For more information about the grading criteria and details of each section, see the cultures of fall 2010 page

1. The group must have one person stay on the X. He will be consulted before major decisions are made for the group. (Jerry)
2. When greeting other cultures and members of our own culture we must do the handshake. (person presents a fist and the other person puts his hand over it) This is a sign of friendship. If the hand shake is not met with corporation the person can be considered a foe.
3. Each member must wear a red shirt and a white bandanna acknowledging the appropriate position of the person. (fighting group, trade group, home group)
4. The military group can not consist of any female players.The home group can have female players, and the trade group must consist of females travelling with male players. Female players are allowed to make trades and alliances as well as males but can not fight. All members must consult the player on the X before completing transactions so that all players can know what the rest of the group is doing.
5. All other sim rules set by the Professor apply to the Aztec people.
   

Aztec Exchange
Mark Jones
Before the fall of the Aztec Empire, it was a very successful state, one of the reasons being its large and successful economy. The economy was based on a market exchange. A form of distribution based on the use of a specialized location (the “marketplace”) and relatively impersonal principles of supply and demand and the pursuit of profit. The market which was usually located in the center of an Aztec community. It supplied the Aztec people with a wide variety of goods such as clothing, fire wood, food Items, obsidian, bronze, jewelry, and luxury items for tribute to the gods, were also traded in the marketplace (Brumfiel). The merchants, also known as tlanecuilo, tended to all the things happening in the market and took care of any problems that arose. The market place was not just a location for the Aztecs to exchange good but also a place where the community could come together and trade information about the different areas within their community and also the whole Aztec region. It provide many people the chance to socialize with each other. These market places were primarily used for trade between local peoples. The Aztecs did not have any domestic animals to transport the goods to another territory or community, which is why it just tended to mostly the local population. However most of the wealth coming into the Aztec community was coming from outside the territories, neighboring empires and nomadic people traveling through the Aztec Empire. This outside trade between empires created a need for long distance trade. Long distance traders were known as pochteca, who were defined by their positions within the system. Pochteca were professional traders, who help positions right under the nobility in the Aztec class system. Most of their responsibilities were to provide the nobles luxury items, such as obsidian gathered from faraway places, to display their wealth and power within the community (PLU). Many of the Pochteca were very successful in trading goods and became as wealthy or even sometimes more wealthy than the nobles, but they were not allowed to show any of their wealth to the public. The Pochteca became an elite class of merchants and reported to 12 locations within the entire empire, where the high officials were located. There were three groups of Pochteca; the highest level was the pochtecatlatoque, who were elderly merchants who already made a fortune. They became the administrators and overseers of the Pochteca (PLU). They no longer traveled, but stayed in one location to oversee the trade. The second level was the tlatlani, the slave traders; they were often the wealthiest merchants, because of the high demand for sacrifice to the gods. The third group was the tencunenenque, who worked for the rulers of an area and carried out personal trades. One of the biggest reasons the Aztec communities were allowed to flourish is the levels of Pochteca and the way they regulated and enforced trade within the marketplace(PLU). Most of the trading occurred within the communities, but some was outside the communities such as the Tarascan, who were enemies with the Aztecs but a valuable source of bronze and jewelry (Wikipedia). Also the Europeans began trade with the Aztecs at a later date (Brumfiel).

