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Aztec
The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people of central Mexico, a tribe with a rich mythology and cultural heritage. In Nahuatl, the native language of the Aztecs, "Aztec" means "someone who comes from Aztlán", a mythical place in northern Mexico. However, the Aztec referred to themselves as the Mexica (IPA [meˈʃihkah], SAMPA [me"Sihkah]) or Tenochca.
"Aztec" was originally a tribal name. The modern usage of the name Aztec as a collective term, applied to all the peoples linked by trade, custom, religion, and language to the Mexica was suggested by Alexander von Humboldt.
"Mexica," the origin of the name "Mexico," is a term of uncertain origin, possibly the old Nahuatl word for the sun, possibly derived from a leader named Mexitli (a name that may also refer to the god Huitzilopochtli), possibly the name of a type of weed that grows in Lake Texcoco. Leon Portilla suggests that it means "navel of the moon" from Nahuatl metztli (moon) and xictli (navel). Alternatively, it could mean navel of the maguey (Nahuatl metl).
The word "Aztec" is usually used as a historical term, although some contemporary Nahuatl speakers would consider themselves Aztecs. This article deals with the historical Aztec civilization, not with modern-day Nahuatl speakers.
Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide")
1 Legendary
2 Rise of Aztecs
3 The Empire
4 Education
5 Diet
6 Sacrifices
7 Cannibalism
8 Poetry
9 Downfall
10 External link
Legendary
The Aztecs' is one of several cultures generally described as "nahuas" after their common language. Their legends have the people who were to become the Aztecs arriving from the north into the Anahuac valley around Lake Texcoco. The location of this valley and lake is clear -- it is the heart of modern Mexico City -- but little else can be known with certainty about their origin.
According to legend, the ancestors of the Aztecs traveled to Lake Texcoco in Central Mexico from a place to the north called Aztlán, the last of seven nahuatlacas (Nahuatl-speaking tribes) to do so. They were said to be guided by their god Huitzilopochtli. When they arrived at an island in the lake they saw an eagle eating a snake while perched on a nopal cactus, a vision that fulfilled a prophecy telling them that they should found their new home on that spot. The Aztec built their city of Tenochtitlan on that site, which today is in the center of Mexico City. The legendary eagle is pictured on the Mexican flag.
According to legend, when the Aztec arrived in the Anahuac valley around Lake Texcoco, they were considered by the other nahuas as the least civilized of all, so they decided to learn, and took all they could from other peoples, especially from the ancient Toltecs (who they seem to have partially confused with the more ancient civilization Teotihuacan). To the Aztecs, the Toltecs were the originators of all culture; "Toltecayotl" was a synonym for "culture." Aztec legends identify the Toltecs and the cult of Quetlzaolcotl with the mythic city of "Tollan", which they also seem to have identified with the more ancient "Teotihuacan".
Because the Aztecs 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 destroyed when the Aztecs arrived. Another myth describes the earth as a creation of the twin gods, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl. Tezcatlipoca lost his foot in the process and all representations of these gods show him without a foot and with a bone exposed. Quetzalcoatl is also called "White Tezcatlipoca."
Rise of Aztecs
There were twelve rulers of Tenochtitlan:
Initially, the Mexica hired themselves out as mercenaries in wars between Toltecs. Eventually they gained enough glory to receive royal marriages. Mexica rulers Acamapichtili, Huitzilíhuitl and Chimalpopoca were, in 1372-1427, vassals of Tezozomoc, a lord of the Tepanec nahua.
When Tezozomoc died, his son Maxtla assassinated Chimalpopoca, whose uncle Itzcóatl allied with ex-ruler of Texcoco, Nezahualcoyotl, and besieged Maxtla's capital Azcapotzalco. Maxtla surrendered after 100 days and went into exile. Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan formed an alliance that came to dominate the Valley of Mexico, and then extended its power beyond. Tenochtitlan gradually became the dominant power in the alliance.
Itzcóatl's nephew Motecuhzoma I inherited the throne in 1449 and expanded the realm. His son Axayacatl (1469) surrounding kingdom of Tlatelolco.
