Get to know the Aztec
What language did the Mexica speak?
Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Indigenous ethnic group known as the Nahua
To which two gods were the twin temples of the Templo Mayor dedicated?
Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli
True or false: During the Aztec naming ceremony for an Aztec boy, his umbilical cord would be buried under the metate (maize grinding stone).
false - boys' umbilical cords buried in spaces associated with men's work, like battlegrounds.
girls' umbilical cords were buried under the metate - a space associated with woman's work
What is a calpolli?
a group of families who lived near one another, were subject to a single lord, controlled a block of land, and usually shared a common occupation
How did Motecuhzoma initially respond to reports of Cortés and his army?
Motecuhzoma sent gifts to Cortés as a way of gathering more information about the foreigners and encouraging them to leave without coming to Tenochtitlan - he waited to take action.
What did Huitzilopochtli tell the Aztec to look for to know they had found their homeland?
Huitzilopochtli appeared in a vision and told the Mexica they would soon find their promised homeland in a place where an eagle lived atop a tall nopal cactus - they saw the eagle on Lake Texcoco, and founded the city of Tenochtitlan there
According to Brumfiel, what message was sacrifice meant to send to the commoner class?
Human sacrifice and other displays of ritual violence were not meant to engage the commitment of the commoner class, but rather to confront them with the fact of their own subordination.
The ideology of "cosmic warfare" was targeted at elite men to make them into celebrated warriors, loyal to the state
What infrastructure did the Aztec use to transform the watery landscape of Lake Texcoco into their capital, Tenochtitlan?
Located on the western side of Lake Texcoco, the largest of 5 interconnected lakes
Connected with three causeways to the mainland
Bridges allowed boats to cross the causeways
Canals created a grid across the whole city
Levee of Nezahualcoyotl prevented mixing of spring water and brackish water
Terracotta aqueducts provided the city with fresh water from Chapultepec springs
Chinampas were used to construct land in the swampy lake system
What challenges did commoners have to deal with in the Aztec Empire?
Aztec society was deeply divided by class - only 5% were nobles
Prosperity of the empire benefited all classes, but rewards were not evenly distributed - ultimately relied on peasant labor
Commoners were obliged to pay goods as tribute and provide labor service
Feeding the 3 million Aztecs was increasingly difficult – famines occurred with more frequency
Human sacrifice used by the state to terrorize commoners
What was la noche triste (the sad night)?
Where did the Aztecs claim to be from?
Native historical accounts say that the Aztecs migrated to central Mexico from an original homeland called Aztlan (“place of the herons”)
What was the role of sacrifice in the Aztec religious belief system?
The gods sacrificed themselves to benefit humankind
Created a reciprocal relationship of obligations between humankind and the gods
Obligations had to be repaid through offerings of human blood and life
Name three foods in the Aztec diet.
Many - including: tortillas, tamales, atole, pozole, elote, beans, tomatoes, avocados, squash, chilis, chia, amaranth, nopal, tadpoles and other amphibians, spirulina algae
Also deer, dog, and turkey - though meat played a minor role in diet
What kinds of punishments were used to keep Aztec children well-behaved?
For lying, pierced in the body with maguey spikes
For being rebellious, beaten with sticks
For ignoring verbal orders, forced to inhale chile smoke
Who fought with Cortés against the Aztecs?
Spanish soldiers that had accompanied Cortés from Cuba
Indigenous allies (including Totonoc and Tlaxcallan troops)
Spanish forces that had been sent to arrest him
What did the Mexica do to the Culhuacan princess they received as a goddess?
While living under the patronage of the Culhua king, the Mexica requested a noble princess - she was given to them because they had been good mercenaries.
The Mexica then sacrificed her, flayed her, and danced in her skin as part of a ceremony to marry her to their patron, Huitzilopochtli
They did this in front of her father - the Culhua soon turned on the Mexica, and they were driven out into the wilderness again.
What happened during the New Fire Ceremony?
Aztecs marked the cyclical change with the New Fire ceremony every 52 years, preparing for the possible end of the world
Major housecleaning, all fires were extinguished, people waited on roofs of their houses
Priests climbed a mountain to watch the skies - once they confirmed the sun was going to rise, they kindled a new fire on the chest of a human sacrifice to save the sun from being destroyed.
Once a flame was lit, victim was sacrificed and heart thrown into the fire - fire taken to Tenochtitlan, and from there runners distributed it across the empire
Eventually everyone’s hearth was lit from the new fire, and everyone obtained new household goods to begin another 52 year cycle
How were chinampas made?
Chinampas were used to construct land in the swampy lake system
Made by building frameworks of reeds and branches in shallow water
Reed containers then filled with plants and brush, and then topped with earth from the lake bottom
Willow trees planted around the perimeter stabilized the floating island
Raised long, narrow strips of land interwoven with canals
Polycultural cultivation
Assisted as novice priests (cleaned temples, learned rituals, sacred music, astrology/ astronomy)
Trained to become elite military officers
Some learned to become master craftsmen
Who was Malintzin?
Malintzin (aka Marina, Malinche) was a noblewoman bilingual in Nahuatl and Maya who had been sold into slavery and was later given to Cortés
Her translation skills were critical to the conquest
Malintzin became Cortés’s mistress and they had a son together, Martín
Became known as La Malinche, to some a traitor and to others the mother of mestizo culture
Who did the Aztecs claim as their ancestors, and what traits were associated with each group?
The Aztecs claimed both Toltecs and Chichimecs as ancestors
Toltecs – advanced, stately, urban civilization, founders of a mythical, idealized city state known as Tollan (cultural continuity and legacy)
Chicimecs – tough, fierce, nomadic, savage hunters and warriors ("rags to riches")
Explain the significance of the Coyolxauhqui stone.
Stone monument found at the base of the Templo Mayor - depicts a dismembered woman on a circular disc.
Allowed Aztec priests to recreate the heroic birth of Huitzilopochtli every time they performed human sacrifice on the temple - be sure to review this creation myth.
Explain why the chinampas of Xaltocan ended up being unsustainable.
900-1350 CE – farmers living around the marshy edges of Lake Xaltocan used highly-productive chinampas to found an independent and prosperous city-state
Then Xaltocan was conquered by the Aztec, who wanted to use the lake system for salt production - they reconfigured the lake's hydraulic infrastructure
Xaltocan farmers forced to deal with Aztec tribute demands and were excluded from decision-making
Collapse of the Xaltocan chinampas was due to governance and goals of the Aztec empire – not because of ecological reasons or local mismanagement
Hint: can you compare this to the sustainability challenges faced by modern chinampas?
What gender roles did men and women have in Aztec society?
Men worked outside the home: farmers during the rainy season, fulfilled service obligations as warriors or laborers other times of the year. Some worked as artisans.
Women worked in and around the home: weaving, marketing, domestic ritual, cooking and preparing food.
Hint: how were boys and girls taught gender roles in Aztec society?
What factors enabled Cortés and the Spaniards to defeat the Aztec Empire?
Indigenous allies - Totonocs and Tlaxcallans
Plague - likely a smallpox epidemic
Military technologies - guns, fighting dogs, horses