Olmec Social Life
The picture below shows the Olmecs playing the Mesoamerican ball game.
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Olmec society, like many early civilizations, revolved around agriculture and hierarchies. At one time, all tended to agriculture and lived humble and modest lifestyles. Of course, a higher elite arose as inequalities in wealth and land came out of the woodwork, and over time became the rulers that governed and controlled the laboring lower class. More details on this class hierarchy can be found under Olmec Politics, but the overall political structure was the entirety of societal structure as well. Similarly, the integration of religion into society led to many societal elements of Olmec civilization overlapping with its religious aspects.
The Olmec played a Mesoamerican ball game that was played by the Aztec, Maya, and other Mexican civilizations. It’s undecided whether or not they invented it or adopted it from elsewhere, but it is clear much of the ball game’s spread was due to the Olmec. In general, the aim of the game was to launch a large heavy rubber ball into hoops hewn from stone while getting the opposing team to drop it themselves. Similar to soccer, players were restricted to the usage of certain parts of the body. In the Mesoamerican ball game (for lack of a better title) hands or feet could not be utilized; the ball could only be manipulated by the hips, knees, and elbows. Overall, the game was vicious and violent; the ball could easily seriously injure or kill a participant with any sufficient force, only a helmet and a uniform was issued to each player, and the losing team’s captain was offered as sacrifice to the gods via decapitation. It was normal for those watching to make wagers based on who they thought would triumph; such stakes could grow as serious as the risk of offering oneself to slavery or one’s family to servitude.
Overall, such a game was used to illustrate the struggle between the forces of good and evil omnipresent in Olmec religion. The act of human sacrifice was seen as benign; it was believed to feed the sun’s hunger for blood or enrich the Earth.
The Olmec played a Mesoamerican ball game that was played by the Aztec, Maya, and other Mexican civilizations. It’s undecided whether or not they invented it or adopted it from elsewhere, but it is clear much of the ball game’s spread was due to the Olmec. In general, the aim of the game was to launch a large heavy rubber ball into hoops hewn from stone while getting the opposing team to drop it themselves. Similar to soccer, players were restricted to the usage of certain parts of the body. In the Mesoamerican ball game (for lack of a better title) hands or feet could not be utilized; the ball could only be manipulated by the hips, knees, and elbows. Overall, the game was vicious and violent; the ball could easily seriously injure or kill a participant with any sufficient force, only a helmet and a uniform was issued to each player, and the losing team’s captain was offered as sacrifice to the gods via decapitation. It was normal for those watching to make wagers based on who they thought would triumph; such stakes could grow as serious as the risk of offering oneself to slavery or one’s family to servitude.
Overall, such a game was used to illustrate the struggle between the forces of good and evil omnipresent in Olmec religion. The act of human sacrifice was seen as benign; it was believed to feed the sun’s hunger for blood or enrich the Earth.