Yuguito,

1500–500 BCE

The term yuguito, derived from “yokes,” a term traditionally applied to the larger U-shaped hip-stones, was given because they share a basic shape with the yokes used to attach plows to beasts of burden like oxen. Scholars propose that yuguitos protected the hands or knees, although it remains unknown how they would have been attached to a ballgame costume or to the body. The contorted face of this yuguito includes one vacant eye socket while the other eye is swollen shut. Curiously, the otherwise human face includes a split serpentine tongue, suggesting that the depicted, brutalized ballplayer was a supernatural opponent. Geometric incised designs on the back side of the sculpture resemble incisions on Olmec-style pottery, suggesting a similar date. If this object is from that early era, it establishes a great range of time and cultural continuity for the representation of the disfigured tuerto (one-eyed) facial type.