Download Aztec Civilization The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people of

Aztec Civilization
The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and
sixteenth centuries. They were a civilization with a rich cultural heritage whose capital,
Tenochtitlan, rivaled the greatest cities of Europe in size and grandeur.
The nucleus of the Aztec Empire was the Valley of Mexico, where the capital of the Aztec Triple
Alliance was built upon raised islets in Lake Texcoco. After the 1521 conquest of Tenochtitlan by
Spanish forces and their allies which brought about the effective end of Aztec dominion, the
Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the now-ruined Aztec capital. The
greater metropolitan area of Mexico City now covers much of the Valley of Mexico and the nowdrained Lake of Texcoco.
Aztec culture had complex mythological and religious traditions. The most alarming aspect of the
Aztec culture was the practice of human sacrifice, which was known throughout Mesoamerica prior
to the Spanish conquest. A hegemonic power, the Aztecs sacrificed human beings on a massive
scale in bloody religious rituals, enslaved subject peoples, and, by Spanish accounts, practiced
cannibalism. Spanish invaders, led by Hernán Cortés, sought both to claim the new lands and
resources for the Spanish Crown and to promulgate Christianity, and demanded that local Indian
allies forswear human sacrifice and cannibalism. Some Aztecs also anticipated the return of the
white-skinned god Quetzalcoatl from the east, an expectation which may have contributed to the
success of the militarily overmatched Spanish forces.
Aztec civilization sustained millions of people and developed from a history of thousands of years
in complete isolation from European and Asian cultures. Aztec agriculture, transportation,
economy, architecture, arts, and political institutions bear extraordinary witness to the creative and
collaborative capability of humankind, and of the universal inclination to find transcendent meaning
to human life. Spanish conquerors and later occupiers largely ignored Aztec cultural achievements,
and through a policy of subjugation by Spanish colonial authorities, and the inadvertent
introduction of diseases for which Indians had no immunity, the Aztec civilization of Mesoamerica
was almost completely eradicated.
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Terminology
In Nahuatl, the native language of the Aztec, "Azteca" means "someone who comes from Aztlán,"
thought to be a mythical place in northern Mexico. However, the Aztec referred to themselves as
Mexica (meˈʃihkah) or Tenochca and Tlatelolca according to their city of origin. Their use of the
word Azteca was like the modern use of Latin American, or Anglo-Saxon: a broad term that does not
refer to a specific culture.
The modern usage of the name Aztec as a collective term applies to all the peoples linked by trade,
custom, religion, and language to the Mexica state, the Triple Alliance, and was suggested by
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), the German naturalist and explorer, and was later adopted
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by Mexican scholars of the nineteenth century as a way to distance "modern" Mexicans from preconquest Mexicans.
Legends and traditions
Aztec culture is generally grouped with the cultural complex known as the nahuas, because of the
common language they shared. According to legend, the various groups who were to become the
Aztecs arrived from the north into the Anahuac Valley around Lake Texcoco. The location of this
valley and lake of destination is clear—it is the heart of modern Mexico City—but little can be
known with certainty about the origin of the Aztec.
Tenochtitlan—Aztec capital on an artificial island, which today is Mexico City
Because the Aztec adopted and combined several traditions with their own earlier traditions, they
had several creation myths; one of these describes four great ages preceding the present world, each
of which ended in a catastrophe. Our age—Nahui-Ollin, the fifth age, or fifth creation—escaped
destruction due to the sacrifice of a god Nanahuatl ("full of sores," the smallest and humblest of the
gods), who was transformed into the Sun. This myth is associated with the ancient city of
Teotihuacan, which was already abandoned and destroyed when the Aztec arrived. Another myth
describes the earth as a creation of the twin gods Tezcatlipoca (the Smoking Mirror) and
Quetzalcoatl. Tezcatlipoca lost his foot in the process of creating the world and all representations
of these gods show him without a foot and with a bone exposed. Quetzalcoatl is also called "White
Tezcatlipoca." Quetzalcoatl represented conscious intelligence, and Tezcatlipoca the subconscious
opposite. The former was the lighter, the latter the darker, side of human nature (although no real
distinction was made between good and evil). Tezcatlipoca ruled the night, the earth's surface and
was god of war. Quetzalcoatl, representing dawn and the rising sun, and healing, wisdom, art,
poetry, skills, and crafts had been banished by the Smoking Mirror and war came to dominate
human affairs. Aztec scholars had predicted that the year 1519 (500 years after his departure) would
herald the Feathered Snake's return from exile, and with it the creation of a new, more harmonious
era, under the guidance of Quetzalcoatl. Some said he would return with “white Gods”
accompanying him.
