ASB 222 - Buried Civilizations of the Americas - Keith Kintigh

Lecture 20 - Aztec Society and Mexican National Heritage

• Ideology
• Warfare very important. The point was to capture victims, hand to hand combat, warrior gains distinction with captives not people killed
• Ritualized conflict through warfare
• starts with insult <<>>
• agree on day for war
• in a fight with the Chalca, after a few days Chalca asked their Mexica "brothers" to postpone continued battle until major feast day past. <<>>
• Sacrificial victims join the gods. Supposedly went willingly to sacrifice. Had beating hears cut from bodies <<>>
• Cannibalism restricted to nobles and rituals
• Argument of protein deficiency seems bogus
• Population control argument seems problematic
• <<>> Is this any more barbaric than 16th Century Europe, the inquisition); today?
• Deities are spirits, not deified human, though ruler are associated w/ gods and speak for them
• Morality: strong sense; nobles punished more than commoners; put to death for drunkenness
• Society
• Nobles, Commoners; by law, clothing different
• Nobles.
• Degrees of distinction w/i nobility, in large part earned.
• Boys and girls schools, teach morals
• Rights to have commoners work land
• Commoners
• can rise based on merit. Farmers, specialists, warriors, traders, teachers
• Farmers can own land they can pass on
• some become craft specialists or long distance traders-Pochteca, who have burden carriers that carry up to 50 lbs 15 mi/day
• Slaves
• People sell themselves into slavery, perhaps for a time period when things are bad,
• You could buy yourself out of slavery
• Children were born free
• Membership
• Household=nuclear family
• Barrio, ward, calpultin had land tenure and a temple
• kingdom was a city state w/i empire
• Probably land control at various levels, from state to household
• Economy
• Environment
• 7000', 2100m
• lake system (sink), now mostly gone, drained by Spanish leaving swampy area but deep soils
• Appears to be exploited to carrying capacity
• Agriculture
• Chinampas
• raised fields, still in use today
• lots of water transport by canoe
• Dike of Nezahualcoyotl built to keep fresh water away from brackish water
• Terraces on hillsides
• Irrigation
• Salt flats provide salt and insect larvae for food
• Aqueducts
• Diet
• Plants: corn (tortillas tamales), beans, avocados, tomatoes, squash, chilis, Amaranth greens, dough, nopales, algae
• Animals: domestic dogs & turkeys; also muscovy ducks, insects,
• Crafts
• Obsidian production from several sources: tools; blades, multielement swords could decapitate
• Pottery, hand made and molded variety of forms; specialists in comales=griddles
• Textiles:
• Cotton textiles, but cotton not grown in Valley
• Maguey cloth
• All women engaged in cloth production
• Copper and Bronze
• technology from South America ca 1200 into W Mexico
• Tarascans enemies, had metalworkers, captured and transported
• goldsmithing
• featherwork
• lapidary; ear and nose plugs, mosaics
• Incredible stone carving
• Markets in towns, biggest in Tlateloco; tens of thousands of people, hundreds of items.
• Barter system. Some standardized items set standards: white cotton cloak, cacao beans
• sell flowers
• Feathers were key items for nobles
• Pochteca (commoners), in hierarchically organized guilds involved in international trade, achieved great wealth
• Settlement Pattern: hierarchical organization, not too centralized, with substantial population
• Spanish Conquest
• Landfall Feb 1519; 4 days from Cuba, Hernán Cortez went to Cancun
• impressed w/ Maya temple & a human sacrifice
• Sailed up to Veracruz (N & W)
• local governors brought gifts gold objects jewelry, cotton and feather cloth, "a marvelous sight"
• Painter, who painted their portrait to taken back to Moctezuma on cloth or bark-paper by emperor Moctezuma
• received incredible gifts of gold etc. from Moctezuma <<>>
• arrive Tenochtitlan in 1519; very impressed
• Seville at that time 60K, London 50K, Paris and Constantinople were the only really large cities in Europe with > 300,000 population
• Cortez retreats to get reinforcements,
• set up allies among those polities chafing under Mexica rule; ends up with 900 Spaniards and 150,000 others. Battled in for Aztecs an unconventional way, to kill people. Strength of city-states led to collapse of empire.
• Went to Tenochtitlan hosted by Moctezuma, whom he took hostage, and later killed. The city had been hit by smallpox epidemic but still required a 3 month siege which resulted in incredible suffering in city; corpses everywhere.
• Then Spaniards burn Tenochtitlan and use temples as quarries for new construction
• National Heritage
• 1791 found Calendar stone & 2 others, starts to make Mexicans aware of their past
• Work on subway & Cathedral led in 1978 to start of excavations of Templo Mayor by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma 1978-1982
• <<>>How does archaeology and the precontact period fit into the national heritage and the national identity in different countries.
• <<>> What is the effect on international and internal repatriation.