Introduction Disclaimer

Points of Interest

• This blog is created with the express purpose of fulfilling the requirements of FLCC's Spanish 101-01 Winter Session 9 o'clock class's final project
•  The majority of the information for these posts come from two books (Handbook to Life in the Aztec World by Manuel Aguilar-Moreno, and The Aztecs by Michael E. Smith)and personal study across multiples years of my life
• I may or may not update this blog with further information following the end of class on the 19 of December, 2014, but do not expect a consistent schedule 
• I use the "Introduction to Classical Nahuatl, Volume 1" by James Richard Andrews for the word in Nahuatl, ex: ixiptla, cueitl, etc...  

The combined three pictures in the post about Aztec clothing, and the Monocylce, are property of Kamazotz and I hold no ownership of them.

The second picture from the Aztec Clothing post is taken from the Codex Ixtlilxochitl.
The picture in the Payments Made In Blood is a cut of the picture located in the Codex Magliabechiano.

Slavery and Sacrifices

Something interesting to note is that slaves in Aztec society were very different from what we associate with slavery today.  People became slaves through debt or punishment, but it wasn't received through birth, a parent couldn't pass on slavery to their children.  Slaves were allowed to marry, have children (who were free), and even own property.  Anyone could own a slave but it was typically nobles that ended up being slave-owners.  The owner of the slave was responsible for feeding and housing the slave, and had control over the slave’s labor.  People would sell themselves into slavery when they couldn't support themselves, or when they incurred large amounts of debt.  The Aztecs didn't use large groups of slaves to perform heavy labor so the overall economic contribution of them was rather limited.

To become chosen as ixiptla of a god or goddess for a slave was as great an honor as it would be for a regular citizen.  Not only did it mean they were worthy, it also meant that they went through an immediate role reversal, the slave becoming the personification of a god or goddess and being treated as such, the master then serving the slave. It wasn't a lesser person being forced into sacrificing themselves, it is a person of lesser class elevating themselves to the highest class through what they view as appeasement of the gods through sacrifice.

Payments Made In Blood

When I first started this project I instinctively thought about what I already knew about the Aztecs.  The first thought that came into my mind? HUMAN SACRIFICE!  When I think Aztec, my first thought is always on ritualistic human sacrifice.  The Aztecs had two types of regularly practiced blood sacrifice.  auto-sacrifice and the better known human sacrifices.  Auto-sacrifice is the practice of bloodletting, which is ritualistic self-cutting or piercing.  Auto-sacrifice was done to honor gods like Quetzalcoatl who performed the first act of auto-sacrifice when he bled to give life to the world.  Priests engaged in auto-sacrifice nightly.  They would bath and purify themselves, burn incense, and go to a secluded spot for the ritual.  Often times the act would consist of piercing one’s earlobes or upper ear with pointed thorns.  Sometimes other body parts were pierced including the tongue, thighs, upper arms, chest, and genitals.  Devout followers, priests and the like, would also pull hollow straws or reeds through the holes.  Although auto-sacrifice was a prevalent ritual it was only a substitute for the more powerful human sacrifice.  the art historian Cecilia Klein sums this up pretty well when she says, “autosacrifice from the beginning was viewed as a symbolic death substitute for the real thing and, as such, as a debt payment made in return for continued life.”

The human sacrifices varied immensely due to the fact that each different city-state was independent from the others.  In many sacrifices the victims were taken to the top of pyramids and slain, their heart taken out and offered to the god or goddess they were praising.  The sacrifices were, more often than not, done in the name of a god or goddess.  The key concept here was ixiptla, which is often translated as “deity impersonator”.   Each god or goddess required different qualities in the ixiptla that was to be sacrificed to them.  Many gods required warriors, while other times slaves would do.  Occasionally women were sacrificed as ixiptla for female goddesses.  To be an ixiptla was an honor and the appointed ixiptla would approach their sacrifice with head held high.  Sometimes these rituals were planned months to years in advanced, and the ixiptla spent their last days or months living as a god.  Many sacrifices were followed by a ceremonial dinner at the home of the family of the captive or sponsor.  At the special meal, the family ate a portion of the victims body.  It was a religious event designed to honor the victim’s memory.  The Aztecs are certainly not the only civilization to practice human sacrifice, or even the cannibalism of sacrifice-ies, but they do stand apart from most others in the sheer frequency of it. Most civilizations that practiced ritualistic sacrifice did it very infrequently, while the Aztecs religion revolved around the practice. The factor of religion can only explain away a portion of the reason for why the Aztecs practiced ritualistic sacrifice as often as they did. The most commonly accepted theory for this is that the religion and political state of the empire were so closely intertwined that sacrifices were also used to advertise the power of the gods and the state.

