FREE ESSAY ON THE AZTECS: A CASE STUDY

THE AZTECS: A CASE STUDY

The Aztecs are an ancient culture that had many customs and rituals that by modern
standards are considered barbaric. Their culture was made up of different social classes,
and was primitive yet very advanced. They were located in the mainland of Mexico, and
their empire was quite vast over that area. Their culture began around 1100, and ended
around 1520. 
The exact numbers of the Aztecs is not known due to the age of their culture, but judging
by the size of their empire it was quite large. The only figure I could find was that in
1519 there were more than 1,000,000 people living in the civilizations boundaries. The
reason that I was drawn to this culture was some of the practices that they had. The most
interesting being the human sacrifices to the gods, and the large ball game that they
played that sometimes went on for days without a stop. 
The Aztecs lived primarily in a fertile volcanic valley of Mexico where they built their
capital city named Tenochtitlan. The land in which they lived was a plateau seeing that
most of the surrounding was mountainous. The soil in the settled areas was very rich and
good for growing crops, due to the volcanic eruptions that occurred. The valley of Mexico
was the heartland of Aztec civilization. It is a large internally drained basin
surrounded by volcanic mountains that are as high as 9,000 ft in elevation. Thousands of
years of soil erosion had produced deep, rich soils in the valley and a system of
shallow, swampy, salt lakes in its center. This gave the Aztecs a diverse variety of
foods that could be available. The salty lakes made available fish, turtles, insect
larvae, blue-green algae, and salt. The food that was eaten by the Aztecs varied by
social classes. The peasants lived mainly on corn and beans, except for a duck or a crow
that they may have trapped in their garden. Their only domesticated animals were rabbits,
dogs, and turkeys which were fattened and eaten on special occasions. Corn was the main
food of The Aztecs and many foods were made fresh daily from it. Every morning the woman
of the family would grind up fresh corn, and make bread for the day. The higher classed
people, however, enjoyed eating turtles and crabs imported from the coast. It was odd to
the Spaniards to find that one of the delicacies of the Aztecs was dog. 
Aztec homes also differed by social class, peasants built their huts around the edge of
the city. While handymen lived nearer to the center in mud-brick houses. In each of these
homes there was normally a mudbrick tub, and they all consisted of a single room. Nobles
that were higher in society lived in palaces built of whitewashed stone, and with over a
hundred rooms, and were built around the main plaza. Inside of all houses the rooms were
almost bare, light came in from wooden torches and round the room were stored the
family's possessions and objects of daily use. Even palaces had no doors but instead had
cloth hung over openings, this allowed for cool air to circulate throughout the house. 
For the Aztecs clothing was way of showing social status, so there were very strict laws
about who could wear what. An ordinary citizen wore a loincloth and cloak, which had to
be made of plain undyed maguey-fiber cloth. And if they were caught wearing sandals in
the palace they were put to death. Nobles wore cotton cloaks with borders of precious
stones. Craftsmen were able to dye the cotton green, and other colors; they also wove
geometric designs into their cloak to symbolize their status in the culture. The Aztecs
loved to wear jewelry, but there were also strict laws about this. Most people pierced
their ears to hold plugs of shell or polished stones. Nobles were allowed to wear gold
and carved precious stones in their lower lips to show their high rank. Farmers were
among the lowest in the dress, they slept in their loincloth, and in the morning he got
his blanket and tied it around his shoulder and he was dressed. Women wore a woven blouse
with an embroidered skirt that held it in place. Every class also had their own haircuts
varying from highest to lowest for the most festive style.
Through my studies of the Aztecs I was shocked to find out how much dress, and appearance
had to do with social status. 
The economy of the Aztecs was largely one of bartering (trade). The trading was of many
goods; this is how the large open air markets operated. In the central market there were
4 hierarchal levels or marketplaces. These marketplaces were an area of bustling activity
while they were open. The reason that these were so busy was that they were only open for
and Aztec week (which is 5 days). While the market was open there were many stands set up
where merchants paid a small fee to operate a stand to sell their goods. At the market
products were monitored for quality, and if a product was found of bad quality they were
shut down. At the same time anyone caught shoplifting was taken to the court at the
market, and found guilty. The punishment was being beaten to death on the spot. The
currency that was used was cacao beans for small purchases, for larger purchases the
Aztecs used quachtli (cotton capes of standard sizes). The economic level of the Aztecs
was quite high, and was considered as more sophisticated markets that several other
civilizations. Even though there was no official currency they did use objects as money
ranging from beans to capes. The only unique feature that I could pick out is how well
the market was monitored by the people looking for quality products. This shows an amount
of sophistication on their behalf, by regulating trade in a way. The economy was very
complex, in the way that all aspects of it were tied together, which made the Aztec
empire unified. The economy was highly commercialized and dynamic, but it was not a
capitalist economy. There was no paid labor, land was not a commodity to be bought and
sold, and there were no chances for investment. The markets and the economy were embedded
in a rigid system of social classes, and no amount of economic success would enable one
to cross class barriers.
The Aztecs at the personal level were taught to act sophisticated, with self-control,
while still acting well behaved in public. The Aztec people loved to give speeches and
help others with problems. In the social sense of personal acting they were a very
confident people, who were proud of their family. In public they were expected to live
and act appropriately to the class that they held in society. The family that the Aztecs
lived in is a nuclear family consisting of the mother, father, and children all in one
house. The parents of the boy who was getting married arranged marriages within the
culture. Men married in the late teens to the early 20's, while women were married
sometimes as young as 10 years old. After the bride was selected the wedding date was
picked. If the marriage fell on an unlucky day it was thought that it would fail.
