Aztec Culture There were a variety of different cultures of people who were part of the Aztec empire. Social Classes of the Aztec Empire: The Aztec society was organized into tightly structured groups or classes. There were three main classes that formed Aztec society. The nobles, the intermediate class, and the commoners. Each class was divided further. At the top was the emperor who belonged to the noble class. His power came from control of the military and was supported by Aztec religious beliefs. He had a very nice and luxurious life. The nobles were the smallest class, but had the most power. They owned large estates and ran the government and the military. Priests were also from the noble class. Merchants and skilled artisans …show more content…
The nobles wore a lot of jewelry on special occasions, but the jewelry back then looked different from the jewelry now. The Aztec jewelry were made with different types of materials, and different materials were added together to make one creation. Copper, gold and silver, shells, clay, wood, rock (obsidian) and feathers were commonly used. Gold was used, but silver was much more popular as it was abundant in Mexico. Stones such as jade, quartz, opal, moonstone, and turquoise were used as well. Gold was imported from the south, turquoise from the north, and conch shells were imported from the east. A famous type of Aztec jewelry was the ear plug, which can be found in Aztec masks. Both men and women wore these ear plugs. Men were the ones who wore the nose jewelry. They also wore jewelry on their lower lip. Jewelry also included necklaces (with charms and pendants), armlets, bracelets, leg bracelets and rings. Sometimes, as the Aztecs were religious, they carved the jewelry in to shapes of birds and reptiles. Bells were also found in their necklaces. Clothing Clothing varied to the social class the people belonged to. The clothing were normally loose, and didn't cover the whole body. It was surprising for the Aztecs to see the Spanish covered in full body armor. Aztec clothing usually were made out of cotton or ayate fiber. Women weaved the fibers into the clothing. This was taught to young girls.The Aztecs used the beautiful dyes
Marriage in Aztec society for women started at an early age and was the main goal from birth. Before an Aztec women can get married there was some steps that needed to take place first, like her potential husband asking a council for her hand in marriage instead of her father, then the council would determine the compatibility of the man and woman and once that was done an elder Aztec woman would initiate courtship of the man to the woman and would also be the one to tell the father of the woman of the man’s intention of marriage (“Aztec Women”). Aztec woman were only able to marry an Aztec man and had the possibility of being in a marriage where there were more than one wife. After marriage, pregnancy was the goal of the Aztec woman. Once she gave birth it was a celebration. The Aztec empire valued children tremendously to the point if a woman died while giving birth she was given the same honor as that of a mighty Aztec warrior that died
Pre-Columbian Aztec Tribe was a very complex and hierarchical society that settled among the Aztecs of central Mexico in the times prior to the Spanish seize of Mexico. It was erected on the cultural bases of the bigger area of Mesoamerica. The culture was structured into self-governing city-states, called altepetls, which had smaller divisions. These city-states were further composed of one or more large kinship cluster (History.com). Nobles and commoners were the most fundamental social division in the Aztec empire. Noblemen were given more privileges that were not shared by the commoners most significantly the right to get protection from commoners on their land. The common individuals were exempted to own and cultivate land and to handle their possessions, while yet accomplishing the requirements of the lords and their calpulli, such as protection payment and military help. Nevertheless, at the same time were given some privileges equal to those of the lesser nobleness. During the rise of an Aztec empire, there were so many problems that the community experienced to conquer other lands and survive. This article illustrates some of the main problems that the Aztec tribe experienced. Among them are diseases, feeding a large population, ritual sacrifices, political problems through rivalry and prejudice and technological problems.
The Aztecs were an American Indian people who ruled a mighty empire in Mexico from the 1400's to the 1500's. The Aztecs had one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americas and built cities as large as any in Europe at that time. They also practiced a remarkable religion that affected every part of their lives and featured human sacrifice. The Aztecs built towering temples, created huge sculptures, and held impressive ceremonies all for the purpose of worshipping their gods. The Spaniards destroyed their magnificent empire in the year 1521, but the Aztecs left a lasting mark on Mexican life and culture .
