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... ith feathers and discs of precious stone. Young men dressed in the same way as the adults. There was another piece of clothing that men would wear if they could afford it. For those who could afford it, it was a rectangular cloak that was wound around the body under the left armpit, and then knotted over the right shoulder (Bray 1968). When he was to sit down, he slipped his cloak down in front of him so that it covered up his legs.
Rich men wore more than one cloak at a time to express wealth. For the women, the principal garment was a skirt which reached almost to the ankles and was held at the waist by an embroidered belt. Most skirts were a plain white cloth but for special times, the skirts were embroidered with special designs and patterns. Over the skirt the women of nobility and upper class wore a kind of blouse made from a straight length of cloth doubled over at the top and sewn down the sides, leaving the armholes open. The blouse fell to the hips and was usually decorated around the neck and the bottom. The common people went barefoot, but soldiers and richer citizens wore sandals with soles made of leather or vegetable fiber.
The sandals were held in place by straps which passed between the big and first toes. The Mexicans loved jewelry and accessories. Some of the things they used were fans, fly-whisks, and head-dresses made of green or red feathers. Beads were made of rare stones or of gold cast into the form of crabs, scorpions, birds, or seashells, and necklaces were hung with bells which made noise when the wearer moved. Poorer people wore the same things but instead of using precious stones or materials, they used seashells or less expensive stones (Boone 1994). Young boys had their earlobes pierced during childhood, and the holes were fitted with tiny plugs that were replaced with larger ones, as the boy grew older.
The earlobes were gradually stretched until the ears were capable of taking full-sized ear-spools. Each spool had a disc on each side to hold it in place. Most men also had nose piercings through the septum of the nose. These holes held rods of gold or precious stones.
The outside of the nose was also pierced and it was decorated with nose studs. The lower lip was also pierced with a labret or lip-plug. Water was the normal drink of the poor, but the rich could afford to buy chocolate, which was very highly esteemed. The cacao nuts were pounded, and then boiled in water with a little maize flour. The oil was skimmed off, the mixture was strained into a vessel, and whipped up into a stiff froth which gradually dissolved in the mouth. It was generally consumed cold, often flavored with honey, vanilla, or various spices (Boone 1994).
An alcoholic drink called oct was made from the fermented sap of the maguey plant. Aztec law was particularly severe towards people getting trashed, though some indulgence was shown towards the old men and women on the grounds that 'their blood was turning cold', and they were allowed to drink oct, and even get a little drunk, on certain special occasions. At weddings and festivals there was a general dispensation and all persons over the age of 30 were permitted to drink. Supposedly, the ration was 2 goblets per person, but no doubt this rule was broken more often than it was observed (Bray 1968). Porters and men of hard labor were allowed to refresh themselves occasionally, and women were allowed to drink as a tonic in the days immediately after child birth. A more dangerous kind of intoxication was produced by drugs like peyote (from the buds of a cactus which grows in the deserts of northern Mexico) and a bitter black mushroom called teonanacatl, 'sacred fungus' or 'flesh of the gods', which was sometimes served with honey at feasts and banquets.
These two drugs are hallucinogens. Peyotl, the source of the drug mescaline, intensifies visual impressions and causes colored hallucinations, while teonanacatl may produce, in low doses, the symptoms of madness with all kinds of visions and illusions. People who ate the mushroom had comic visions or saw terrifying things like snakes. Some thought their own bodies were full of worms, which ate them alive. Others laughed hysterically or hid themselves away from everyone else, and a few even hung themselves or threw themselves over cliffs. The seeds of climbing convolvulus (known in England as Morning Glory, but called by the Mexicans ololiuhqui or 'holy plant') were taken for their hallucinatory effects and were used in medical diagnosis (Bray 1968).
The Mexicans also found pleasure in tobacco. Tobacco was native to the New World and was smoked by the richer Mexicans at the end of the meal. The tobacco was mixed with pulverized charcoal, to which were added flowers, and powdered bitumen, and other aromatic substances, and was smoked in tube-shaped piped made out of hollow reeds or from more expensive materials like tortoiseshell, silver, or painted and gilded wood. The Aztecs squeezed their nostrils together while inhaling the smoke. From the beginning it was set forth by Montezuma I that there was to be a class distinction. The first clause in Montezuma's law code states quite boldly that 'The king must never appear in public unless the occasion is extremely important', and throughout the Mexican society a man's status in the community depended on his rank.
This civil code included the ruling classes, the common people, and the slaves. At the top of the ruling class was he king himself. He was set apart from the people by his wealth and authority, and separated from them by a wall of courtly ritual. No one got close to the king.
Even his most important subordinates were kept at a distance. The king also was commander-in-chief of the armies of the Triple Alliance, and also held the title of tlatoani (He who Speaks). The Aztecs followed the custom of most other Valley tribes in holding an election to elect their king. The nobles, priests, and warriors all got together and decided on a worthy candidate. They would then take their decision and present it to the people. The people always went with the decision of the council.
There was never a record of the people disagreeing with their choice. As a courtesy to the other two tribes of the alliance, the kings of Texcoco and Tlacopan were asked to confirm the appointment. The election depended on the merit of the individuals, and the job of he council was to choose the most able person among the male relatives of the deceased king. They looked for valor in battle, good record of public service, and was he just in his conduct. Once the king was elected, he gained an assistant known as Ciuacoatl (Snake Women), who, despite the title, was a man, and who dealt with the mundane affairs of the government. He was president of the high court and served as a deputy ruler in the king's absence and acted as chairman of the electoral college when a king died.