World Sim Summary 2010 Aztecs by Jerry Cox
This is what took place in our world of the Aztecs during the world simulation. In the very beginning we had some good hard power (a jack) and we were well protected, we also had plenty of food to survive off of. Immediately Japan, North America, and Mongolia wanted to trade for more hard power. The Iroquois wanted to form an alliance with us, which we did for the protection from them, and to help protect them just in case the British Isle decided to attack them. We sent a spy out to see if we could observe the hard power and resources that people around us had, we noted that the Incas had some very high hard power that could be used for attacking. After round one, we survived with plenty of food, resources and power, and into round two where we were hit hard with a disease epidemic that killed 90% of our population. It took away our hard power (our jack) so we were very vulnerable to the British Isle and Spanish who were very strong and out attacking the world trying to conquer it. The Spanish Empire came to our area, and offered protection from enemies for a trade for our jaguar, which contained resources they could use to become industrialized. We traded them for the sole reason we were just hit with a huge disease epidemic. At the end of round two, we still had plenty of food, and resources to survive, even with losing some hard power and population we stood strong. During round three the British Isles came up to attack us, then left for no reason, we believe they seen that we didn’t have what they wanted, so later on during the round, we approached the British Isles trying to form an alliance, they said no, they wanted us to work for them , and give them our land, resources, and be their slaves, we said no, then we threatened them with the Spanish as our allies, also having much help from Amazonia, Japan, North America, and Mongolia, they decided against the attack. We then formed very strong alliances with Incas, Amazonia, Iroquois, and North Americans so that we could protect them, and they could protect us. At the end of round three, we didn’t have enough power or food to feed us all, where 35% of our remaining population would be killed off, and then have to become refugees of another colony, but with a miracle happening we drew some really high and strong hard power (queen) and it helped us feed us all, and be able to protect us all, including all of our allies. We were able to kick out the British Isles away from the entire North, South, and Middle Americas so that the only people living on the land were all allies. We outlasted regular history because he had a very long history, and yet we didn’t industrialize we still survived and had a lot of land, resources, food, and allies so that no one in the world could conquer us without the help of nuclear weapons. We did a lot of things backwards from the real Aztecs where as we made alliances, and thought about the future, and our allies to help protect us, and them therefore helping us last just as our culture, with many strong allies on a huge piece of land with plenty of resources to survive for a very long time.


Language (Elaine Eck):
Classical Nahuatl (pronounced nah-wah-t’l) was the language of the Aztecs. They did not invent the language, as the Toltecs, Chichimecs, and numerous other tribes spoke it. Nahuatl became the lingua franca of Mexico and Central America because of the conquest by the Aztecs, and the penetration of their merchants and trade (Von Hagen 1961: 52). The Nahuatl language belongs to the Uto-Aztecan language family, and is an agglutinative language, which means that words and phrases are put together by combining prefixes, suffixes, and root words in order to form an idea (Aztec-History).

The language of the Aztecs was composed of spoken Nahuatl, as well as a pictographic writing system. While formal education was compulsory for all children, the teaching of this Aztec writing system was reserved for nobility, who would occupy the administrative and religious positions, which required literacy (Berdan 1982: 151). This hierarchical system emphasized the differences in speech between the commoners and the nobility. Ordinary men or macehualli were careless about the meaning of an affix, the flections of person, number, case, and gender; but in the calmecac schools good Nahuatl speech was taught so that high-placed persons could speak properly to the gods or could impress visiting chieftains (Von Hagen 1961: 53).



The Aztec writing system offered no way of expressing general statements or abstract ideas, and did not utilize an alphabet (Vaillant 1941: 207). Instead, the system was based on a large number of glyphs, which served as mnemonic devices and provided only clues as to the entire message. Therefore, learning to read and write required a great deal of knowledge not directly expressed in the glyphs.

The glyphs were formulated in at least three different ways. By far the most common method was pictographic, in which a picture of the item was drawn (e.g., snake, flower, ect.). Although painted with certain artistic license, these stylized pictographs were readily intelligible and carried simple, direct meaning. The second means of composing glyphs was through ideographs. Slightly more abstract than pictographs, ideographs are aspects or qualities of an object that are selected to represent the entire object (e.g., a stylized speech scroll to represent speech, or a noble’s headband to indicate a high-ranking noble). Other common ideographs were footprints for travel, speech scrolls with flowers for song or poetry, ect. The third means of glyphic formation was phonetic, in which one word, easily represented pictorially, is used for another word or set of words that has the same sound (Berdan 1982: 150). An example of glyphs with phonetic derivations:

In addition to the form of the glyphs, other written details conveyed information. For example, the size of human figures was important. The larger individuals represented more important or dominant persons, the smaller ones indicated subservient or less significant persons. Color also provided valuable information. Various types of feathers would have been indistinguishable from one another except for color; so would grass, reeds, and canes, which were all portrayed in different colors. Since only the “high points” were actually written, both reader and writer had to rely on intellectual skills sharply honed in the calmecac in order to “fill in” the necessary unwritten information (Berdan 1982: 151).

