1. Meso-America

2. Questions
What are theories of how people originated in the Americas? What evidence is there for pre-European Contact?
Where are the first Urban centers and what characterized them?
Where was the first metropolis?
Where was the first Empire and what socio-political changes took place with its development?
What was the Status of women and where did it change?

3. Identifications Bering Strait Rainbow Bridge/Trans-oceanic theory
Olmec
Olmec Heads & hieroglyphics
Tenocelome
Zapotec
Toltec & Teotihuacan
Pyramid of the Sun
Lake Texcoco & Chinampas

4. Identifications Maya Copan and the Grand Palace Palenque City-State
Kanal-Ikal, Zac K’uk & Pacal
Popul Vuh
Totilmeiletic
Aztec & Tenochtitlan
Calpullis

5. PEOPLING OF THE AMERICAS
Bering Strait & Trans-Oceanic or Rainbow Bridge Theories

6. Bering Strait Theory
The Bering Strait land bridge theory
small group of big game hunters in Siberia followed the Pleistocene mega fauna—mammoth, mastodon, and extinct bison
land bridge that formed during the last Ice Age known as Beringia
12,000 – 20,000 years ago
Based on anthropological, genetic, and linguistic evidence, scholars generally agree that most indigenous peoples of the Americas descended from people who probably migrated from Siberia across the Bering Strait, 9,000-20,000 years ago. The exact epoch and route is still a matter of debate, and continual challenges are issued to this model.
Clovis First Culture: The earliest reliably dated evidence of human habitation in North America are 11,500-year-old fluted projectile points found in Clovis, New Mexico. The distinctive points, which could be attached to a wooden spear to make a formidable weapon, became identified with small groups of people spreading slowly across North America who came to be known as the "Clovis" culture
Clovis First Culture
11, 500 yrs. projectile points

7. Trans-Oceanic/Rainbow Bridge Theory
Fossil Tooth, Alaska
Monte Verde, Chile
Pleistocene Man, Yuho Pinto Wash, Ca.
Luzia Skeleton, Lagoa Santa, Brazil
Nazca, Peru
Chumash & Hawaiian Oral Tradition
Muslim/African Pre-European Contact

8. MAP 6.1 Early Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica was home to some of the first civilizations in the Western Hemisphere. This map shows the major urban settlements in the region.
The first sites of domestication of plants BCE, systematic agriculture and development of Cities began in Meso-America. The first cities developed by 2nd century BCE along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico south of today’s Veracruz. La Venta and San Lorenzo were two of the cities of the Olmec Culture.
Within these cities the Olmecs created tools, monuments, earthen pyramids, engaged in widespread trade, and created a system of hieroglyphic writing that remains deciphered.
Meso-American Urbanization: 2000 BCE
agricultural foundations for urbanization.
Dry farming, slash and burn, pot irrigation, canal irrigation, Chinampas or hanging gardens.
Chinampas are in low lying swamp lands created by piling mud and vegetation of the swamps into grids of raised lands that are crisscrossed by natural irrigation channels.
The earliest known urban society in the gulf coast
1500 BCE
Centered on Religious shrines
Led by local chiefs
Regional trade
Regional ceremonial practices
San Lorenzo City:
labor brigades built the Chinampas
bas reliefs of animals & mythological creatures
BCE hieroglyphics – not yet deciphered
monumental stone sculptures – heads of rulers?
by 900 the city destroyed and art defaced
Figure 6-1 p160

9. The Olmec “The Mother of Meso-America”
“People of the land of Rubber”
Mexico city to El Salvador until 4BCE
First Cities
Pyramids
Stone Monuments
Widespread Trade
System of Writing: Hieroglyphics
Ball Games

10. Hieroglyphics date between 1150 and 900 BCE

11. Compare to the Shang writing of China

12. Olmec City State Of La Venta Olmec Heads 1500 – 100 BCE
Evidence of pre-
European contact
The Pyramid at La Venta, is the oldest of the temples in Mesoamerica, the Olmec heads, some 10 feet high date between 1500 BCE – 100 BCE
Built an island in the middle of a swamp, constructed an earth mound 100 ft. high and the area of half a football field
Buildings on top and monumental stone sculptures – heads
Stone materials 60 or more miles away and Jade
Flourished for 4 centuries
BC it was destroyed and the art defaced.
Olmec City State
Of La Venta

13. Tenocelome
Futbol was played in these early urban center, but was called tenocelome and probably has an important place in ceremony, ritual or conflict resolution

14. Zapotec Culture Monte Alban (Oaxaca Valley) 20,000 population
Lasted centuries after decline of Olmec
Temples, Pyramids
Terraced Dwellings
Theocracy
Nobles & Priests, farmers & Artisans
System of Writing
Trade complex
Zapotec City in what is now Oaxaca Valley
As old as the Olmecs
Trade goods included obsidian and seashells from the Gulf Coast
Material culture included pottery, mirrors, ceramics and ritual objects.

