Juego de Pelota, a term from the Pre-Columbian culture in Mexico and Guatemala, describes playing grounds that were located in the cities and ancient temples in which ball games were played. Engravings on the walls of the grounds depict balls containing human heads. The Maya and Aztec cultures were extremely violent and engaged in human sacrifice to their gods. Battles were commonplace in their efforts to capture victims to offer in sacrifice. Their monuments, constructed by means of grave physical labor and at enormous costs, were intended to serve these sacrificial rituals. These conflicts and battles eventually brought an end to the two cultures. 

I was introduced to these cultures during my travels in Central America and I was horrified. The society in which we live is very violent and its past has been continuously ravaged by war and conflict, external as well as internal. In Israel, the term "victim" is used to describe the many casualties: "victims of war", "victims of terrorist attacks", "victims of automobile accidents", as if they were victims of Moloch "defending the Land", "sanctifying the Land",  

etc.