Presentation: One of the hallmarks of Mesoamerican civilizations was the ballgame which was first played about 1500 BCE among the Gulf Coast Olmecs. Three thousand years later the Spaniard Hernán Cortés witnessed the game during his encounter with the Aztecs in Tenochtitlán. Sometimes played for sport, sometimes as an opportunity for beating the odds at a game of chance, the ballgame was also conducted as both ritual and spectacle in the great public spaces of Mesoamerican cities. On these occasions, the game was likely accompanied by much pomp and circumstance as befitting a ceremony that was believed to ensure the continuity of the universe by nourishing the gods through human sacrifice in exchange for blessings of rain, fertility and prosperity. In this presentation we will learn how the Zapotecs put their unique stamp on one of Mesoamerica’s great traditions.

Presenter Bio: Originally from Canada, Robert Markens holds a PhD in Anthropology from Brandeis University, Massachusetts, USA. He has been a researcher since 2011 at the Institute for Aesthetic Research—Oaxaca Unit of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. His current area of ​​research is political power in pre-Hispanic Oaxaca and how the principles of power are reflected in works of art, public buildings, and urban planning. He has taught at several universities such as UNAM, the Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca, the Universidad del Sureste, the University of Costa Rica, Linfield University, the University of Chicago, and New York University.