His sister was married to the Tlatoani of Tlatelolco, but, as a pretext for war, he declared that she was mistreated. He went on to conquer Matlazinca and the cities of Tollocan, Ocuillan, and Mallinalco. He was defeated by the tarascos in Tzintzuntzan (the first great defeat the Aztecs had ever suffered), but recovered and took control of the Huasteca region, conquering the Mixtecs and Zapotecs.
In 1481 Axayacatl's son Tízoc ruled briefly before he was replaced by his younger brother Ahuitzol who reorganized the army. The empire was at its largest during his reign. His successor was Motecuhzoma II (better known as Moctezuma II), emperor when the Spaniards arrived in 1519.
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 in War and Civilisation analogizes it to the Assyrian Empire in this respect.
The most important official of Tenochtitlan government is often called The Aztec Emperor. The general Nahuatl title for such a position, huey tlatoque, translates roughly as "Great Chief"; the Tlatoque were an upper class. The huey tlatoque of the Aztecs was also known as the tlatoani ("Speaker") or huey tlatoani ("Great Speaker"). This office gradually took on more power with the rise of Tenochtitlan, and by the time of Auitzotl "Emperor" is an appropriate analogy; like in the Holy Roman Empire, the title was not hereditary.
Most of the Aztec empire was forged by one man, Tlacaelel (Nahuatl for "manly heart"). Although he was offered the opportunity to be tlatoani, he preferred to stay behind the throne. Nephew of tlatoani Itzcóatl, and brother of Chimalpopoca and Motecuhzoma I Ilhuicamina, his title was "Cichuacoatl" (in honor of the goddess, roughly "counsellor"), but as Alvarado wrote, "what Tlacaelles ordered, was as soon done". He gave the Aztec government a structure, ordered the burning of most Aztec books, (his explanation being was they were full of lies) and rewrote their history. As well, Tlacaelel reformed Aztec religion, by putting the tribal god Huitzilopochtli at the same level as the old nahuas gods, Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca, and Quetzalcoatl. He created the institution of the ritual war, and the necessity of constant sacrifices to keep the Sun moving. Some writers believe upper clases were aware of this forgery, which would explain the later actions of Moctezuma when he met Hernán Cortés (a.k.a. Cortez).
The society was divided into two social classes; the macehualli or peasants 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 became 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 pillis. Once an Aztec warrior had captured 4 or 5 captives, he could attain a rank of Eagle or Jaguar knight or warrior. To be elected as Tlatoani, one was required to have taken about 17 captives in war.
Education
Until the age of fourteen, the education of children was in the hands of their parents. 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 (e.g. agriculture and handicrafts). The calmecatl, 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 calendary, songs (poetry), and, as at the telpochcalli, military fighting arts.
There is contradictory information about whether calmecatl was reserved for the sons and daughters of the pillis; some accounts said they could chose 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 childraising. They were not taught to read or write.
Diet
The Aztecs created artificial islands or chinampas on Lake Tenochtitlan, on which they cultivated crops. The Aztecs' staple foods included maize, beans and squash. It is interesting to note that much has been said about a lack of proteins in the Aztec diet, but there is little evidence to support it. First, it should be noted that a combination of maize and beans provides the full quota of essential amino acids, so there is no need for animal proteins; 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, rich in flavonoids, and they ate insects, such as crickets (chapulines), maguey worms, ants, larvae, etc. Insects have a higher protein content than meat, and even now they are considered a delicacy in the Mexican diet.
They also used maguey extensively; from it they obtain 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.
Sacrifices
For the Europeans, human sacrifice was the most striking feature of Aztec civilization. Human sacrifice was widespread at this time in Mesoamerica and South America, but the Aztecs practiced it on an uncommon scale, sacrificing victims almost daily.
