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Concept
Batey (game)
Summary
Batéy was the name given to a special plaza around which the Caribbean Taino built their settlements. It was usually a rectangular area surrounded by stones with carved symbols (petroglyphs).
The batey was the area in which batey events (e.g. ceremonies, the ball game, etc.) took place. The batey ceremony (also known as batu) can be viewed from some historical accounts as more of a judicial contest rather than a game. Because historical accounts of the game and court space come from (mostly Spanish) European explorers, the true nature, history, and function of the batey is still contested. Neighboring tribes may have used batey matches to resolve differences without warfare.
Ball Court/Plaza Sites of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
Bateys are found in Turks, Caicos, St. Croix, Dominican Republic, The Bahamas, eastern Cuba, Haiti, and "the largest number of known ball courts are to be found in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands".
There is no consensus as to whether the batey ball game in the Caribbean was independently developed in different regions of the New World or whether it diffused from one or more locations. The large centrally located cemeteries in Saladoid villages served as plazas like those seen in the lowland communities of South America.
The ceremonial and religious significance of the later-developed ball game appears to indicate a connection with the Mesoamerican ball-game, and it has been argued that the batey ball-game of the Caribbean is a simplified version of the Maya pok ta pok, specified to the culture and religion of the Taino. It is possible that the route of diffusion of the game of pok ta pok and other elements of Mayan culture was not a direct one from the Yucatan to the Caribbean, but an indirect one by way of South America, because the Otomacos in South America also played a similar game.
Ethnographer Ralph Beals reported in the early 1930s that the Acaxee tribe from western Mexico played a ball game called "vatey [or] batey" on "a small plaza, very flat, with walls at the sides".
Official source
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