Meso American Ritual - Stephen Mason

Recently I was reading an article for my anthropology class on ritual in Meso American culture. One thing that I noticed while reading the article was how many aspects of their daily life are rituals to reflect myths that they have. What specifically stood out to me in the article was the ball game that they play and how it reflects their myths. One theory on how the game was a reflection of their world was the idea that the game was a struggle between day and night and the hoops were considered portals to the underworld. The playing of this game was then a way to keep the world in check and to ritually regenerate the world. The ball game is often even mentioned in myth including the Maya twin myth of the Popol Vuh, which establishes the game as a ritual for fertility.
These ball courts, because of their connection to myth and ritual, are considered to be sacred by the Maya people. This reflects Lanes 2nd characteristic of sacred place which is that a sacred place is an “ordinary place, ritually made extraordinary.” Because of the ball ritual that they perform on these courts, the Maya are connected with their gods and can commune with them using the ball court as a medium as well as perform ritual to keep the world in balance.