The mixtec ball game among the afrodescendents of the Costa Chica:Interethnic relationships through the game

Abstract

“On Sunday we have an engagement” is a common phrase between the players of mixtec ball in theafrodescendent communities in Costa Chica, Oaxaca. The engagement consists in going to indigenous towns to play mixtec ball game. The afrodescendant ball players develop different networks with their indigenouspartners. Historically, the interethnic dynamics between afrodescendents and indigenous peoples of thezone has been characterized by different asymmetries, stigmas and prejudices that derive in processes ofexclusion and discrimination in different moments. Through the game of ball, nevertheless, they establishmechanisms of interaction where the exclusion is erased. In this article I will present the type of networksthat are established by playing mixtec ball, and the way in which elements of “otherness” are reinforcedbetween these two sectors of the population.