Aztec writing had two primary functions: to record cultural and tribal history, and mark calendar dates. Aztec histories consisted of annals of ancient times, contemporary events, year counts; accounts compiled yearly, specific records for each year, books of each day and day-by-day counts or diaries. These histories followed two main styles; one sets forth events, the people or tribes involved and the places, each designated by its hieroglyph, with year names to give dates, while the other style recorded the succession of the years, for the whole time covered by the history.

The ritual calendar, or tonalpohualli, was set down in the tonalamatl, or “book of days.” This book was only one of several types of manuscripts, or codices, composed by the Aztec scribes. Most books were written on amatl, paper made from the inner bark of the amaquauitl. The bark was soaked in water, beaten to separate and smooth the fibers, and treated with various materials to make a firm, even writing surface. Typically, these long sheets of paper were not bound, but were folded accordion style. The scribe usually wrote his hieroglyphic message on both sides of the bark paper. This message was written in a kaleidoscope of bright colors, the most common being red, yellow, green, and blue, and was outlined in black; in fact, writing itself was known as “in tlilli in tlapalli,” or “the red, the black,” (Berdan 1982: 150-151).




The Aztecs were heirs to a long tradition of oral literature. Aztec poetry was of two types: epic and lyric. The epic poetry encompassed the great myths: they told of the creation of the Four Suns, the birth of the present sun, and the origin of human beings, and recounted beliefs about major deities. Through the skillful use of repetition and minute detail, the epics presented vivid and exciting sagas. Lyric poetry, however, expressed the personal musings of the intellectual elite. They pored over great philosophical questions: the nature of the supernatural world, the meaning of human existence, and the secret of death, along with more mundane themes: the glory of war, the grandeur of the Aztecs, ect.

An important form of Aztec ritual communication was the huehuetlatolli. These “speeches of the elders” were presented to individuals and/or groups at critical points or periods in their life cycles: birth, adolescence, marriage, and death. In these speeches, the Aztecs revealed and taught their most cherished values. Through them infants were introduced to a precarious and dangerous world, youths were taught proper etiquette and humility, and a new ruler was advised of the heavy burdens he must assume with his office (Berdan 1982: 155-158).

In conclusion, the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, although not invented by them, became the bridge of communication throughout Mexico and Central America with the dominance of the Aztec empire. Through their literature, the Aztecs practiced important rituals like the huehuetlatolli, and recited their beliefs in poetry. The Aztec writing system was formulated in different ways, with pictographs, ideographs, or phonetically, and important records such as the tonalpohualli ritual calendar, histories, and tribal records were recorded in this way. Spoken Nahuatl differed between social classes, from the commoners with poor Nahuatl skills to the nobility and military with proper speech skills. Nahuatl not only allowed the Aztecs communicate with each other, but also allowed the Aztecs to become one of the most powerful empires in their time.



Environment (Clare Miles):


The Aztec people lived in what is current day Central Mexico. Their capital city of Tenoctitlan is modern day Mexico City. This same region is also referred to as “Mesoamerica,” and the Aztecs lived in northern Mesoamerica.