The Empire
The Aztec empire is not completely analogous to the empires of European history. Like most
European empires, it was ethnically very diverse, but unlike most European empires, it was more a
system of tribute than a single system of government. Arnold Toynbee (1889–1975) compared it to
the Assyrian Empire in this respect. However, he also classed it as “universal,” which means that it
was the dominant culture.
Although cities under Aztec rule seem to have paid heavy tributes, excavations in the Aztec-ruled
provinces show a steady increase in the welfare of common people after they were conquered. This
probably was due to an increase of trade, thanks to better roads and communications, and the
tributes were extracted from a broad base. Only the upper classes seem to have suffered
economically, and only at first. There appears to have been trade even in things that could be
produced locally; love of novelty may have been a factor.
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The Aztec strategy of war was based on the capture of prisoners by individual warriors, not on
working as a group to kill the enemy in battle. By the time the Aztecs came to recognize what
warfare meant in European terms, it was too late.
Aztec Society
Class structure
The society traditionally was divided into two social classes; the macehualli (people) or peasantry
and the pilli or nobility. Nobility was not originally hereditary, although the sons of pillis had
access to better resources and education, so it was easier for them to become pillis. Eventually, this
class system took on the aspects of a hereditary system. The Aztec military had an equivalent to
military service with a core of professional warriors. An Aztec became a pilli through his abilities in
war. Only those that had taken prisoners could become full-time warriors, and eventually the honors
and spoils of war would make them pillis. Once an Aztec warrior had captured 4 or 5 captives, he
would be called tequiua and could attain a rank of Eagle or Jaguar Knight, sometimes translated as
"captain," eventually he could reach the rank of tlacateccatl or tlachochcalli. To be elected as
tlatoani, one was required to have taken about 17 captives in war. When Aztec boys attained adult
age, they stopped cutting their hair until they took their first captive; sometimes two or three youths
united to get their first captive; then they would be called iyac. If after certain time, usually three
combats, they could not gain a captive, they became macehualli; it was shameful to be a warrior
with long hair, indicating lack of captives; one would prefer to be a macehualli.
Slavery
Slaves or tlacotin (distinct from war captives) also constituted an important class. This slavery was
very different from what Europeans of the same period were to establish in their colonies, although
it had much in common with the slave system in the classical European world of ancient Greece and
Rome. The appropriateness of the term "slavery" for this Aztec institution has been questioned.
First, slavery was personal, not hereditary: a slave's children were free. A slave could have
possessions and even own other slaves. Slaves could buy their liberty, and slaves could be set free if
they were able to show they had been mistreated or if they had children with or were married to
their masters.
Typically, upon the death of the master, slaves who had performed outstanding services were freed.
The rest of the slaves were passed on as part of an inheritance.
An Aztec could become a slave as a punishment. A murderer sentenced to death could instead, upon
the request of the wife of his victim, be given to her as a slave. A father could sell his son into
slavery if the son was declared incorrigible by an authority. Those who did not pay their debts could
also be sold as slaves.
People could sell themselves as slaves. They could stay free long enough to enjoy the price of their
liberty, about 20 blankets, usually enough for a year; after that time they went to their new master.
Usually this was the destiny of gamblers and of old ahuini (courtesans or prostitutes).
Recreation
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Although one could drink pulque, a fermented beverage made from the heart of the maguey, with an
alcoholic content equivalent to beer, getting drunk before the age of 60 was forbidden under penalty
of death.
Like in modern Mexico, the Aztecs had strong passions over a ball game, but this in their case it
was tlachtli, the Aztec variant of the ulama game, the ancient ball game of Mesoamerica. The game
was played with a ball of solid rubber, about the size of a human head. The ball was called "olli,"
whence derives the Spanish word for rubber, "hule." The city had two special buildings for the ball
games. The players hit the ball with their hips. They had to pass the ball through a stone ring. The
fortunate player who could do this had the right to take the blankets of the public, so his victory was
followed by general running of the public, with screams and laughter. People used to bet on the
results of the game. Poor people could bet their food; pillis could bet their fortunes; tecutlis (lords)
could bet their concubines or even their cities, and those who had nothing could bet their freedom
and risk becoming slaves.