15. Zapotec Grand Plaza, Monte Albon, Mexico
The Grand Plaza at Monte Alban. On the crest of a hilltop at Monte Alban, not far from the modern town of Oaxaca, the Zapotec peoples constructed this grand plaza around the seventh century (700) C.E. The center administered to about 50, 000 people before being abandoned by 8 CE. In the vicinity are a palace, a ball court, three temple complexes, an observatory, and a majestic pyramid. As in other Mesoamerican cities such as Teotihuacan, Tikal, Palenque, and Chichen Itza, these religious sites functioned as immense stage sets where the entire community could observe and participate in the dramas and sacrificial rituals of their cultures. The use of poetry, music, and dance to dramatize human fears and hopes was a universal phenomenon in all ancient societies.
Village of San Jose Mogote Peaked on the slopes of the Monte Alban
15 miles in area
2,000 terraces
a house or two
private water supply
Population 50,000 people
temples, pyramids, tombs, religious images
Peaked 700 and began to decline
Monte Alban was abandoned by 8CE
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16. Zapotec Hieroglyphics

17. Toltec Culture Teotihuacan – First Metropolis 3BCE – 800 CE
The Toltec culture gave rise to the first metropolis in the Valley of Mexico, Teotihuacan, Valley of Mexico.
Teotihuacan peaked at 550 CE and administered to 100,000 people with the city encompassing about 8 miles.
Religious and trade center and for administrative and personal purposes
Teotihuacan existed 150 – 750CE, the Toltec Civilization CE
Toltecs, like the Maya, preceded the Aztecs

18. Pyramid of the Sun 5CE Pyramid of the Sun
Base as wide as that of Khufu’s in Egypt
Above a natural cave (Naval) enlarged into a clover leafed chamber.
Pyramid of the Moon
Central pyramid dedicated to Quetzalcoatl
Attracted pilgrims from as far as Guatemala

19. ILLUSTRATION The Pyramid
ILLUSTRATION The Pyramid. The building of monumental structures known as pyramids was characteristic of a number of civilizations that arose in antiquity. The pyramid symbolized the link between the world of human beings and the realm of
deities and was often used to house the tomb of a deceased ruler. the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, erected in central Mexico in the fifth century C.E. Similar structures of various sizes were built throughout the Western Hemisphere. The concept of the pyramid was also widely applied in parts of Asia. Scholars still debate the technical aspects of constructing such pyramids.
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20. Center of Trade
The Pyramid of the sun was central to the Metropolis. There was a large Market that was the center of trade in Mesoamerica. The Zapotec traded cacao, runner, feathers, Pulque (agave liquor) Obsidian tools, mirrors and knives. People lived in stucco apartments.
Around the 8th CE and two centuries after New immigrants arrived into the area and competed for territory. Chinampas were created leading to even more intensive agriculture.

21. Lake Texcoco
Irrigation water, fish, waterfowl, basalt, limestone and chert
Traded with people in Mayan areas
Obsidian for tools and weapons from Pachuca and Otumba
Shells and copal from the gulf region
Quetzal bird feathers from Mayan regions of the South East.

22. The
Classical
Maya
MAP 6.2 The Maya Heartland. During the classical era, Mayan civilization was centered on modern-day Guatemala and the lower Yucatan peninsula. After the ninth century, new centers of power like Chichen Itza and Uxmal began to emerge farther north.
The Mayan date before Teotihuacan. The Agriculture was based on corn, Yams and Manioc. Kakaw provided a royal chocolate drink for the aristocracy, its beans were used for currency and its pulp rendered a fermented Beer. They traded with the Olmecs.
As the population increased farmers shifted from Slash and Burn to Chinampas and by the first millennium CE the Small city-states were competing for resources. Tikal had a population of 100,000 people
Toltec, Maya & Aztec:
Teotihuacan and Monte Alban declined simultaneously
Aztec and Maya absorbed and perpetuated its influence.
Figure 6-2 p166

