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- A new understanding of how the ancient
inhabitants of Central America processed rubber could give anthropologists
a better insight into their culture.
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- In the most recent journal Science, researchers
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology describe how Mesoamericans
mastered the technology of processing rubber about 3,500 years before Goodyear.
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- When Spanish settlers arrived in the
New World in the 16th century, they were fascinated by a game played by
the native Americans in which athletes would hit balls through hoops placed
several feet above the courts. What mesmerized the Spanish was the way
these balls hit the ground and ricocheted into the air.
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- That was the Europeans' first experience
with rubber, but the Mesoamericans had been processing it since at least
1,600 B.C.
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- "We looked at 16th-century documents
written by the Spanish invaders and there was evidence that the ancient
Mesoamericans mixed latex with the juice of the morning glory" to
make rubber, explains researcher Michael J. Tarkanian.
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- To investigate the process, Tarkanian
and Dorothy Hosler, associate professor of archaeology and ancient technology
at MIT, traveled to the Chiapas region of Mexico, where they found people
still versed in the ancient technique.
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- The process involves collecting latex
from the Castilla elastica tree. A section of morning glory vine was beaten
and the juice from the vine was squeezed into the bucket containing the
latex. After about 15 minutes of stirring, the mixture solidified into
a mass that was formed into a ball, and exhibited the same properties as
rubber.
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- Ancient Mesoamericans used rubber for
medicines, and splattered it on paper that was burned like incense, in
addition to using it in ball games, says Michael E. Smith, professor of
anthropology at the University of Albany.
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- The ball game was an expression of Mesoamerican
culture: It was a way to do politics, practice religion and settle disputes.
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- The sport was "an arena in which
ritual and ceremony were enacted via what we consider a game," Hosler
says.
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