Below the Snake Women was the military commanders of the four wards into which Tenochtitlan was divided. Below them came the city council (Time Life Books 1992). The nobility class consisted of high officials who included senior generals, heads of the various branches of the civil service, judges of the appeal court, rulers of conquered cities, governors of provincial towns, and of the districts of Tenochtitlan. These men paid no taxes and were given an official residence. He drew his income from lands that came under his title. The commoners were the people below the nobles and civil servants.
This group contained the vast majority of the population. Of this mass of people, they were broken down into hereditary clans called capelli (group of houses). All members of these capelli considered themselves related by descent from a common ancestor. The original clans may have been kinship groups, but during the two centuries of urban life the kinship had become less important than those of residence.
The clans became like little landholding corporations, each of which occupied its own part of the city and also owned farmland, which it distributed among its members. Each family was given enough to satisfy its own needs. Within the capelli, families were grouped into units of 20, which were combined into major units of 100 households (Bray 1968). There were two sections of the community, the marques and the slaves, that were outside the clan structure altogether. The marques were about 30 percent of the total population. They were free men who belonged to the class of landless peasants.
Since they did not belong to the clan system, they did not receive farmland and gained no benefit from the welfare services of the capelli. The marques were the captured people from other lands who served as servants and sharecroppers. They also included newcomers to the Valley and also free commoners who had lost their civil rights through debt or crime. A slave was in about the same class as the marques but, unlike the marques, a slave was not free. A slave was owned outright by his master and could be put to any kind of work that his master saw fit. Female slaves were given jobs in the kitchens and in the workshops where they wove cloth or made garments.
Male slaves worked in the fields, acted as house-servants, porters, and laborers. If there was one way that slavery had an advantage over the marques was that the slaves were always guaranteed a roof over their head and food to eat. They also escaped the burdens of serving in the military and taxation. The main slave market was in Azcapotzalco where the trade was so well organized that the dealers were among the richest of the merchants.
Each of the merchants owned three or four buildings in the city, and in these buildings is where he housed his slaves. They stayed here until the day came to parade them in front of the buyers. They were made to display their skills in dancing and music. A slave who had no real talent cost the buyer about 20 cotton mantles (a poor man could live almost a year on that amount of money), but a good dancer could bring in about 30 to 40 mantles (Boone 1994).
After the parade was over, the owner sent the slave off to a wooden cage where he would wait for his new owner to come pick him up. Law governed the sale of slaves. A well-behaved slave could not be sold without his consent, but the law did allow a master to get rid of a slave who was dishonest, lazy, or disobedient. A heavy wooden collar was placed around the man's neck and he was put up for sale again in the market.
If a slave had gone through three owners and failed to satisfy any of them, he now gave up all dignity and could be bought for sacrifice. Aztecs were close to their gods and worked with them to further ensure the wellbeing of mankind. The 'representation' of a deity was important to the Aztecs. The term they used was teixptla, which could mean either impersonator, image, or substitute. The teixptla was the physical representation or incarnation of the total (god). These were images created in stone, wood, and amaranth seed dough, which sat in the temples or were paraded around during the rituals.
They connected to the total by virtue of the ritual. Aztec deities were this concentrated energy, manifested into forms as gods and goddesses. They pertained to slightly different but largely overlapping realms such as storms and water, earth and agriculture, the sun and warfare, human fertility and such. There were two main gods of the Aztecs, Tlaloc and Huitzilopochti. Tlaloc (earth) was the principal water god. He brought the rain needed for agriculture.
He also brought thunder and lightning, hail and snow. Huitzilopochti was the Aztecs' principal god of war. The calendar began as a 20 -day period. It was the count of the number of fingers and toes of the human body. Each of these days had its symbol and name. The days were: Crocodile, Wind, House, Lizard, Serpent, Death, Deer, Rabbit, Water, Dog, Monkey, Grass, Reed, Jaguar, Eagle, Vulture, Movement, Flint (knife), Rain, and Flower.
After they would go through a cycle of 20 days, it would begin all over again. Each of these days also had a number. The numbers went from I- 13. These also repeated like the symbols.
These combinations of numbers and symbols formed a sacred count of 260 uniquely named days. The Aztecs called it the tonalpohualli (day count). Each of the day signs and each of the day numbers carried meaning for the Aztecs (De La Cova 2000). Another calendar, tied to the solar year, operated at the same time.
It functioned primarily to establish general planting and harvesting times. This 365 -day year was divided into 18 "months" of 20 days, with 5 unlucky and useless days remaining at the end. Each month carried its own special festival and took the name of the celebration. The individual days of the calendar were not named unless something important happened.
The day count of 260 days and the solar year of 365 days meshed perfectly every 52 years. This was the larger cycle by which historical events were measured. The years, each named for the tonalpohualli day on which it ended, bore on of four signs (Rabbit, Reed, Flint, and House) and on of thirteen numbers. The years all carried a name and a number. The signs and numbers of the years also carried meanings. For example, the year I Flint was a year for great beginnings and I Rabbit was a year of drought and famine.
The Aztecs have contributed to a number of societies and cultures. The were great people and were well educated for the time period in which they lived. Had they survived longer, who knows what the world would be like today. Bibliography: Bibliography Boone, Elizabeth. 1994.
The Aztec World. Montreal, Canada: St. Remy Press. Bray, Warwick. 1968. Everyday Life of the Aztecs.
New York: Dorset Press. De la Cova, A. Aztecs (14 May 2000). De la Cova, A. Aztecs (14 May 2000).
Time Life Books. 1992. Aztecs: Reign of Blood and Splendor. Alexandria, Virginia: Time Life Presses.
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