The life of an Aztec child was based on fulfilling the responsibilities society had planned for their future. They had very strong views on how each gender should behave, how children should be taught and raised, and their commitment to their beliefs and to members in their society.
Parents adored their children and raised them with affection. They would often use admiring pet names such as “my jewel, my precious feather.” Parents also raised them with severe punishments for disobedience (Aztec-history 2006-2010). The extended family and the other members of the community also helped raise and educate the children in the town. They helped develop the children’s proper social etiquette by sharing their life experiences (Aguilar-Moreno 2006: 357-358). Society was also a major part of a child’s birth and determining the child’s future. When a baby was born, the birth was compared to a battle. The mother was honored as a warrior for her courage. Four days later, the midwife would have a ritual for naming the child that involved gender-specific objects. She would bathe the baby and afterwards would have three boys repeat the child’s name. If the child was a boy, he was given tools that symbolized the life he would lead. These objects would resemble tools his father used to reassure he’d follow in his father’s footsteps. A baby girl would receive tools that demonstrated the domestic chores she would do later in life. Then the umbilical cord was buried with the tools. For a boy, it was buried on the battlefield with a bow and arrow to represent being a soldier later in life. Girls’ had their umbilical cord buried under a stone used for grinding corned, called a metate, to reassure the girls’ would be following after their mothers’ and taking care of the home. The child’s life was also planned out by an astrologer who based future events on the time and date of birth. This was done to find the right time to baptize the child to help them have the best life. Children were also put the work at a very early age. Boys would help their fathers by carrying light loads, and girls would help their mothers and began learning how to spin yard. By age seven the boys were fishing and the girls would be spinning cotton and cooking. The gender differences that applied in the beginning of a child’s life followed them into adulthood as symbols of what society expected from them (Van Tuerenhout 2005: 130-31).
Regardless of their social status, it was mandatory for everyone to receive an education. The Aztec empire was one of the first places in the world to have education required for everyone (Aztec-history 2006-2010). The parents would teach their children when they were younger, but when the boys reached 15 years of age and the girls were close to 10 years old, they would start attending a school. There were two different types of schools. One school was the Telpochacalli for commoners and lower-ranking nobility. The boys and girls would attend school separately, but both were taught singing, dancing, and playing music. The boys tasked in civil projects such as repairing the temples. They also learned martial arts and then became warriors. The other school was the Calmecac for the highest-ranking nobility and had much more rigorous training than the telpochacalli. This school provided education for political, religious, and military training. Students would enter this school at a much younger age. They were taught history, language, the calendar, astrology, interpretation of dreams, songs, and other important aspects of Aztec life. Weapon training began at the age of 15 years old (Van Tuerenhout 2005: 131-32). The children were also taught that the gods were their true parents and they were required to live their entire lives in relation to their social group and the gods. The Aztecs also taught that education made it possible to go from childhood to adult responsibilities. They often taught the children through poetry. A lesson that was frequently taught was how life was full of pain and misery, but not to go through life upset all the time, that there was still good things to make up for all the bad (Carrasco 1998: 94).
The Aztec people had little independence in the sense that everyone had to have the same behavior and life style. Children were constantly corrected if they didn’t behave the way society expected of them. The children had very close relationships with their parents and were encouraged to express their feelings, but their entire lives were still planned by their parents and the community. By the age of three years, the sons were instructed by the father, and the daughters were instructed by the mother, on how to be helpful family member and member of the household. As the child grew up, the parents would become more specific on the responsibilities they wanted to the child to carry out. Discipline also grew harsher as the children aged. The Aztecs people valued discipline, but they also strongly valued love for others. (Carrasco 1998: 100).




Media/Technology (Taylor Kuhlmann)

The Aztec’s had many different types and forms of tools. Since they are very dependent on farming they are required to have certain tools to allow them to produce food. According to Fagan’s book, The Aztecs, the Aztec’s cultivate their fertile soil with simple hoes and wooden digging sticks. The uictli is the common name for their wooden stick which was used for planting our crops. (Mexicolore).

Due to the Aztec’s location in the Valley of Mexico they were able to use volcanic glass in order to produce obsidian tools. The prismatic blade made out of the volcanic glass was their most common type of blade. According to Smith’s book, The Aztecs, prismatic blades are “long, thin, parallel-sided flakes with a prism-shaped cross section”. Prismatic blades serve primarily as knives, sickles, and razors; however, they are often made into new tools such as drills, scrapers, and arrow points. (Smith, Michael Ernest)

Uictli Obsidian Knife

With the learned knowledge from the traders of South America they were able to manufacture copper and bronze tools. These tools consist of bells, rings, tweezers, sewing needles, chisels, axes, and fishhooks, all of which accomplished certain tasks. (Van, Tuerenhout Dirk R.)