23. Mayan City-State of Copan
The Ruler “18 Rabbit” ordered the construction of Grand Palace required 30,000 person days of labor to construct. Positions in society included priests, scribes, sculptors, painters, artisans, traders and farmers. Farmers lived in Adobe homes.
A division of labor developed where men were the warriors and hunters and women prepared cornmeal and took care of the home. Women maintained status in spite of the gendered division of labor.
The Ruler “18 Rabbit” ordered the construction of the Grand Palace

24. Maya – Gender complimentary
Gender division of labor emerged
Equitable Value among the sexes
Women took care of the home & prepared Maize
Men were warriors and Hunters

25. Tikal – City State
Mayan Temple at Tikal. This eighth-century temple, peering over the treetops of a jungle at Tikal, represents the zenith of the engineering and artistry of the Mayan peoples. Erected to house the body of a ruler, such pyramidal tombs contained elaborate
works of jade jewelry, polychrome ceramics, and intricate bone carvings depicting the ruler’s life and various deities. This temple dominates a great plaza that is surrounded by a royal palace and various religious structures.
Guatemala
Largest, most elaborate and most completely excavated of the Mayan cities
5 temple pyramids built ( CE)
Housing and water cisterns
100,000 people 1,000 sq. miles
Peak 360,000  
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26. Palenque City-State At Palenque, women who ruled outright included
Kanal-ikal CE
Her granddaughter Zac K’uk ( CE)
They claimed descent from Lady Beastie – a mythical female ancestor – the first creator goddess
the political leader in the 7th C, Pacal ( CE)followed the lineage of his mother and grandmother. His mother ruled outright for three years and continued to influence politics for twenty-five years after Pacal took the throne. He legitimized his rule by transforming her into the first mother goddess, conferring upon her divine status.

27. Political Power Women Rulers
Kanal-ikal CE
Her granddaughter Zac K’uk ( CE)
Pacal ( CE)followed the lineage of his mother and grandmother.
His mother ruled outright for three years and continued to influence politics for twenty-five years after Pacal took the throne.
He legitimized his rule by transforming her into the first mother goddess, conferring upon her divine status.

28. Funeral Mask of Pacal Leadership Claimed Divine Descent (615 – 683CE)
The Role of Jade. To many early peoples, the beautiful stone we know as jade possessed magical spiritual qualities, which undoubtedly inspired the two objects shown here. The funeral mask of Lord Pacal (right), a seventh-century ruler of Palenque, was
placed in his tomb in the hope that its spiritual energy would propel Pacal into the afterlife, thereby merging him with the divine in the Mayan cosmos.
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29. Han China Funeral Jade Body Suit
In China, members of the Han ruling family were buried in jade body suits, such as the one shown
below. The suit was composed of jade squares sewn together with gold thread. Because of the expense, such practices were eventually banned as extravagant.
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30. Mayan Cosmology Mayan Text Popul Vuh - records Mayan Creation
Xmucane – the grandmother who assisted twin brothers in creating a garden.
To make people she ground maize & mixed with water
Totilmeiletic & the Ancestor God/goddess & the Maize God
Father-Mother
Reverence for women’s spirituality and power
It was through food production by a woman that people and the world was created – indicating the high status of women in Mayan civilization. It also may indicate that food processing was central to the ideal female and to female identity among the ancient Maya.
One of the most important Maya gods was the ancestor god/goddess whom was both male and female indicating that the Maya observed and celebrated the interdependence and equality of men and women.
Female ideals of beauty included sloping forehead, crossed yes, tattoos and red body paint as well as decorations with jade, shell or precious jewels, sometimes they inlaid their teeth with iron, iron pyrite, obsidian, jade or shell after filing them to points. Men however also physically changed themselves and their appearance, suggesting it was a mutual ideal, not something specific to women.
Both girls and boys enjoyed coming of age ceremonies that indicate both were valued in society
Girls at the age of three months underwent Hetzmek where she was given a miniature loom and corn grinding stones and then at 12 underwent an elaborate rite of passage. Brides played a prominent role in her natal family and could easily divorce, both practices gave the wife power in her life. Aristocratic men had multiple wives and concubines while commoners practiced monogamy. Parents arranged marriages between boys of 18 and girls of 14 or 15. Marriages were matrilocal, and it could be dissolved by declaration of either spouse with the woman in control of her possessions after divorce. For the Maya, women were recognized for their sacrifice of childbirth and pregnancy and labor amounted to a sacred blood sacrifice. Women could inherit property, and their textile work gave her an important place in her society. Women’s duties in addition to child birth and rearing included making textiles, keeping a small garden and processing food. Aristocratic women also became matchmakers, artists, craftspeople or scribes. The Noble Lady Scribe Sky of Yaxchilan and Lady Jaguar were highly trained and educated.

