family, kinship, and gender roles and the wider social life described in Maya society, politics, and daily life.

Play was supervised but not directed. Mothers and fathers observed children at play and intervened only when disputes arose. Children learned the rules of the games by watching adults and older siblings, and they played in the courtyards, the streets, and the fields, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups of mixed ages. The games were not segregated by sex, but boys and girls tended to play different games, and the games that both sexes played were often modified to suit the players.

The Mesoamerican ballgame

The most prestigious of Maya games was the Mesoamerican ballgame, called pitz in Classic Maya and pok-ta-pok or ulama in Postclassic and modern Maya languages. The game was played with a solid rubber ball, weighing about 3 to 4 kilograms, that was hit with the hips, the thighs, and the forearms. The ball could not be touched with the hands or the feet. The court was a long, narrow I-shaped masonry structure with sloping side walls, and the ball had to be kept in the air by striking it against these walls.

A ballgame match could be a major public event. The murals of Bonampak show players in courtly costume, with body paint, headdresses, and jewelry, performing a ceremonial version of the game. The famous ballcourt at Chichén Itzá is one of the largest in the Maya area, and the ballcourt at Copán is the most thoroughly excavated. The architecture and the ritual of the ballgame are described in Maya pyramids, temples, and sacred architecture.

For children, the ballgame was a more modest affair. Smaller courts were used, sometimes marked out in the dirt of a household patio, and the ball was smaller and lighter. Children learned the basic skills — striking the ball with the hip, the thigh, and the forearm; keeping the ball in the air; passing to a teammate; defending the side walls — by playing informal games. As they grew older, they graduated to the more formal courts and the more demanding adult rules.

The peon board

The peon board game, also called bul in Yucatec Maya, was a race game played on a wooden board with carved depressions and shaped playing pieces, often made of bone, shell, or carved wood. The board was sometimes called a chaac mool after the reclining figures used in some designs, and the carved examples are among the most beautiful of Maya art objects. The peon board game is described in Maya pottery, jade, and material culture.

The basic structure of the game is well known. Two players moved their pieces along a path of depressions, racing to reach the end first, and the path was interspersed with hazards, rewards, and shortcuts. The number of depressions varied, but most peon boards had a path of between 20 and 52 depressions, and the carved designs on the board often represented the hazards symbolically. The modern descendants of the game survive in the patolli of central Mexico and in several highland Maya games.

A child could begin playing the peon board at a young age, using simple boards and pebbles as pieces. The carved boards used by adults were prestigious possessions, and the carved peon boards of the elite, with detailed iconography, were both ritual objects and works of art.

Knucklebones and other games of chance

A simple game played by both children and adults was the knucklebones game, in which five astragali (sheep or deer anklebones) were tossed and caught according to specific rules. The bones had four sides, and the player scored points according to the combinations that landed face up. The game was a form of controlled gambling, and children played for small stakes — cacao beans, small toys, or favors — while adults played for larger stakes.

A version of the knucklebones game survived in the colonial period and is still played in some highland communities. The carved peon boards and the knucklebones are among the most common finds in domestic contexts, and they were probably among the most common possessions of every household. The wider use of chance and divination in the Maya world is described in Maya priesthood and shamanism.

Dolls and miniature figurines

Maya girls and boys made and played with dolls and figurines of clay, cloth, and grass. A typical doll was a small figure of unburned clay, often just a few centimeters tall, dressed in a tiny version of the adult costume. The most elaborate examples, the Jaina-style figurines of the late Classic period, were masterworks of the ceramic art, with detailed costumes, jewelry, and removable headdresses. The figurines are described in Maya pottery, jade, and material culture.

Most dolls were simpler, and they were made by children themselves. A small piece of unburned clay could be shaped into a head and a body, with a few pinched details for the face and the arms, and dried in the sun. A small piece of cloth could be wrapped around the figure as a huipil. A few such dolls have been found in the archaeological record, and many more must have been made and discarded.

A related type of play object was the miniature vessel — small ceramic copies of adult plates, bowls, and cups, often just a few centimeters across. These miniatures were made by children and by apprentice potters, and they are a useful record of the development of ceramic styles.