The backstrap loom and spindle whorls were very important to their culture. The backstrap loom was used to weave their cotton in order to produce items such as clothing, bedding, bags, awnings, decorations, and battle armor. One end of the backstrap loom was attached to a fixed point while the other was a bar. The bar was held in place by a string wrapped around the waist of the weaver who controlled the tightness of the threads by leaning back. The Aztecs used crushed insects and plants in order to dye their belongings a certain color. These tools allowed them to produce their desired clothing and other necessities. (Smith, Michael Ernest)
Backstrap Loom


Their weapons include swords, clubs, spears, and atlatls. The maquahuitl is similar to a sword, very strong and used in close combat. Their clubs (cuauhololli) were made of wood with a ball at the end of it used to smash or crush opponents. The spear, also known as a tepoztopilli, was often seven feet long with a 12” blade. Bows and arrows are also a weapon the Aztec’s used in combat. The tematlatl is a sling which is capable of launching prepared stones over 650 feet. These tools are all used for hunting and warfare when necessary. Some weapons are stronger than others and are needed at different times depending on the importance of the fight. (Ancient Aztec Weapon)
Left Photo: Maquahuitl
Right Photo: (From left to right) obsidian knife, 2 axes, arrow tip, spear, and 2 maquahuitls



Pottery and ceramics allowed the Aztecs to build certain tools. These included household items such as kitchenware, religious items, tools (spindle whorls and bowls to support the spindle during the spinning of cotton thread), and other small objects used every day. (Smith, Michael Ernest)

Maguey plants provided the Aztecs with many different types of tools. These tools include roofs made from leaves which act as “roof tiles”, plates/dishes, thread for footwear, or cloth. We are able to use the thorns from this plant as tacks or nails in order to hold the roof tiles together to provide a strong roof over their adobe homes. (Smith, Michael Ernest)

The Aztecs did not have animals or any wheeled vehicles to use for transportation; therefore, they were restricted to foot travel and canoes. Canoes are dug out from a single tree trunk and are used to transport goods whenever possible. Canoes are capable of carrying up to one ton of cargo per load. People who transport goods by their feet are known as tlamemes. Tlamemes carry up to 50 pounds of cargo in a woven-can container and travel between 13-20 miles a day. Although canoes were capable of carrying more cargo, tlamemes were able to deliver goods to cities in roughly the same amount of time as canoes. (Van Tuerenhout Dirk R.)

Tlamemes

The Aztecs communicated to one another through the language of Nahuatl. They used pictograph writing which was used mainly by the highly educated people making it very difficult for others to tap into the system (The Aztec Culture). The Aztecs also relied on a very unique way to transport messages across their terrain. Runners were stationed approximately 4 km apart and could cover about 400 km a day (Van Tuerenhout Dirk R.). This type of communication happened very quickly and efficiently. Another way of communicating was through spies. Prior to the start of a war spies traveled to enemy lands during the night and disguised themselves as the local population. Very often spies would bribe people to get information such as their “enemy strongholds, troop concentrations, and movements” (Van Tuerenhout Dirk R.). After receiving valuable information they would travel back to their empire and relay the information to give them a huge advantage during the war.

Gender (Tyler Nenaber)

“Anthropological studies of gender address gender roles, gender ideologies, and gender identities in human social life” Elizabeth Brumfiel. Gender roles are made up of the political, economic, and cultural activities of men and women within their society. The Aztec had a very typical way of life similar to most societies of their time. The women and men within the Aztec society had very important obligations. Although many of their duties were different, some of the men and women shared duties.