31. Mayan – City State Politics
Aristocratic women
Marriage alliances Ruled as regents
Conducted court rituals
Numerous of sculptures of female leaders
Prominent role in Ball until 8C
Depicted as central characters supporting battles
One queen credited herself as a victorious commander
Social & political rank came from men and woman
Almehen “noble” denotes women and men
in 682 CE rulers of Dos Pilas, a powerful city state Lady Six Sky married the ruling family in Naranjo, There she initiated a new dynasty and reinvigorated Naranjo with rituals involving her own blood letting. When Her son came to the throne a age 5 continued to rule as regent and conduct rituals. The sacrifice served to unify their state and maintain their royal power. Some of these rituals meant death for the one performing the ritual. One 20 yr. old woman decapitated herself with a flint knife to accompany the Lady of Alter in death. It is believed such blood letting also led to the acquisition of supernatural forces.

32. Pregnancy & childbirth
Ritual Sacrifice
Palace Lintel – 800 CE
Blood letting
Decapitation
Pregnancy & childbirth
Mayan religion was polytheistic with the supreme god named Itzamna “Lizard House”. Itzamna was viewed as the creator of all things and credited with brining the knowledge of maize, cacao, medicine and writing.
A Mayan Bloodletting Ceremony. The Mayan elite drew blood at various ritual ceremonies. Here we see Lady Xok, the wife of a king of Yaxchilian, passing a rope pierced with thorns along her tongue in a bloodletting ritual. Above her, the king holds a
flaming torch. This vivid scene from an eighth-century C.E. palace lintel demonstrates the excellence of Mayan stone sculpture as well as the sophisticated weaving techniques shown in the queen’s elegant gown.
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33. Ball Court – Chichen Itza
The Ball Games had religious significance. The Vanquished player were sacrificed in ceremonies after the close of the game. There were men's and women's teams. Some historians have argued that the best of the two players, the best on the winning team was the one sacrificed.
Like Other early Civilizations around the world, as city-states developed and populations grew they competed for resources, leading to more militaristic societies.
Toltec City-State of Chichen Itza

34. The Mayan writing system is believed to have been developed the mid first millennium BCE. Scholars began deciphering the symbols when they recognized passages representing dates in the Mayan calendar. The Calendar which measures time back to august 3114BCE required sophisticated understanding of astronomical events and mathematics to compile. The script is ideographic and phonetic, becoming more phonetic as time passed.
Scribes wrote on skins or tree bark. Most records have been destroyed by time or by the Spanish in after 16th C. A Spanish Bishop wrote about a large number of books they found and burned, to the devastation of the Maya. The surviving records are those carved in stone.
In addition to a writing system they devised the Long Count system of calculating time based on a lunar calendar that calls for the end of the current cycle of 5200 years in the 2012 year of the Western Solar based Gregorian Calendar.
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35. Decline, Rise & Fall Southern Maya - decline around 900 CE
Rise of Northern Yucatan - The Toltec's
Uxmal
Chichen Itza
Mayapan
Last Capital before - decline in the 1400s.
Beginning of Mayan Decline – 8-9 C
Copan – ended in 822 CE
Palenque – followed
Tikal – ended 870 CE
New Centers developed
Uxmal
Chichen Itza
Factors in decline may have included overpopulation, pressure on land, drought in some places, ultimately conflict.
Uxmal and Chichen Itza developed, apparently due to the migration of Toltec's led by Kukulcan.
Toltec's Arrived from the North and dominated the region
Tula in 900 CE
270 years
Immigration of other peoples destroyed the empire and government.
By the early 16th C, these centers had also been abandoned and the area was divided into a number of small principalities

