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TOPIC 7. LEIS URE, SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Text 1. Ancient games
Throughout the history of mankind the urge to kick at stones and other objects must
have inevitably led to many early activities involving kicking and running with a ball.
Football-like games undoubtedly predate recorded history in all parts of the world and the
earliest forms of football can only be guessed at.
Documented evidence of what is possibly the oldest organised activity resembling
football can be found in a Chinese military manual written during the Han Dynasty in about
2nd century BC. It describes a practice known as "tsu chu" ( or Pinyin: cu4 ju2)
which involved kicking a leather ball through a hole in a piece of silk cloth strung between
two 30 foot poles. It was not a game as such but more of a spectacle for the amusement of
the Emperor and it may have been performed as many as 3000 years ago.
Another ball-kicking game of Far Eastern origin that may have been influenced by tsu
chu is "kemari" which known to have been played within the Japanese imperial court in
Kyoto from about 600AD. In kemari several individuals stand in a circle and kick a ball to
each other, trying not to let the ball drop to the ground (much like keepie uppie). The game
survived through many years but appears to have died out sometime before the mid 19th
century. In 1903 in a bid to restore ancient traditions the game was revived and it can now
be seen played for the benefit of tourists at a number of festivals.
The Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games some of which
involved the use of the feet. The Roman writer Cicero describes the case of a man who was
killed whilst having a shave when a ball was kicked into a barbers shop. The Roman game
of Harpastu is believed to have been adapted from a team game known as "επισκυρος"
(episkyros) or pheninda that is mentioned by Greek playwright, Antiphanes (388-311BC)
and later referred to by Clement of Alexandria. The game appears to have vaguely
resembled rugby.
There are a number of less well-documented references to prehistoric, ancient or
traditional ball games, played by indigenous peoples all around the world. For example,
Willia m Strachey of the James town s ettlement is the firs t to record a game played by the
Native Americans called Pahsaheman, in 1610. In Victoria, Australia, Aus tralian aborigines
played a game called Marn Grook. An 1878 book by Robert Brough-Smyth, The Aborigines
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