Gender roles between men and women were depicted from the moment they were conceived. When a baby girl was born, the priest would speak over her saying: “ be in the heart of the home,…go nowhere” become “the banked fire, the hearth stones…” Her umbilical cord was then buried in the hearth. (Clendinnen) When a baby boy was born, his umbilical cord was given to a warrior. It was this warrior’s duty to bury the cord on a battlefield. In the society, it was the boy’s social duty to be a warrior, and the girl’s to be a wife and mother. While growing up, boys and girls had a very dissimilar upbringing. By the age of four, girls were already being taught how to spin and weave. Reports show that girls (but not boys) were told, “Apply thyself well to the really womanly task, the spindle whorl, the weaving stick…” (Sahagun: 1950-82) Boys on the other hand were taught crafts such as hunting, gathering, and trading. In noble families, little girls showed their fathers their weavings to receive praise. Little boys presented their fathers with the flowers and fruits their mother had given them. (Gerónimo de Mendieta 1980: 122–123) Before they could even talk, parents could decide if they wanted their child to be a priest or priestess. If the child grew up and decided that they did not want to be in that occupation, there was no obligation and they could change their job. The Aztec was one of the few civilizations that allowed women to become priestesses. If they so desired to become a priest or priestess, they would train in a monastery school called a calmecac.

The Aztec was mostly a male dominant society. Only the men were allowed to write and draw hieroglyphics. Anthropologists believe that since men were the only ones allowed to write, that most of the documents were only from the male view. These documents gave voice to male hopes and expectations, without specifying whether these hopes were shared, contested, fulfilled, or frustrated by native women (McCafferty and Mccafferty 1998) The main occupation of the men were to be warriors and protect their empire. Warfare was seen as producing the union of contraries through the incorporation of the defeated by the conquerors; it therefore served as a metaphor for sexual intercourse and fertility (Klein 1994; Lopez Lujan 1994: 290-291). Female principle was displaced by the enemy male warrior while sexual intercourse was then presented as an act of dominance.

Women played a crucial role in the Aztec society. Women’s main contributions were to the household and economy. Women’s textiles were needed to pay tribute, and any extra cloth a woman made could be exchanged for other goods. She did the marketing, buying, and selling the family’s surplus food or craft products. Even noble women, who did not have to produce tribute cloth or worry about bargains in the marketplace, spent much of their time spinning and weaving, for this was an important part of gender identity (Smith 2003; 125-133). Aztec women were mainly restricted to domestic skills. Women’s main objectives were childrearing, cooking, housekeeping, weaving, and spinning. The most glorified job of a woman was spinning. Women made textiles by spinning on spindle whorls. Spindle whorl decorations depicted what social class a woman was in. These decorations helped enable women to identify with the power of female goddesses, priestesses, midwives, and curers (McCafferty and McCaffertry 1991). However, it is believed that women were not the only ones to take part in spinning within the Aztec Society. At Cholula, in a mass grave containing the remains of fifty individuals, spindle whorls were associated with both male and female skeletons, suggesting that both men and women engaged in textile production (Suarez Cruz 1989; G. McCafferty 1992).

Most of the Aztec commoners lived in houses, while the elite lived in palaces. The floor plans of residential structures are also valuable sources of information on gender. The arrangement of rooms and the distribution of male and female activities within household space can reflect the level of control exercised by male and female. (Hodder 1984; Moore 1986; Small 1987; Hastorf 1991; Hendon 1992).

Women and men had different duties within the society, but they were just as equally important.


Subsistence (Caleb Gillig)



Family Life (Katelyn Broome)

The Aztec marriages are between males and females, and usually for the purpose of gaining political alliances. Middle class practiced monogamy, but the noble practiced polygyny to help gain even more power (Berdan 1982: 68). They had both exogamous and endogamous marriages; and the elite class usually tried to use these forms of marriage to keep the aristocratic family in control of the power. (Van Zantwijk 1985: 25) Many men would marry women of higher class than his because it would increase his children’s social status. This was desirable for women as well because they move into their husband’s parent’s house after they marry. The mother-in-law has to accept the woman to marry her son, and if the bride was marrying someone of the same or higher status, her position would be lower, at least until she had four children, than it was at her parent’s house. If she married someone of lower status, she would be respected in his family from the start. (Van Zantwijk 1985: 192)