Miniature tools and the play of craft

Children, especially boys, often had miniature tools: tiny axes of polished stone, small bows and arrows, miniature looms, and small clay spindles. These objects were used both in play and in training, and the same skills that a child learned with a miniature axe were later applied to the full-size tool. A child who had learned to grind maize on a miniature metate could be trusted with the household metate.

The miniature tools are useful to archaeologists because they reflect the form of the full-size tools, and they have been used to reconstruct the appearance of objects that did not survive in the archaeological record. The miniature loom, in particular, has been important for understanding the development of backstrap-loom weaving. The technology of weaving is described in Maya textiles, weaving, and huipil.

Toys, marbles, and small finds

Children played with clay marbles and with clay spinning tops, both of which have been found in domestic contexts. The marbles were small spheres of baked clay, often about a centimeter in diameter, that could be rolled on the ground or used in shooting games. The tops were small conical objects that could be spun on a flat surface.

Other small finds that were probably toys include small whistles of clay, clay rattles, and small animal figurines. A small clay whistle of a bird, a frog, or a human figure was a common possession of Maya children, and the whistles have been found in large numbers in the excavations of residential areas.

Games of physical skill

In addition to the ballgame, children played many games of physical skill: running races, jumping contests, wrestling, and a game similar to modern tag. Some games involved the throwing of darts or stones at targets, and a few involved mock battles with wooden swords. These games were often part of larger community festivals, and the winners received small prizes.

A game that combined physical skill and ritual was the fire-passing ceremony, in which young men and women had to cross a line of fire or jump over a fire pit. The ceremony was a test of courage and skill, and it was associated with the New Year rites and the agricultural cycle. The wider ritual calendar is described in the tzolk’in sacred 260-day calendar and in the haab’ solar 365-day calendar.

Storytelling, song, and the play of imagination

Maya children also played with stories and songs. A child would learn the myths and legends of the community by listening to the adults and by reciting them in turn. The most famous of these stories is the Popol Vuh, the K’iche’ Maya creation narrative, which is still performed in dramatic form in highland communities. The Popol Vuh is described in the Popol Vuh: Maya creation myth.

Children’s songs often combined game and music, with a group of children singing a call-and-response song while playing a hand-clapping game or a hopping game. The songs could be improvised or learned from the adults, and they were a way of transmitting the linguistic and rhythmic conventions of the community.

Toys and gender

Gender distinctions in play were visible from a young age. Boys played with miniature weapons, miniature tools, and balls, while girls played with miniature household objects, dolls, and weaving implements. By the age of six or seven, a child’s play was clearly oriented toward the adult role he or she would eventually assume. The training of elite youth in the k’ak’al paal is described in scribes, literacy, and education in Maya society.

The gender distinction was not absolute. Girls sometimes played ballgames, and boys sometimes played with dolls. But the overall pattern was clear, and the games helped to socialize children into their adult roles. A boy who had not learned to play the ballgame by adolescence was considered unready for adult life, and a girl who had not learned to spin and weave was considered unprepared for marriage.

Survival in modern Maya communities

Many of the games of the ancient Maya survive in modern Maya communities. The ballgame, in a less elaborate form, is still played in some regions. The peon board game, in the form of patolli and other derivatives, is still played in highland Guatemala and Chiapas. The knucklebones game, dolls, miniature tools, marbles, and storytelling games are still common. The continuity of play is one of the most visible signs of the persistence of Maya culture, as described in the modern Maya identity and survival.

Sources

Sharer, R. J. & Traxler, L. P. (2006). The Ancient Maya (6th ed.). Stanford University Press. — link
Hassig, R. (1988). Ancient Maya Warfare. University of Texas Press. — link
McAnany, P. A. & Eberl, R. A. (2014). Maya and Spaniard at Yucatan, 1550–1780. University of Texas Press. — link
Restall, M. (2001). The Maya World: Yucatec Culture and Society, 1550–1850. Stanford University Press. — link
Tozzer, A. M. (1941). Landa’s Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán. Peabody Museum Papers vol. XVIII. Harvard. — link