For the construction of the main temple, they reported that they sacrificed about 100,000 prisoners in four days. How a city of 80,000 people could take, accommodate and dispose of that many prisoners is not clear, especially since they reported that Ahuitzotl sacrificed them personally. This translates into about 17 sacrifices per minute, for 24 hours over 4 days. Some scholars believe that it is more probable that only 3,000 sacrifices took place and the death toll was drastically inflated by war propaganda.
Another figure used is from Bernal Díaz del Castillo, the Spanish soldier who wrote his account of the conquest 50 years after the fact. In the description of the Tzompantli, a rack of skulls of the victims, of the main temple, he reports to have counted about 100,000 skulls. However, to accommodate that many skulls, the Tzompantli would have had a length of several kilometers, instead of the 30 meters reported. Modern reconstructions account for about 600 to 1,200 skulls. Similarly, Díaz claimed there were 60,000 skulls in the Tzompantli of Tlatelolco, which was as important as that of Tenochtitlan. According to William Arens in The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy (1979, ISBN 0195027930), excavations by archeologists found 300 skulls.
Aztecs waged "flower wars" to capture prisoners for sacrifices they called nextlaualli, "debt payment to the gods" so that the sun could rise every morning.
Cannibalism
While there is univeral agreement that the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice, there is a lack of scholarly consensus as to whether they also practiced cannibalism and, if so, to what extent. At one extreme, Materialist anthropologist Marvin Harris, who wrote about cannibalism in Our Kind and Cannibals and Kings has suggested that the flesh of the victims was a part of an aristocratic diet as a reward, since the Aztec diet was lacking in proteins. According to him, the Aztec economy couldn't support feeding them as slaves, so the columns of prisoners were "marching meat". At the other extreme, William Arens doubts whether there was ever any systematic cannibalism.
While most historians of Mesoamerica believe that there was ritual cannibalism related to human sacrifices, they do not support Harris's thesis that human flesh was ever a significant portion of the Aztec diet.
There is little documentation of Aztec cannibalism. There are only four accounts of cannibalism from the date of the conquest, none of them particularly suggestive of widespread ritual cannibalism, and only one -- the Ramirez codex -- (equivocally) tying cannibalism to ritual sacrifice.
The four specific accounts of cannibalism are:
- Cortez wrote in one of his letters that his soldiers had captured an Aztec who had a roasted baby ready for breakfast.
- Gomarra, reported that during the siege of Tenochtitlan, the Spaniards had asked the Aztec to surrender since they had no food. The Aztecs answered, asking the Spaniards to try to attack, so they could be taken as prisoners, and then served with "molli" sauce.
- In the books of Bernardino de Sahagún, there is an illustration of an Aztec being cooked by an unknown tribe. This was reported as one of the dangers that Aztec traders faced.
- The Ramirez codex, written by an Aztec after the conquest using European characters, reports that after the sacrifices the flesh from the hands of the victim were given as gift to the warrior who made the capture. According to the codex this was supposedly eaten, but was in fact discarded and replaced with turkey.
It is not clear how trustworthy the Ramirez codex is on this topic, but it is at least interesting that the one account by an Aztec of supposed cannibalism following ritual sacrifice claims that the apparent cannibalism was a sham. This is congruent with the Laurette Sejourne and Miguel Leon-Portilla's theory that the upper clases were aware that the religion created by Tlacalel was something of a forgery.
Despite this paucity of contemporary sources, accounts of the Aztec Empire as a "Cannibal Kingdom" (Marvin Harris's expression) have been commonplace, from Bernal Díaz to Marvin Harris, William H. Prescott, and Michael Harner. Harner has accused his colleagues -- especially those in Mexico -- of diminishing or hiding evidence of Aztec cannibalism. The question, of course, is whether such evidence exists to be hidden. Even Díaz (who participated as a soldier in the conquest of Mexico) does not claim to have been an eyewitness to cannibalism. It is possible that Aztec cannibalism was simply a libel by the victorious Spanish.
