Download Aztecs

By: Ivan Moreno
History
 The term, Aztec, is a startlingly imprecise term to describe
the culture that dominated the Valley of Mexico in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Properly speaking, all the
Nahua-speaking peoples in the Valley of Mexico were
Aztecs, while the culture that dominated the area was a
tribe of the Mexica called the Tenochca. At the time of the
European conquest, they called themselves either
"Tenochca" or "Toltec," which was the name assumed by
the bearers of the Classic Mesoamerican culture. The
aztecs migrated from the north into the valley of mexico as
early as the twelfth century AD, after the classic period
Messoamerica.
History
 The Aztecs were forced to live on the worst lands in the
valley. They were the ones that adopted the cultural
patterns called “Mixteca-Pueblo” that originated in the
culture of Teotihuacán, so the urban culture they built in
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is essentially a
continuation of Teotihuacán culture. The people of
Mesoamerica distinguished between two types of people,
the Toltecs “which means craftsman”, and the Chichimec,
“the wild people” , who settled Mesoamerica from the
north. The Mexica were, then, originally Chichimec when
they migrated into Mexico, but eventually became Toltecs.
Economy and Society
 The urban population on the island required high levels of
economic support from surrounding areas. In its earliest
history, Tenochtitlan was self-supporting; the village was
small and agriculture was managed through
the chinampa method of architecture, practiced widely
throughout Mesoamerica. In the chinampa , flat reeds were
placed in the shallow areas of the lake, covered with soil,
and then cultivated. In this way, the Aztecs reclaimed
much of the lake for agriculture. A large part of the city's
population were farmers; at its height (100,000-300,000), at
least half the population would leave the city in the
morning to go farm and return in the evening.
Religion
 The religion of the Aztecs was realy complicated,
partly due to the fact that they inherited much of it
from conquered peoples. Their religion was dominated
by three gods: Huitzilopochtli ("hummingbird
wizard," the native and chief god of the Tenochca,
Huitzilopochtli was the war and sun god), Tezcatlipoca
("Smoking Mirror," chief god of the Aztecs in general),
and Quetzalcoatl ("Sovereign Plumed Serpent," widely
worshipped throughout Mesoamerica and the god of
civilization, the priesthood, and learning
Huitzilopochtli
Tezcatlipoca
Quetzalcoatl
Art
 Ancient Aztec art was primarily a form of religious
expression and a means for paying tribute to their
gods. In addition, various forms of Aztec art were used
to assist in communication.
Aztec Totem Statue
Pottery
 Pottery was not only useful to the Aztecs; it was also
an important religious craft within the Aztec arts.
Pottery of all shapes and sizes depicted a variety of
designs that were meaningful to the Aztec culture and
religion. The designs typically placed on the pottery
were meant pay reverence to specific Aztec gods or to
represent an Aztec tribe.

Sports
 The Aztecs had two different games - tlachtli and
patolli. Tlachtli was a ball game that was played
between teams using rubber balls. The court was
shaped like a capital I and it was 60 meters long by 10
meters wide. One person on each team would have to
shoot the ball into a vertical hoop high over their
heads with their knees without using their hands. The
hoop was placed on opposite walls at the midpoint of
the court. In a way this game combined modern day
soccer and basketball. Whichever team made the first
basket won the game. Sometimes it took hours to
complete a game.
tlachtli
Sports
 The other game, patolli, was a gambling game that was played
with pebbles and dry beans. In this game you are given six pieces
to play with and you have ten jade pebbles to gamble. The board
you would play on is an "X" divided into squares. Each player has
a home base in the middle of the "X". Now you must decide how
many jade pebbles you want to gamble on the whole game. You
are given five cacao beans with white dots painted on them.
These will be used as dice. If you get one white dot you move one
square, if you get two white dots you move two squares and so
on, but if you get all five white dots you move ten squares. The
pieces must move clockwise. To begin the game you must throw
a one. When you make it back to home base, you take that piece
off the board; your opponent owes you one jade pebble. You keep
playing until one player has lost all of his or her beans.
patolli