PreColombian MesoAmerican and Andean Empires

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Pre-ColombianMeso-American and Andean Empires

• Horizon states
• Olmecs -Toltecs
• Mayan
• Aztecs
• (Chavin) Inca

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Aztec Gender Roles

• From the beginnings of their lives, boys and
  girls in Aztec society were given very different
  roles.
• Needed large military force
• Midwives attending the births told male infants
  that their place was not in the home because they
  were warriors.
• Midwives told female infants just the opposite,
  that their place was in the home.
• Women in Aztec society were not equal to men, but
  were allowed to own and inherit property and to
  enter into contracts, something not allowed in
  other world cultures at the time.
• Women were expected to work in the home, weave
  textiles, and raise children.
• However, they were also allowed to become
  priestesses.

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Needed forced labor to sustain empire

• The Inca were great builders, creating buildings
  and monuments that were a wonder to early
  European visitors.
• They also built a system of roads to better
  connect their empire.
• In order to construct these buildings and roads,
  however, they needed a reliable source of labor.
• Therefore, the Inca instituted forced labor.
• All Incan subjects were responsible for labor
  service, usually for several weeks each year.
• Mita system evolves as workers contribute labor
  as tribute
• Laborers, often with their entire communities,
  were moved according to need from one part of the
  empire to another to take part in building
  projects.

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Inca Socialism
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Americas - Inca

• Women were expected to marry someone within their
  own social group.
• Their life was spent taking care of children and
  weaving cloth.
• The only possible variation for an Incan woman
  was to be chosen as a young girl to serve as a
  priestess in the temple.
• Slavery from captives and the tribute system
• All captives were not treated the same.
• Ordinary soldiers who were captured were used as
  slaves.
• Nobility or war leaders were used for human
  sacrifices.

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Post European Intervention throughout Meso and
South America and the Caribbean
Peninsulares
Creoles
Mestizos
Mulattos
Native Indians
Black Slaves
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The Inca Empire about 1500 C.E.
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The Inca Empire about 1500 C.E.

• Under Pachakuti Inca, who was crowned in 1438,
  expansion began. With the aid of his son Topa
  Inca, the Inca's campaign of conquest extended
  north beyond modern Quito by 1527 and south to
  modern Santiago.
• Brought under the domination of the Incas were
  perhaps nine million people.
• Political and military control was complimented
  by linguistic domination as Incan Quechua became
  the language of the people (as it remains today
  for more than 80 percent of the central Andean
  Indians).
• One of the most important keys to the Incan
  Empire was its intensive agriculture based on
  irrigation and terracing.
• It supported the army, the administrative
  bureaucracy, the priesthood, and was sufficient
  enough to put away a surplus for hard times.
• Machu Pichu was an Incan fortress-city high in
  the Andes Mountains northwest of Cuzco.
• It covered one hundred acres and on the terraced
  hillsides there was intensive agriculture. It
  served as a retreat for the last Inca rulers
  after their defeat in the middle of the sixteenth
  century.

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Inca society and religion

• Trade limited
• Local barter in agricultural goods
• Fewer specialized crafts (few luxury items for
  trade)
• Inca society was also a hereditary aristocracy
• Chief ruler viewed as descended from the sun,
  owned everything on earth
• After death, mummified rulers became
  intermediaries with gods
• Aristocrats enjoyed fine food, embroidered
  clothes, and wore ear spools
• Priests led celibate and ascetic lives, very
  influential figures
• Peasants worked the land and gave over a portion
  of their produce to the state
• Besides supporting ruling classes, revenue also
  used for famine relief
• Peasants also provided heavy labor for public
  works
• Land was kept within a unit through marriage of
  peoples with different heriditary background but
  in the same economic unit

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Aztecs build upon the Toltecs

• Toltecs considered givers of civilization
• shared same language
• use of human sacrifice
• establishment of empire centered on central
  Mexico
• militarism of society
• concept of nobility tied to Toltec lineage
  initially
• use of city-state organization
• temple complexes associated with state
• many deities of pantheon of gods (Tlaloc,
  Quetzalcoatl)
• tribute based on sedentary agricultural system
• cyclical view of history and calendar system

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Mendoza CodexAmerican Rosetta Stone
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Labor systems

• Obligation of labor called enconimendia
• Later becomes the land grants to Spaniards in the
  reconimendia

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Aztec Social Structure

• At top was emperor who was held to be semi-divine
• nobility or pipiltin developed after early
  conquest, separated themselves from clan groups
  (calpulli), associated with priesthood and
  military
• large mass of commoners groups in calpulli, land
  distributed by clan heads, provided tribute,
  labor to temples
• class of serfs associated with lands of nobility
  scribes, artisans, healers
• long-distance merchants (pochteca)

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Human sacrifice among Aztec

• It was greatly exaggerated by the Spanish as a
  means of validating European conquest and
  cultural superiority
• it was a religious act essential to the grant of
  rain, sun, and other blessings of the gods
• it was an intentional use of a widespread
  practice to terrorize their neighbors and to keep
  the lower classes subordinate
• it was a form of population control to lower
  population density
• it was a response to a lack of protein and the
  absence of large mammals associated with animal
  sacrifice

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Inca and Aztec empires in terms of political
administration

• Similarities
• each had emperor supported by nobility that
  served as personnel of state
• both based on tribute system with imperial
  redistribution of goods
• both were militaristic
• each recognized indigenous rulers in return for
  recognition of imperial sovereignty.
• Differences
• Inca empire more integrated
• Aztec empire based more on concept of city-states
• Aztec empire more open to trade
• Inca empire almost entirely relied on state
  redistribution of goods
• Aztec use of human sacrifice as weapon of
  political terror

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Indian cultures outside the Andean and
Mesoamerican civilization zones contrast in
political and social organization with the Aztec
and Inca empires

• Lack of state formation
• existence of all levels of social complexity from
  large chiefdoms to hunting and gathering groups
• greater reliance on strictly kin-based social
  organization
• tendency to communal ownership of resources
• wealth not a basis for social status
• women held positions of greater political and
  social importance
• less dependence on sedentary forms of agriculture
  
• vastly less demographic density
• lack of monumental architecture (with some
  exceptions)