Dominican priest Diego Durán's Historia de las Indias de Nueva España y islas de tierra firme, while clearly a useful source of information (he had access to the survivors of Tenochtitlan), must be doubted on the subject of human sacrifice. Apparently combining a blood libel against the Aztecs with that against the Jews, he argued that the Aztecs were one of the lost tribes of Israel, and adduced human sacrifice and cannibalism as part of his evidence. [1]
Poetry
Poetry was the only occupation worthy of an Aztec warrior in times of peace. A remarkable amount of this poetry survives, having been collected during the era of the conquest. In some cases, we know names of individual authors, such as Netzahualcoyotl, Tolatonai of Texcoco and Cacahuatzin, Lord of Tepechpan. Miguel Leon-Portilla, the most renowned translator of Nahuatl, comments that is in this poetry where we can find the real thought of the aztecs, indepenfent of "official" Aztec ideology.
In the basement of the Great Temple there was the "house of the eagles", where an Aztec captains in peacetime could drink a foaming chocolate, smoke good cigars, and have poetry contests. The poetry was acompanied by percusions (teponaztli). Recurring themes in this poetry are whether life is real or a dream, whether there is an afterlife, and whether we can approach the giver of life.
The feather of quetzal will break,
The paintings will fade
The flower will die
Will they exist
In the house of the giver of life?
-- Cuacuatzin, lord of Tepechpan
The most important collection of these poems is Romances de los señores de la Nueva España, collected (Tezcoco 1582), probably by Juan Bautista de Pomar. This volume was later translated into Spanish by Angel Maria Garibay K., teacher of Leon-Portilla. Bautista de Pomar was the great grandson of Netzahualcoyotl. He spoke Nahuatl, but was raised as Christian and wrote in Latin characters.
Downfall
For more on the conquest of Mexico by Spain, see also Hernán Cortés.
The Aztecs were conquered by Spain in 1521, when after long battle and a long siege where much of the population died from hunger and smallpox, Cuautemoc surrendered to Hernán Cortés (a.k.a. "Cortez"). Cortez, with his up to 500 Spaniards, did not fight alone but with as many as 150,000 - 200,000 allies from Tlaxcala, and eventually from Texcoco, who were resisting Aztec rule. He defeated Tenochtitlan's forces in August 13, 1521.
An anonymous Aztec poet wrote:
How can we save our homes, my people
The Aztecs are deserting the city
The city is in flames and all
is darkness and destruction
Weep my people
Know that with these disasters
We have lost the Mexican nation
The water has turned bitter
Our food is bitter
These are the acts of the Giver of Life.
-- From the Informantes Anonimos de Tlatelolco, compiled in 1521.
But even in this moment, most of the other Mesoamerican cultures were intact. The Tlaxcaltec expected to get their part, Purepechas and Mixtecs probably were happy of the defeat of their longtime enemy and it was the same for other cultures.
It seem that the intention of Cortez was to maintain the structure of the Aztec empire, and at first it seemed the Aztec empire could survive. The upper classes at first were considered as noblemen (to this day, the title of Duke of Moctezuma is held by a Spanish noble family), they learned Spanish, and several learned to write in European characters. Some of their surviving writings are crucial in our knowledge of the Aztecs. Also, the first missionaries tried to learn Nahuatl and some, like Bernardino de Sahagún, decided to learn as much as they could of the Aztec culture. A record survives of a dialogue between the "Tlatiminine" or wise men, and the missionaries, where the Aztec try to defend their ways.
But soon all changed. The second wave of missionaries and authorities showed an apparently profound hatred for every aspect of the Mesoamerican cultures and began a process to wipe them out. Eventually, the Indians were forbidden not only to learn of their cultures, but to learn to read and write in Spanish, and, under the law, they had the status of minors.
It has been reported that epidemics of smallpox and typhus killed up to 75% of population. The population at the time of the conquest is estimated at 15 million; seventy years after the conquest, the estimated population was 3 million. Mexico City was built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan.
Information about Aztecs survives in contemporary sources like Codex Mendoza collected in 1541 and in the works of Bernardino de Sahagún, who worked with the surviving Aztec wise men.
Nahuatl is still spoken by Mexican Indians.
External link
The above article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
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