When parents of a male decided that their son was mature and ready for marriage, they would consult him and figure out which woman they all wanted him to marry. Once this was decided, they picked an elderly woman as a matchmaker who would go to the girl’s house for multiple days and talk with her parents. If both families were happy with the match, they would set a wedding day and start preparing (Carrasco 1998: 117). If a girl could make the atole drink and grind corn, she was considered ready for marriage. Females were usually ready to marry around the age of fifteen and the men around the age of twenty (Carrasco 1998: 102, 116). Women were expected to be fertile, have good tempers, and do their household duties. Men were expected to support the family, educate the children, and to be gentle with the wife. Although leaving your spouse was frowned upon, the court could grant a divorce if either of the spouses were not fulfilling their duties (Vaillant 1942: 112). Sex outside of marriage, including teenage sex and adultery, was known to cause bad luck not only for the couple but for their families as well. It could even be as dangerous as to cause hair and skin diseases and lead to death (Carrasco 1998: 106). Households among the Aztecs consisted of both nuclear families (parents and the children) and joint families (multiple couples living in the same house). Joint households usually consisted of two to six nuclear families. Most joint families had ties between the males (brother living with father or nephew living with uncle) but there was no rule on which couples could and could not live with each other. The head of the household was always a married man (Berdan 1982: 69).



Aztecs made their huts out of wattles with mud smeared on them for walls with a thatched roof. Some of these huts remained on the outside of the cities, but on the inner part of the cities, generations of residents had improved their housing to stone or adobe. Their roofs were made of small poles with a layer of lime plaster over them. Since they did not have windows, the houses were usually only two rooms deep so that light and air could get in. Each house was raised with stone to avoid flooding, and some of the wealthier people had a court in the rear that was raised to the height of the roofs of the other rooms to allow for more air and light (Vaillant 1942: 132-133). The houses (“calli”) they lived in were enclosed spaces with multiple rooms for social gatherings, sleeping, cooking, and storage. The patio was the main focus of the house, and so each room opened up towards it. One of the rooms was a kitchen or “cihuacalli,” meaning “woman’s house.” Houses often had large bins to keep maize and cisterns to collect and store water. Each house was usually different, depending on how many people were living there and the needs of each of those people (Berdan 1982: 70).




Rebekah Harms (Marriage and Sex)

Aztec marriage was only permitted with different clan groups. Clan members were considered to have the same blood line and could not marry within that clan(The Aztec: Man and Tribe pg.59). Most marriages were based on arrangements that parents made, but a few were love and attraction(The Aztecs then and now pg.70). A man who contemplated marriage had to present it to the council of the clan he belonged to(The virgin's children pg.13). Matchmakers, parents and the counsel were to evaluate and study the couples behavior an d see if it was a good match.



Family structures and relationships were similar back then to what they are today in the sense that when couples marry, the family comes along with the relationship. You can not pick who your family is going to be. The most common age of men to marry was 20, and the most common age of women was 16(The Aztec: Man and Tribe pg.59). This age seems young to us, but it was a very average and common age to marry in those days.

On the wedding day the bride is carried in on the back of the matchmaker to meet her fiance at his home. Family and wedding guests join them during the ceremony. The bride and groom will tie their cloaks together as part of the process of becoming husband and wife and to make their union official(The virgin's Children pg. 13).




The bride and groom would sit on mats facing each other during the process of the wedding. A servant would pour a great amount of intoxication octal while the ceremony was proceeding. The couple would listen to homilies spoken by and old woman who was the marriage broker.



Women were very controlled by their sex lives, sex was used for the purpose of producing children only(the aztecs then and now pg. 70). Women were expected to have boys and it was looked down upon to have girls. Women did not get to enjoy sex like men did, men could have sexual relations with many women but women could not (The Aztec: Man and Tribe pg. 61). Women did not have many chances to speak up or voice an opinion. Women were expected to stay at home to do the housework, cleaning, and to raise their children ( The Aztecs then and now pg.70). If women were caught having sexual relations with multiple men they could be killed. Women did not have equal opportunities and were not treated fairly, and could not do anything about it so they just put up with their situation.

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