Batey (game) - Playing The Game

Playing The Game

The majority of the documented information about the ball game specific to the Caribbean islands comes from the historic accounts of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdez and Bartolomé de Las Casas (see picture to the right). The native name for the ball court and game was batey. Oviedo’s description of the balls is reminiscent of rubber or some kind of resin with rubber-like qualities; in all sources, some kind of reference is made to the unfamiliar bounciness of the balls.

The game was played by two teams, each team consisting anywhere from ten to thirty players. Normally, the teams were composed of only men, but occasionally women played the game as well. Oviedo noted that sometimes men and women would play on mixed teams, men and women against each other, and the married women against unwed female virgins. Married woman wore a shawl wrapped around their bodies while the men and virgin women went bare. Archaeologists have noted a connection between the ball courts and the stone “elbow” and “neck” collars prominent in Puerto Rico around the ball court sites. The function of these collars is not evident or explicitly detailed in historic accounts. However, it is interesting to note the similarity between the Caribbean stone collars and the Mexican stone yokes that were worn by Mesoamerican ball game players as ceremonial belts.

Faltas (errors or faults) were made when the ball came to a halt on the ground or if it had been thrown out of bounds (outside the stone boundary markers). The ball could only be struck from the shoulder, the elbow, the head, the hips, the buttock, or the knees and never with the hands. Las Casas noted that when women played the game they did not use their hips or shoulders, but their knees. Points were earned when the ball failed to be returned from a non-faulted play (similar to the earning of points in today’s volleyball). Play continued until the number of predetermined points was earned by a side. Often, players and chiefs made bets or wagers on the possible outcome of a game. These wagers were paid after a game was concluded.