Education
Until the age of 14, the education of children was in the hands of their parents. There was a
collection of sayings, called huehuetlatolli ("The sayings of the old") that represented the Aztecs'
ideals. It included speeches and sayings for every occasion, the words to salute the birth of children,
and to say farewell at death. Fathers admonished their daughters to be very clean, but not to use
makeup, because they would look like ahuianis. Mothers admonished their daughters to support
their husbands, even if they turn out to be humble peasants. Boys were admonished to be humble,
obedient, and hard workers.
Male children went to school at age 15. There were two types of educational institutions. The
telpochcalli taught history, religion, military fighting arts, and a trade or craft (such as agriculture or
handicrafts). The calmecac, attended mostly by the sons of pillis, was focused on turning out
leaders (tlatoques), priests, scholars/teachers (tlatimini), and codex painters (tlacuilos). They
studied rituals, the reading of the codex, the calendar, songs (poetry), and, as at the telpochcalli,
military fighting arts.
Aztec teachers propounded a Spartan regime of education—cold baths in the morning, hard work,
physical punishment, bleeding with maguey thorns and endurance tests—with the purpose of
forming a stoical people.
There is contradictory information about whether calmecac was reserved for the sons and daughters
of the pillis; some accounts said they could choose where to study. It is possible that the common
people preferred the tepochcalli, because a warrior could advance more readily by his military
abilities; becoming a priest or a tlacuilo was not a way to rise rapidly from a low station.
Girls were educated in the crafts of home and child-raising. They were not taught to read or write.
There were also two other opportunities for those few who had talent. Some were chosen for the
house of song and dance, and others were chosen for the ball game. Both occupations had high
status.
Diet
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The Aztec created artificial floating islands or chinampas on Lake Texcoco, on which they
cultivated crops. The Aztec's staple foods included maize, beans, and squash. Chinampas were a
very efficient system and could provide up to seven crops a year. On the basis of current chinampa
yields, it has been estimated that one hectare of chinampa would feed 20 individuals, with about
9,000 hectares of chinampa, there was food for 180,000 people.
Much has been said about a lack of proteins in the Aztec diet, to support the arguments on the
existence of cannibalism (M. Harner, Am. Ethnol. 4, 117 (1977)), but there is little evidence to
support it: a combination of maize and beans provides the full quota of essential amino acids, so
there is no need for animal proteins. The Aztecs had a great diversity of maize strains, with a wide
range of amino acid content; also, they cultivated amaranth for its seeds, which have a high protein
content. More important is that they had a wider variety of foods. They harvested acocils, a small
and abundant shrimp of Lake Texcoco, also spirulina algae, which was made into a sort of cake that
was rich in flavonoids, and they ate insects, such as crickets or grasshoppers (chapulines), maguey
worms, ants, larvae, etc. Insects have a higher protein content than meat, and even now they are
considered a delicacy in some parts of Mexico. Aztec also had domestic animals, like turkey and
some breeds of dogs, which provided meat, although usually this was reserved for special
occasions. Another source of meet came from the hunting of deer, wild peccaries, rabbits, geese,
ducks, and other animals.
A study by Montellano (Medicina, nutrición y salud aztecas, 1997) shows a mean life of 37 (+/- 3)
years for the population of Mesoamerica.
Aztec also used maguey extensively; from it they obtained food, sugar (aguamiel), drink (pulque),
and fibers for ropes and clothing. Use of cotton and jewelry was restricted to the elite. Cocoa grains
were used as money. Subjugated cities paid annual tribute in form of luxury goods like feathers and
adorned suits.
After the Spanish conquest, some foods were outlawed, like amaranth, and there was less diversity
of food. This led to a chronic malnutrition in the general population.
Human Sacrifice
For the Europeans, human sacrifice was the most abhorrent feature of Aztec civilization. Human
sacrifice was widespread at this time in Mesoamerica and South America (during the Inca Empire),
but the Aztecs practiced it on a particularly large scale, sacrificing human victims on each of their
18 festivities. Overy (2004) comments that according to “European colonial sources…between
10,000 and 80,000 sacrifices were offered at the dedication of the main temple in Tenochtitlan in
1487….” Most were captured in war or ritually exchanged victims with other communities ).
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