History’s Most Dangerous Games

History’s Most Dangerous Games

https://art.tn/view/2227/en/history’s_most_dangerous_games/

Traditional games from all around the world , from Guanniu in the China to horseback wrestling in Kyrgyzstan , reveal just how strongly people have an urge to get physical.
We just hope their parents signed the necessary consent forms.

Buzkashi
Then you have to respect them more when they solve the blood deficit with a headless corpse. Not human, granted, but a headless goat carcass shouldn’t be scoffed at. There’s a third level of respect due when you realize people have been playing buzkashi since Turkic tribes invented it as a way to train cavalry units (just like polo). It only took a few years for American football to thicken up its helmets and pads, yet Afghani athletes never once looked at their decapitated herd animal and thought to replace it with a stuffed counterpart.

Calcio Storico
For most of the players, it seems like their motivation for playing is to honor Florentine tradition, as well as test their own personal limits. And test them they will, because in terms of rules, there aren’t many. They were established in 1580 and haven’t changed much. You can’t sucker punch or kick anyone in the head. Otherwise, you can punch, headbutt, trip, wrestle and choke your way across the field.

Bo-Taoshi
It’s a shame that modern Japanese culture’s reputation is so dominated by general weirdness and unsettling cartoons, because the small nation has some truly badass traditions, Bo-Taoshi being just one of them. When it comes to rules, Bo-Taoshi is surprisingly simple. For one team, it’s defend a pole for two minutes. For the other, attack it and bend it to a 45 degree angle. Where the complications come in is in practice. Both teams attack and defend at the same time and contain 150 players, meaning there’s 300 guys beating each other to a pulp for two minutes. For protection, all you get is a padded helmet. Otherwise, it’s you and your clothed body smashing one human wall against the other.

Mesoamerican Ball Game
The Olmecs were the first people to record playing the Mesoamerican Ball Game and by all indications for them, it was a fairly ordinary game. It was similar to volleyball, but with a solid rubber ball and where you used your whole body and wore thick padding and a helmet. It wasn’t until the Mayans got their hands on it that it got weirdly hardcore. Presumably, they played it the same, but definitely amplified the mythos. Mostly, the first game was between humans and the lords of the underworld. Under the Mayans, the game could be used to settle territorial and hereditary disputes, stood in for traditional warfare, and could even predict the future. The Mayans would also frequently sacrifice the losing team, who were usually prisoners of war.

Guanniu
In three minutes, men from Jiaxing, in China's Zhejiang province, must wrestle a full-grown bull to the ground. The competition is called "Guanniu."