Download Aztec`s - Plain Local Schools

May 02, 2013
Aztec's
May 02, 2013
• Felt life was uncertain and all were at
mercy of nature
• attempted to please gods through sacrifices
• Emperors chosen from royal family based on merit
• Royal wives greatly respected
• All members dignified and brave!
• Priests, military officers, government leaders
• Not inherited, earned on battlefield or in pursuit of priesthood
• held special privileges; clothes, homes, jewels and servents
• Provided Tenochtitlan with imported goods (jade, feathers)
• Traveled great distances to negotiate deals
• Farmers, laborers, craftsman, servants and vendors
• Worked in fields or estates of wealthy
• had freedom, but considered inferior to commoners
• Had some legal rights; little stigma attached to slavery
• People could sell themselves into slavery to pay off debts and
crimes.
May 02, 2013
3 causeways joined Tenochitilan to the Great Market: 60,000 people
shoes of Lake Texcoco
gathered daily
Canals served as roads for canoes
carrying people and goods.
Bartered for food, straw mats,
cloth and luxury items
City contained 80,000 - 250,000
people!
Cacao beans used as
currency.
Double Pyramid
Held 1,000's of human
skulls (to show power)
Elaborate noble homes
May 02, 2013
Parents arranged marriage
Ceremony took 4 days, 5th day bathed and
dressed.
Feast: Chocolate, tamales, cactus beer, pipes for
smoking and flowers
Bride: Red face paint, red feathers pasted on
arms & legs, strongest, oldest female carried
her on her back to the groom's house
Groom & Bride tied together by clothing to show
they were married
Aztec women known for weaving
Good weavers were blessed by goddess of
youth, flowers and love.
At birth baby girls given looms
Training began at 7, by 14 could weave
thread into cloth
Known for "cloaks of 1,000 colors"
May 02, 2013
Laws based upon religion
Elders met to settle arguments
Legal stuff settled in courts
Punishments carried out the next day
Steal - pay 3x the price
poorly made goods - goods taken away
No jail, you were caged, death by drowning
None sacrificed as it might upset the gods
Aztec's believed they could only exist if the
sun began to rise
Sun needed "water": blood of animals and
humans daily.
If you were sacrificed you were like one of
the gods, worshiped and pleased.
In one year, up to 4,000 human sacrifices.
May 02, 2013
Mothers honored as warriors.
MIdwife advice:
"Don't chew gum: baby will not
be able to eat
Don't let father go out at night,
baby will have heart disease
if father gets scared.
She chose name of baby
Boys: received shield; girls: broom & basket
Most time was spent on hard work (little free
time meant little crime and bad habits)
Music: flutes, drums and voices
If you made a musical mistake, you could
be put to death.
Ollamaliztli, game like soccer and
basketball combined.
Boardgames like backgammon
May 02, 2013
War seen as a way to please gods &Warriors
honored.
Boys received training at 12, at 17 were
warriors for 5 years without pay.
Boys could raise social class if good warrior.
(peasant to noble!)
Battle started with war cries and drumming,
first row threw spears/arrows, next hand to
hand combat, finally burning of enemy temple
Two kinds of schools: calmecac & telpochcalli
Calmecac were monasteries for rules and priests
Learned: warfare, singing, dancing, religion,
citizenship, math, law, astronomy & medicine
Strict: cold baths, shaved heads, fasting
Telpochcalli
Learned: warfare, ceremony participation by
singing and dancing. Once out of school,
dad taught them at home
Girls taught at home by mom
May 02, 2013
Vegetarian with corn as main crop (ground into
drink, wrapped in husks - tamles- tortillas.
Went to work without breakfast, first meal was 10am
(porridge made of corn); Midday meal - tortillas and
beans or tamale; Only wealthy at a third meal before
bed of a corn drink
Gum chewed between meals
Corn, beans, sweet potatoes, green beans,
tomatoes, cactus, chilies, apples, guava & cherries
Men - loinclothes and plain capes (nobles
capes were decorated), long hair with short
bangs
Warriors - special uniforms; short ponytail
after capturing 3 prisoners
Priests - shaved front and side of head
Women - beautiful if clean, so bathed often
Dyes made skin yellow, sign of beauty
hair tied in 2 loops over forehead like 2
horns. White blouses and long skirts.
May 02, 2013
Large / Outdoor
In front of town temple
Held daily in large towns , every 5 days in
small
Goods were bought and sold; food, animal
skins, cloth, spices and dyes, building
materials, tools and medicines
Very structured society
Seven classes (classed for life)
Highest - Ruler, his family and nobles
Second - Priests (most educated)
Third - Warriors (could only move up from here)
Middle Class - Tradesmen
Lower Class - Peasants (most belonged here)
Lowest Class - Slaves
May 02, 2013