Scholars employ the phrase "Mesoamerican ballgame" to refer to a diverse number of sport or ritual activities involving the use of a ball. All Mesoamerican peoples practiced "the ballgame" in one form or another. The three best-known forms of the game are the hipball, handball, and stickball variants.

Temporal and Regional Diversity

Mesoamerica is an ethnically, linguistically, and geographically varied region that is identifiable by shared cultural traits and religious beliefs which date to the pre-Columbian era (i.e., prior to the sixteenth century, which brought European contact). This culturally distinctive area encompasses the contemporary political boundaries of Mexico (excluding the northern, desert region), Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Mesoamerican ballgames reflect the diversity of the cultural and geographic environment in which they originated. The Mesoamerican ballgame also had strong ties with the ballgames of peoples of the North American Southwest and Caribbean.

Mesoamerican ballgames...