The Real Name of the Game

Every civilisation that invented competition gave it a purpose larger than victory. A ritual. A war. A prayer. A judgment.Four stories from four continents. A rubber ball in a Yucatán stone court where somebody died at the end of the game — we do not know who. Two men in a Japanese ring, throwing salt for a harvest they no longer remember. An English peasant with a longbow, on a Sunday afternoon, being trained to kill a Frenchman he will never meet. A young man on a rock in the Pacific, waiting for a bird to lay an egg, so that his chief can become sacred for a year.Each one looks like a sport. None of them is what you think.An episode of Risto's History Rhymes.#Sport #Ritual #HistoryPodcast