Aztec Social StructureAztec Social Structure
This highest class of Aztec society included nobles, high-ranking warriors, and high-ranking priests.
What are the pipiltin?
The Spanish crown replaced the feudal system with this system of landholding in 1486.
What is the seigniorial system?
The Aztec Emperor was elected by this group and could also be dismissed by them if he did not rule properly.
What is the Council of Wise Men?
What authority did the King and Queen rule under?
What is Divine Right?
What category would this example fit into? The Aztecs believed that the human's role was to fight and die for the gods, so this played a minor role in their worldview.
What are religious beliefs and practices?
After the Reconquista in 1492, this was the only religion Spaniards were allowed to practice.
What is Catholicism/Roman Catholic?
These lower-class commoners, or peasants, were guaranteed land to work to provide food for their families, even though the land belonged to the nobles.
Who are the mayeques?
This new social class of professionals like doctors, teachers, and merchants began to emerge under Ferdinand and Isabella.
What is the middle class?
The steady supply of goods from conquered civilizations, often in the form of food or military service, was called this.
What is tribute?
This Spanish parliament was deliberately weakened by Ferdinand and Isabella to reduce the power of the aristocrats.
What is the Cortes?
The three main Aztec gods listed in the text are Huitzilopochtli's, Tezcatlipoca, and this god.
Who is Quetzalcoatl?
This practice was admired by the Spanish because they focused on the suffering of Jesus Christ.
What is tolerating suffering and sacrifice?
This was a way for commoner boys and girls to pass down traditions, values, and history, often requiring children to memorize stories and songs.
What is singing and dancing?
In this class: Farmers had lowest status of, most worked for nobles, and only a small number of peasants owned their own land, under the union of Fernando and Isabella, a new class of professionals began to emerge like doctors, teachers, lawyers, merchants, this new class shared a lot of the same privileges as the nobility
What is a Commoner?
Porters worked for these spying merchants who would travel to enemy territory and report back to the emperor.
Who are the pochteca?
The Pope could oppose royal decrees because the Catholic Church was linked to the power of this system.
What is the monarchy?
What item was more valuable to the Aztecs than gold because they considered it rare?
What are feathers?
This was the official language made by Isabella to help unify the country and develop ideas of citizenship and nationalism.
What is Castilian (now known as Spanish)?
What were the names of the schools for commoners and nobles? What did students learn in each school?
What is Telpochcalli? Some children may be sent to learn a craft from the toltecah, or artisans. The boys were taught occupational skills, history, religious practices, and the qualities of good citizenship. Their main responsibilities, however, were to learn the fundamentals of warfare and how to be a warrior. The boys were also taught rhetoric and speech.
Children of nobility were known as calmecac (cahl-MAY-kahk) - the curriculum emphasized self-control, humility, and unselfishness, all of which were highly valued in Aztec society. These boys were expected to become future community leaders.
Girls in both systems learned how to manage the households of their future spouses.
What was the highest level of nobility, including Dukes, Marquises, and Counts?
What is the Spanish Grande?
This food item was used as currency instead of coins in the Aztec economy.
What are cacao beans?
This economic issue, a huge increase in the price of products, quickly affected Spain because of the huge amounts of gold and silver exported from the overseas colonies.
What is inflation?
This most impressive building, the _________ in Tenochtitlan, was considered the centre of the universe.
What is the Templo Mayor?
Spanish homes often had these central features modelled after Muslim buildings.
What are central courtyards?
This social structure's status was unique in that it allowed you to marry, have children, reclaim your freedom, and pay off debts by placing yourself in this social ranking, and your masters only owned your work, not you. What exactly is this class?
What is a slave/tlacotin?
Following the Reconquista, the Roman Catholic Church provided education for both boys and girls. What kind of instruction was given to the girls?
What are household skills (like cooking and sewing)?
This Aztec political unit, similar to an Italian city-state, practiced its own customs and beliefs and elected a ruler known as a tlatoani.
What is altepetl?
After the Moors were expelled, the kingdom of Castile divided its land between aristocrats and this group of sheepherders.
What is the Mesta?
The Aztecs coordinated their lives using two calendars. What were they used for?
What is a ritual calendar? What is a 365-day solar yearly calendar (main calendar)?
In 1582, __________ fixed the inaccurate Julian calendar by subtracting 10 days to line up the Spring Equinox to March 21st, creating this new calendar.
What is the calendar that Pope Gregory XIII (13) fixed?