Chunkey ( Eng. Chunkey ), also known as the "game with a hoop and pole" [1] - a game common among US Indians . It arose in the period preceding contact with Europeans (the cultures of Fort Aincent , Mississippi and several others). It consisted of one of the players pushing a stone disk (often from a slope), while other players threw their spears in order to get as close to the place of the supposed disk stop. The game arose around 600 BC. e. in the region near the ancient city of Kahokiya , now a neighborhood of the city of St. Louis in Missouri . The game of chunks took place in large stadiums with an area of up to 19 hectares, in the presence of numerous spectators - residents of the entire region (that is, Kahokiya itself, residents of surrounding villages and even guests from distant lands). It remained popular after the decline of the Mississippian culture around 1500. Versions of this game were distributed in many places in North America. The ethnographer of the early period, James Adair ( en: James Adair (historian) ) translated its name as "the performance of hard work." Often the game was associated with bets on its outcome, and players could mortgage all their property in the hope of winning. The losers were sometimes forced to commit suicide. [2]
Mythology
The chunk player portrayed as the Falcon Dancer was an important mythological figure in the Southeast ceremonial complex . In the southeast and in the center of the USA, many images of this character were found, mainly the following motifs are presented:
- "Game pose" - many graphic images of a player in chunks represent him at the moment of throwing a stone disk. [3]
- “Broken pole” - a pole for playing chunks was usually depicted as stripped and almost always broken. In the mythological cycle, this could mean the end of the game or defeat. During archaeological excavations, poles for chunks were not found, although a copper case was found next to stones for playing chunks during excavations of barrow 72 in Kahokiya . [3]
- “Hat-cylinder” - a hat of cylindrical shape from unknown material, used only by players in chunks.
- “An apron in the form of a heart or a sack” - archaeologists suggest that a human scalp could be on the player’s belt. [3]
- “Mangum Flounce” is an unusual motif consisting of loop-shaped lines above and below the chunk player’s belt.
Although the figure designated as the Dancer-Falcon, or the Chunk Player, was not always depicted during the game, many of the accompanying attributes (scalp, severed heads, broken poles for playing chunks, etc.) make it possible to identify this character even when he is not depicted in a game setting. Some of the attributes emphasize the seriousness of the game - apparently, the payment for the defeat could be the execution of any of the losers. [3]
After contact with Europeans
Many Native American peoples continued to play chunks even after contact with Europeans along the entire south of the modern USA, including such peoples as Muskogee , Chicago , Chumashi [1] , Choctaw and Mandanas , as the artist George Kathleen testified in 1832 [4] :
| The game of chunks is an excellent sporting exercise, which mandans do almost continuously, if the weather permits, and nothing at this moment takes their attention anymore. Definitely, this game is their favorite entertainment, it is played next to the settlement on the clay platform, which is used for this purpose until it becomes smooth as the floor ... The game begins with two players, one from each side begin to run side by side with each other, and one player rolls in front of them on the road a small ring with a diameter of 5 to 8 cm, carved in stone; the rest run after him with their “chunks” (a pole about 1 m long 80 cm long, with small pieces of leather at each end 2.5 cm long or a little more) that they throw while running ... so that it falls so that the ring could fall on him, and one of the pieces of leather went through him. |
At the beginning of the colonial period, the game was popular among Indians in the southeast of the future United States. [5] The chunking fields of the Muskogee people consisted of well-aligned and cleaned areas surrounded by a mound on all sides, with a pole in the center, and two more poles on opposite sides. Poles were used for another game - the ball. [5] Stones, which in themselves were valuable objects, belonged to a settlement (city) or clan, and not to individuals, and were carefully stored.
The rules for calculating points differed among different nations:
- The Cherokee calculated the outcome of the game, based on how close the stone was to certain marks on the six-chunks.
- Chikaso counted the outcome of the game, counting one point to the player closest to the disc, or two points if the spear touched the disc.
- Choctaw played this game on a field with a width of 3.7 meters and a length of 30.5 meters. The poles were made of pecan wood (a kind of hickory ) with four cuts at the front end, one in the middle and two at the other end. The score depended on which of the sets of cuts was closer to the disk. The game ended when one of the players scored 12 points.
See also
- Mesoamerican ball game
- Lacrosse
Literature
- White, John Manchin. Indians of North America. M .: Centerpolygraph, 2006. - 251 with ISBN 5-9524-2347-7
- Hudson, Charles M., “The Southeastern Indians”, University of Tennessee Press, 1976. ISBN 0-87049-248-9
- Pauketat, Timothy R .; Loren, Diana DiPaolo (Ed.) (December 1, 2004) North American Archeology . Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-23184-6 .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Chumash Indians-Sports and Recreation . Date of treatment December 27, 2009. Archived on May 9, 2007.
- ↑ Timothy Pauketat. Ancient Cahokia and the Mississippians . - Cambridge University Press, 2004 .-- 218 p. - ISBN 0521520665 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 F. Kent Reilly, F. Kent Reilly, III. Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms . - University of Texas Press, 2007 .-- 299 p. - ISBN 0292713479 .
- ↑ George Kathleen . Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians . - JW Bradley, 1859 .-- 26 p.
- ↑ 1 2 Charles Hudson. The Southeastern Indians . - University of Tennessee Press, 1978. - S. 421. - 573 p. - ISBN 0870492489 .