36. Aztec Empire Tenochtitlan (1325CE) 1 of 3 city-states
The Aztecs immigrated from the north in the 13th Century and took over Toltec civilization through conquest, intermarrying with decsendants ot the Toltec royalty to legitimize their rule.
Texcoco
Through warfare they gained their power through incessant warfare and founded the Capital of Tenochtitlan in 1325CE.
Militaristic empire
200,000 or more
Human sacrifice
Conflict with colonized peoples who helped the Spanish overthrow the empire in 1519
There were 3 powerful city states until incorporation or centralization in the late 1400’s
MAP 6.3 The Valley of Mexico Under Aztec Rule. Their capital at Tenochtitlan n—Tlaltelolco (tuh-lahl-teh- LOH-koh)—was located at the site of modern-day Mexico City. Of the five lakes shown here, only Lake Texcoco remains today.
After the fall of Teotihuacan, the Mexica migrated arrived in the valley of Mexico in the late 12th Century. Initially they created alliances with strong city states in the region but became the strongest and dominant city state in the lake region in the early 15th C. As a militaristic city-state they sought to expand control, establishing the capital at Tenochtitlan (the-nahch-teet-LAHN) in the middle of lake Texcoco (Tess-KOH-Koh)
The empire was expanded from coast to coast as far south as the Guatemalan Border and what is today Northern Mexico. The New kingdom was not centralized by a collection of semiautonomous territories, the Unifying force was religion, Huitzilo-Pochtli (WEET-see-loh-POHSHT-lee) The guiding deity of a population of several million
Figure 6-3 p168

37. Socio-political structure
Divine & secular rule – Hereditary
Council of Lords
Prime Minister
Positions in Government & Bureaucracy
Male Nobles raised with manual labor, military rule and education
Chose career in military, Government service or priesthood
Given estates & special right to hire communal labor
Commoners, indentured workers and slaves
Like all Great empires, the Aztec was authoritarian. Power was vested in a monarch whose authority was divine and secular. The ruler claimed descent from gods and serve as an intermediary. The Aztecs did not have a rigid law of succession. Upon the death of the ruler, the successor was chosen from within the royal family by a small group of senior officials, who were members of the family and therefor also eligible. A Council of lords and prime minister advised the king and served as the chief executive of the government and bureaucracy. The autonomous rulers outside of the capital paid tribute in goods or captives. The Aztecs were not popular with those they incorporated into the empire for this reason.
As a reward for service, nobility received large estates and the right to hire communal labor
Indentured workers were landless laborers who contracted to work on estates. Slaves served in the households of the wealthy. The children of slaves were considered free. Commoners might sell themselves into slavery to pay a debt and later purchase their freedom.

38. Economic power Military City-States Cultivation of corn
Power primarily derived from tribute system (resembled Sparta)
Cloth, feathers, gold, soldiers
Human sacrifice used to intimidate and maintain power over incorporated peoples
Cultivation of corn
Extensive trade
The colonial policies that were so dependent on warfare worsened the conditions of many people in the Aztec Empire. This stress augmented by demands for constant tribute and an increasing desire on the part of leaders for captives to provide sacrifices. Growing overpopulation also stressed resources. The Aztecs made subservient communities but not loyal allies.

39. Calpullis – Aztec Neighborhoods
large kinship groups
A thousand members
elected military & Civil chief’s
ran its affairs
served an as intermediary with the central government
provided taxes
conscripted labor to the state
maintained temples and schools
administered the land held by the community
Commoners were members of large kinship groups or Calpullis, each consisting of as many as a thousand members, headed by an elected chief who ran its affairs and served an as intermediary with the central government. They provided taxes and conscripted labor to the state, maintained temples and schools and administered the land held by the community
Farm land was held in common and could be passed down within the family. In the cities the Calpulli occupied a separate neighborhood and its members performed a particular function: metalworking, stonecutting, weaving, carpentry or commerce