Weddings took place in 2 parts first with a feast at the wife's house, and then a trip to
the groom's house for the actual wedding. To signify the union clothes were tied together
to show the unity to the gods. Once young people were married they assumed adult roles,
and responsibilities. Their society practiced monogamy, there were not multiple wife
families in the culture. The kinship was mainly handled by men, and was patriarchal.
The Aztec religion was based largely on a debt that humankind owed to the gods, which
could only be paid back through sacrifice and blood letting. The religion focused on
agricultural fertility and worship of the sun, which the Aztecs felt the gods created.
The Aztec religion was a complex blend of traditions, unified by emphases on blood,
sacrifice, and debt payment. Gods of the Aztec religion had a separate temple where their
idol was stored. Several priests ran each temple, along with commoner boys, and people
who were studying the priesthood. Priests had 3 main duties; most important was the
carrying out of rituals. They also left food for the idols, and kept sacred fires
burning. The lower priests ran the calmecac, supervised by the tlamacazton and personnel,
and also kept the sacred books. Above the tlamacazton were the "fire priests"; these were
the priests responsible for human sacrifice rituals. Regular priests assisted at the
stone of sacrifice, but only a "fire priest" could wield the lethal flint knife. The head
priest was known as a Quetzalcoatl, who presided at the top of the Templo Mayor pyramid,
and other buildings. 
The Aztec religion called for quite a large amount of human sacrifice ceremonies, which
were necessary to pay the debt to the gods. There were two different ways of paying back
the gods, Autosacrifice, or bleeding oneself. Heart sacrifice was also practiced, which
was believed to a higher sacrifice to the gods. Autosacrifice was viewed as an
alternative to heart sacrifice to pay back the dead. While heart sacrifice was considered
stronger to show the gods respect. The heart sacrifice took place on a pyramid on the
stone altar, the heart of the person is removed, and then the head is cut off and placed
on a skull rack on the pyramid. The people sacrificed were not looked upon as mere
mortals, but as deities whose deaths were similar to the god's original deaths. 
The Aztecs did not have many myths that were in their culture, but they did have a few on
the birth of their culture. The main myth is of the four suns, in which one main god,
created two other gods, who in between the creation of earth, other gods, and people were
distributed. The name of the myth of the four suns comes from the four previous ages of
gods which came before the present set. The Aztecs had several other myths in their
culture, all of which dealt with creation of objects, and light in the culture.
The Aztecs used many different mediums in the art that they made, the most popular being
stone sculptures, and paintings. Almost all of the art depicted religious symbols that
were very important to the culture. The style of art is referred to as the
"Mixteca-Puebla style." The art that they did reflected their religious beliefs, and
everyday life. There were collaborations by many carvers on projects for kings, which
were mainly large temples, and pyramids. 
The use of music and dance was mainly reserved to religious rituals and ceremonies. Drums
were the main instruments mentioned in written works, and in drawings. Some other
instruments were trumpets on conch shells, pottery flutes and whistles, and rattles.
Dances were both with men and women, in which they moved in a circular pattern around the
musician in the center. Young people in the culture were especially proud of their
ability to dance. Song and dance were not widely used outside of ceremonial purposes,
unless in celebration. These were parts of the culture, but as most things were it
remained mainly a religious practice.
The Aztecs were also one of the cultures of the world that built pyramids. The pyramids
were not built as a burial chamber like the Egyptians though; they were built as
pedestals for temples. The temples that were atop these structures were very well
decorated, with statues of the deity they were dedicated to in the center of the temple.
Although no statues still exist there are written accounts from the Spanish conquerors
journeys to the region.
In closing the Aztec culture was a very complex culture, with many rituals and
ceremonies. Their culture is a very interesting one to study especially in the realm of
human sacrifice, and the brutality that took place. They lived in a polytheistic society
where there were many gods, and the number continued to grow. That was the downfall of
the Aztecs and many other great Mexican cultures. For the Aztecs Cortez' came to explore
for Spain, and destroyed and stole a lot of elements from their culture. Cortez' came at
the end of a 52 year cycle of the calendar at which the god Quetzalcoatl would return to
destroy them. So the Aztecs received the Spanish very well, at that time the Spanish
attacked and destroyed the culture. It is funny to think that a culture was destroyed by
it's own religious beliefs. In the end the strong belief in gods led to the end of a
great early civilization of the Mexican country. A complex culture as well, which as time
progressed became more sophisticated and wealthy. The Aztecs were very interesting to
study, and they are also an example how beliefs can be a hindrance to a culture, and
maybe lead to it's demise.
Bibliography
Bibliography
1. Bray, Warwick
1968. Everyday life of The Aztecs. G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, NY
2. Crosher, Judith
1976. The Aztecs- Peoples of the past. Silver Burdett Company, Morristown, N.J.
3. Hooker, Richard
1996. HTTP://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/CIVAMRCA/AZTECS.HTM
4. Stuart, Gene S.
1981. The Mighty Aztecs. National Geographic Society
5. Townsend, Richard F.
1992. The Aztecs. Thames and Hudson Inc., New York, NY
6. Smith, Michael E.
The Aztecs- The Peoples of America. Blackwell Publisher Inc. Cambridge, Massachusetts
7. Vaillant, George C.
1998. HTTP://northcoast.com/~spdtom/a-dress.html
8. Microsoft Corporation
1999. Encyclopedia Article