Palin (game)

A 1646 drawing of Mapuches playing palin, from Histórica Relación del Reyno de Chile by Alonso de Ovalle

Palin (Mapuche: palin, Spanish: palín) is a traditional game of the Mapuche people of South America. It is broadly similar to field hockey, with two teams using sticks to move a ball across a goal line defended by their opponents. The Spanish conquistadors called it chueca, because it resembled a Spanish game of that name [es]. Palin is the only pre-Columbian Mapuche game that has survived into the present day.[1]

  1. ^ Von Vriessen 2002, p. 627.