Finely crafted Huastec figurines, generally found in funerary contexts, provide a glimpse into the ritual costuming associated with the ballgame. Here, the female player wears little clothing apart from a towering headdress, earspools, and a beaded necklace—all denoting her social status. Black paint around the groin area indicates a garment akin to sports briefs. Although the protective belt (yoke) is not depicted, as in other figures, the signature knee pad on her left unmistakably identifies her as a ballplayer.
The Mesoamerican ballgame was played on formal courts, which were composed of at least two parallel platforms. Players wore specialized gear to protect body parts when striking the solid rubber ball with the hip or the hand. They shielded their midsection with a large belt called a yugo (yoke) and wore knee pads for when they had to drop down to move the hip toward the ball. The ballgame was typically the domain of men, but in a few regions such as the Huasteca along the northern Gulf Coast of Mexico, where women were thought to hold equal political power, they also played the game.
Kim Richter
2025