40. COMPARATIVE ILLUSTRATION The Pyramid
COMPARATIVE ILLUSTRATION The Pyramid. The building of monumental structures known as pyramids was characteristic of a number of civilizations that arose in antiquity. The pyramid symbolized the link between the world of human beings and the realm of
deities and was often used to house the tomb of a deceased ruler. Shown here are two prominent examples. The upper photo shows the pyramids of Giza, Egypt, built in the third millennium B.C.E. and located near the modern city of Cairo. The second photo
shows the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, erected in central Mexico in the fifth century C.E. Similar structures of various sizes were built throughout the Western Hemisphere. The concept of the pyramid was also widely applied in parts of Asia.
Scholars still debate the technical aspects of constructing such pyramids.
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41. Gender Division of Labor
Men
Trained for war
Served army upon adulthood
priesthood
Women
Worked in the home
Textile production
Priestesses
Permitted to own & inherit property
Entered into contracts
Obedience & chastity desired behavior (European interpretation?)
Like in many hierarchical and stratified empire’s, women’s status showed some decline but was more favorable among the Aztecs than in late Greece or Classical Rome.
While Spanish Friar Bernardino described Aztec aristocratic notions of feminity as being obedient, patient, chaste and modest unusual ideas of female behavior did exist:
It was considered proper etiquette for a small girl from a noble family to act energetically and with enterprise, There was not practice of sequestering women.

42. Aztec – Gender Complimentary Society
Gendered division of labor
Equal value
Birth ceremonies
No taboo on menstruation
Ritual duties for both genders
Elder women – place of respect & consultation
Education differed by gender & class
While Aztec Culture defined gender roles fairly rigidly, equal value was placed on both the female and male roles. At Birth Boys were given a shield and arrows while girls were given a broom to symbolize their role within the household. Women’s association with home duties elevated their status within society. Men recognized their contributions as being critical to maintaining overall harmony in society. Both Girls and boys were welcomed into the world with days of feasting and celevration, both were treated the same and not weaned from their mother until about age four. Around age six boys began following their fathers into the field or learning crafts and girls learned the basics of cooking and weaving.
Menstration was not a taboo, it was not even marked as significance in Aztec society, where as in European society it marked the denigration of women.
Education differed by gender and class. Commoners went to local schools were girls learned rituals and songs and boys the art of warfare. The elite learned writing, the sacred duties of priesthood, governance and leadership in war. Elite girls were not required to learn the art of cooking.

43. Marriage & Widows
Girls of 18 and boys of 20 both influenced spouse selection
Men asked both parents for her hand
Both punished for adultery
Both could divorce with ease
Remarriage easy
Both had right to sexual gratification
Birth likened to going to war
Bodies matured by the time they had children
Midwives had extensive medical knowledge
Higher standard of hygiene than European’s

44. Women’s Economic Role
Noble women managed estates, engaged in trade, Conducted rituals
Common women managed the household, prepared food, manufactured textiles, conducted rituals & often engaged in trade
Midwife
Prostitute (European interpretation?)
Slave
Aztec women enjoyed economic influence, sometimes reaching parity with men. They controlled wealth similar to the classic mayan women. Aztecs placed great value on the womens sphere, daily tasks were recognized as providing a critical source of social well-being and society may have taken for granted that they should also exercise economic power. Daughters could inherit property like sons, In marriage her wealth remained hers even in divorce (same as maya). Even within marriage women could develop an economic standing distinct from their spouses. Like in Classical Sparta and Tang china, female duty to manage estates was publicly acknowledged.
Women also excelled in trade in the local markets. Midwifery women gained economic and social prestige outside their familiesand enjoyed a high status in society for their extensive and specialized knowledge. Lowest ranking were prostitutes (street walkers) and slaves and usually foreign women who were forced into the status. Slaves that did not serve as sexual servants at the house of joy that warriors in training were encouraged to frequent were in the employ of noble families weaving cloth or performing domestic tasks. Their children were free and could rise in social standing.
By the fifteenth century commoners began practicing polygamy (usually on the elite did so) because the burden of tribute became so great the labor of multiple wives was needed to meet the burden of the state.

45. Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl was one of the favorite deities of the Central American peoples. His visage of a plumed serpent, as shown here, was prominent in the royal capital of Teotihuacan. According to legend, Quetzalcoatl, the leader of the Toltec's,
was tricked into drunkenness and humiliated by a rival god. In disgrace, he left his homeland but promised to return. In 1519, the Aztec monarch Montezuma welcomed Herman Cortes, the leader of the Spanish expedition, believing that he was a
representative of Quetzalcoatl (this is part of the Spanish Conquest Myth).
There are at least a hundred deities in the Aztec Pantheon some are nature deities and others patron deities. Ometeotl represented the all powerful omnipresent forces of the heavens. Quetzalcoatl represented the forces of creation, virtue, and learning and culture. Aztec believe in two worlds, or two realities, the material and divine or spiritual. Children were trained and education in the religion and expected to participate in rituals throughout their lives. The particularly devoted served the priesthood. By the time of Spanish contact, there was some measure of secularization. The concepts of good and evil and purgatory are central to the belief system. Human sacrifice was supposed to postpone the day of reckoning by appeasing the sun god Huitzilopochtli thereby delaying the destruction of the world. We are in the fifth and final world. Western Interpretations may not be in line with ancient understandings or beliefs.
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46. Aztec Religion & Warfare
Adopted gods
Great Goddess of Teotihuacan who became Xochiquetzalli “flowery Plumage” associated with sexual love and handicrafts
Aztec’s contributed their own culture and rituals that created a belief system that focused on human sacrifice
used fear to keep their tributary states in check. Gruesome rituals served as a reminder of their power.
Much of the religion was derived from earlier civilizations, such as the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan who became Xochiquetzalli “flowery Plumage” associated with sexual love and handicrafts. The Aztec’s contributed their own culture and rituals that created a belief system that focused on human sacrifice. Aztec’s believed the gods and goddesses had slain themselves to maintain the universe. The sun and the moon killed themselves to become celestial bodies. In reciprocation for their own deaths, the divine beings demanded human bloodshed. The Aztecs believed that the tears of sacrificial children could bring about rain, that the sun could be kept in its orbit with a freshly removed heart of a victim, or that a priest wearing the flesh of a woman representing a goddess could help prepare Aztec communities for the war season. The Ruling class promoted these violent beliefs for their own political agendas. They depended on conquest through warfare and used fear to keep their tributary states in check. Gruesome rituals served as a reminder of their power to those who were subservient. Female spirituality was infused with militarism and many goddesses depicted women holding brooms and shields. The statuettes of goddesses found in common homes were much different than the militarized ones promoted by the elite. Commoners goddesses included one with the temple headdress and one with the tasseled headdress probably representing fertility and waters close to home. Women’s rituals on all levels of society were recognized by society as being critical for maintaining the welfare of the population.

47. A Ball Court. Throughout Mesoamerica, a dangerous game was played on ball courts such as this one. A large ball of solid rubber was propelled from the hip at such tremendous speed that players had to wear extensive padding. The game had religious
significance and was not just an athletic contest. The court is thought to have represented the cosmos and the ball the sun, and the losers were sacrificed to the gods in postgame ceremonies. The game is still played today in parts of Mexico (without the sacrifice, of course).
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48. Limitations of Power - politics
Technically shut out of politics
Informal contributions
Exceptions
Moctezuma I daughter, Atotoztli ruled in her own right
Queen Tecuichpo, child of Moctezuma II managed d to secure large amounts of land for she and her children during Spanish conquest.
Early Capulli leaders
Limitations of power: Subordinate role of women in politics
Women were shut out from participating in state power and were technically forbidden to speak on formal public ocassions. Informally they made important contributions to the political direction of the empire and exercised leadership through management of large estates and as sources of advice and wisdom. Women could speak their mind informally as well. Though like other Empires, the larger it grew, the more their power diminished. Women acted as marital matchmakers and forged alliances through marriage. Aztec leaders often married down their daughters to tributary states to include the subordinate kingdoms into the empire.
Exceptions:
Moctezuma I daughter, Atotoztli succeeded him upon his death and she may have ruled in her own right (debated by historians). The Aztec Queen Tecuichpo, child of Moctezuma II managed d to secure large amounts of land for she and her children during Spanish conquest.
Local neighborhoods in Aztec world, Capulli, governmed themselves by a council of elders who elected one leader for warfare, and another for civic and religious affairs. Early capulli leaders may have been women. The rise of the Aztec state and empire had eroded womens political roles quickly.

49. The Stone of the Fifth Sun
The Stone of the Fifth Sun. This basalt disk, which weighs 26 tons, recorded the Aztec view of the cosmos. It portrays the perpetual struggle between forces of good and evil (Christian interpretation) in the universe; in the center is an intimidating image of the sun god clutching human hearts with his talons. Having previously traversed the creation and destruction of four worlds, the Aztecs believed they were living in the world of the fifth and final sun—hence this stone carving, which was found in the central pyramid at
Tenochtitlan.
Aztec hieroglyphics represented objects and concepts. The Aztec Codex's were destroyed by the Spanish, only a few remain.
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50. Aztec Codex
System of Writing

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