The Aztec was a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. They called themselves Mexica. The Republic of Mexico and its capital, Mexico City wanted to be called “Mexica”. I chose this culture because The Aztec nation is one of the largest and most advanced Indian nations to have ever existed on earth. Nearly every part of the
Aztec culture, also known as Mexica culture, was a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521, during the time in which a triple alliance of the Mexica, Texcoca and Tepaneca tribes established the Aztec empire. The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries. The Aztec have also referred to themselves as the Meshika or Mehika.
The Aztecs had many different customs they followed in their daily life. One of those is that they baptize their children as soon as they are born. The midwife who performed the delivery would then act as the priest. The midwife would also name the child after preforming many rites in front of the family. Another custom the Aztecs did was when you passed away, what was then done with your body would be determined by how you died. If you were a woman that passed during child birth, you would be
Aztec community was experience and knew how to maximise the production by following crop rotations on highlands where less irrigation treatments are available, also exchanging in inter-cities to have different availability of vegetation (Peters-Golden 2002a: 21).In the form of occupation the status of women was limited on some extents, as the entire section of croft practiced by women of all classes only. Women of the lower rank used to produce simple goods for household where Nobel women were engaged in producing ceremonial capes, by using finest cotton, rabbit fur and feathers(Peters-Golden 2002a: 22). This division of labor amongst women represent status-run going the empire with less equalities. "A boy was declared a soldier"(Peters-Golden 2002a: 29) and the only way a women n get honor in warfare is only if a women dies while giving birth a boy. The high involvement of men in warfare resulted in handling of agriculture and small level horticulture by women, as they used to cultivate cotton and decorative herbs which were used in making clothes.
The Aztecs had no iron or bronze with which to make their tools or weapons. Therefore, the Aztec’s had to develop a system for creating effective tools and weapons. For this reason, many Aztec tools were made with rocks such as obsidian and chert even made drills, which were made of reed or bone.
Some major aspects of the Aztec civilizations were farming and trading. The Aztecs were hunters and
Women played a subordinated role to men in Aztec society. Gender dictated what roles and occupations a member of Aztec society was to be involved in. Men traditionally spent their time battling in wars and
Jewerly-Adornments and jewelry using copper, jade, obsidian, and gold were likewise reserved for the Emperor. He had such a variety of clothing and jewelry, it is said that he never wore the same thing twice. There were rules in the Aztec society that told which rank of individuals could wear which kind of attire. For example, just nobles and the Emperor could wear clothing decorated with feathers, beads and other pretty things. Farmers and other lower-class individuals could not. If this law was broken, the consequence was death. The Emperor and noble families also had their bodies pierced so they could wear additional jewelry. Statues and brightly colored paintings would adorn their walls and set them apart from the lower class and keep up their high-class status. Different materials are used to make art such as coral, clay, gold, and silver. Many of
At the very top of Aztec society was the Tlacatecuhtli or "chief men" that dominated all religious ceremonies and was the military leader of the Aztecs. Below him were religious offices that served as military generals.
Hello, Mr. Hernan Cortez, do you remember when you asked for information about the Aztecs? Well I have found the information you were looking for. Well for these next five paragraphs I will have the information for you.
The Aztecs had a unique architecture. They wrote in glyphs, and wrote codicescodessies. They created two calendars, one for farming, and one for religious ceremonies. The farming calendar was used to predict when to start growing/harvesting crops, which was
Education was an important part of the Aztec culture. For the first few years of a child’s life they were taught at home, then kids would attend school in a temple where they were taught mathematics, laws, proper social behavior and religious songs. Boys were taught farming, fishing, hunting and fighting while girls were taught cooking and home-keeping (Cóttrill). Specialized training and education were also given to students with special talents, but for the most part, school taught the children what their role in society was and how to keep their civilization alive.