Hey, we could reinvent this with a twist. The next time two countries want
to have a war the two groups of politicians play a game, losers are sacrificed.
Just think of how unpopular wars would then be if politician's necks were
(literally) on the line.
Andrew McPhee
At 02:02 AM 20/03/2005 -0800, Winsor wrote:
>The game had high stakes in many ways. It was used to settle disputes
>between city states. Instead of a war they had a ball game. The players
>were soldiers and the sacrifice of the losing team enabled them to
>avoid the destruction of war for many centuries. Evidently the system
>finally broke down when a Toltec with his band of soldiers from the
>north conquered and crowned himself king of one of the Mayan city
>states and proceeded to conquer his neighbors. There is physical
>evidence that it was war that finally destroyed the Mayan high
>civilization.
>
>
>
>On Mar 19, 2005, at 11:44 PM, James N. McBride wrote:
>
> > As I recall the article I read on the subject didn't say they played
> > to the
> > death but rather that the losers were executed after the game. A
> > sacrifice
> > of some sort I think.
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