The Calendar

The Aztec people used two different calendars.  The 260-day ritual calendar (called the tonalpohualli) which was used to keep track of rituals, forecast the future, and to determine which days would be lucky and unlucky for the outcomes of various events.  The 260-day calendar is comprised of two repeating, mesh cycles: a cycle of 20 different day names and a cycle of the numbers 1-13.

Cipactli	Alligator	1	8	2	9
Ehecatl	Wind	2	9	3	10
Calli	House	3	10	4	11
Cuetzpallin	Lizard	4	11	5	12
Coatl	Snake	5	12	6	13
Miquiztli	Death	6	13	7	1
Mazatl	Deer	7	1	8	2
Tochtli	Rabbit	8	2	9	3
Atl	Water	9	3	10	4
Itzcuintli	Dog	10	4	11	5
Ozomatli	Monkey	11	5	12	6
Malinalli	Grass	12	6	13	7
Acatl	Reed	13	7	1	8
Ocelotl	Jaguar	1	8	2	9
Cuauhtli	Eagle	2	9	3	10
Cozcacuauhtli	Vulture	3	10	4	11
Ollin	Movement	4	11	5	12
Tecpatl	Flint Knife	5	12	6	13
Quiahuitl	Rain	6	13	7	1
Xochitl	Flower	7	1	8	2

The table above shows a few cycles of the 260-day calendar, the first few days for example, are 1 Cipactli, 2 Ehecatl, 3 Calli, and so on.  After 260 days, 13 cycles of day names have been paired with 20 cycles of numbers, and the final combination (13 Xochitl) is reached, and the calendar begins again.

The Annual or Solar Calendar (called the xiuhpohualli) consisted of 365 days divided into 18 months of 20 days, with 5 unlucky days to finish out the year.  Each 20-day month was divided into 4 weeks of 5 days, and this gave life a structure much like our 7-day week does.  The weeks of the Annual Calendar:

Atl Cahualo
Tlacaxipehualiztli
Tozoztontli
Huei Tozoztli
Toxcatl
Etzalcualiztli
Tecuilhuitontli
Huei Tecuilhuitl
Tlaxochimaco
Xocotl Huetzi
Ochpaniztli
Teotl Ehco
Tepeilhuitl
Quecholli
Panquetzaliztli
Atemoztli
Tititl
+ The the five unlucky days (called Nen Ontemi)

The 260-day Ritual Calendar was combined with the 365-day Annual Calendar resulting in a major cycle of 18,980 days, or 52 years.  This cycle is referred to as a "calendar round," and every day within this cycle had its own unique combination of entries in the two calendars.  An example being when the Spaniards first entered Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519.  This was the 9th day of Quecholli in the Annual calendar, and day 8 Ehecatl in the ritual calendar.  This same combination (9 Quecholli 8 Ehecatl) reappears every 52 years (or every calendar round).

The Aztec calendar was more complicated than ours is now, but there are noticeable similarities between our and their annual calendar.

The Clothing of the Aztecs

The clothing and style of Aztec held very large significance in the day to day lives of the people.  The vast majority of the people were commoners.  Their ranking in society was indicated in the clothing they wore.  Under laws the commoners wore only clothing made of maguey, yucca, or palm fiber.  They ornamented themselves on the nose and ears with piercings and Nocochtli (which is an earplug that opens a large space in the earlobe) made of bone, stone, shell, and wood.  The basic female garments consisted of the skirt (called Cueitl), which was wrapped around and fastened with a belt, and a tunic (called a Huipilli) which was like a sleeveless blouse that fell somewhere between the hips and the knees.  (Lower-class females wouldn't wear Huipilli, instead leaving their breasts uncovered.)

        
The male garments consisted of a loincloth (called Maxtlatl) and a garment draped over the shoulders called a Tilmatli.  Earning the right to wear a Maxtlatl was considered a rite of passage for teenage boys.  Boys under the age of twelve were not expected to wear the Maxtlatl, instead wearing a small cloak tied at the shoulder.  After the age of twelve however, boys were expected to wear the undergarment as it was the most important garment in the male wardrobe.  Being without a Maxtlatl was considered uncivilized.  The Tilmatli allowed an Aztec male to display wealth, status, or rank.  If the wearer was a commoner then the Tilmatli would be tied over the right shoulder, while someone of higher class would wear it so that the knot lay over the breasts.  The government had rigid laws on how Tilmatli could be worn.  Commoners could only wear the Tilmatli to their knees.  Only priests, noblemen, and rulers, could wear it to their ankles.

The richer, higher rank, or more powerful you were, the finer your garments, especially the Tilmatli, could be.  To the right is a picture of Nezahualpilli, ruler of Texcoco, as he is depicted in the Codex Ixtlilxochitl, wearing xiuhtilmatli (blue cape), maxtlatl, and cactli (sandals which were largely restricted to noble men, and so were a show of status.)  With status came the ability to distinguish themselves with added colors and design.