Mayans and Aztecs

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• Mayans and Aztecs

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• Mayans
• Lower Mesoamerica (Yucatan, Guat., El Sal.)
• Myths of the peaceful Maya.
• Great inventors and artists.
• Oddly - very warlike
• Large, overpopulated cities
• City-states - hereditary king
• Tikal most important city 292 AD
• Sudden collapse 900 AD.
• War and environmental degradation led to fall.

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• Society revolved around corn
• Primary food
• Creation myth humans were born of corn.

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• Economy Agriculture and long distance trade
  (canoes).
• Stratified society
• King
• Ritual bloodletting
• rope imbedded in body
• Nobility/priesthood
• Peasants

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• Religion focused on flow of time and calendars
• Fusion of observed/unobservable,
  earthly/celestial, time/space - no distinction
• Time was basic unit/building block of the
  universe
• Overcoming Fate Hero Twins - sacrifice and
  rebirth
• Ball Courts important Copan built around ball
  court

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• Highly advanced calendars
• Long Count
• The world didnt end.
• Solar calendar 365 days, 18 months of 20 days
  each w/ extra 5 days at end
• Sacred calendar 260 days, 13 weeks of 20 days
  each (trained priests only)

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• Most advanced Amerindian group
• Development of zero
• Advanced calendars
• Fantastic "organic" art
• Written System based on Hieroglyphs

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• II. Aztecs Valley of Mexico
• Olmec
• Teotihuacan - Place of the Gods
• Ruled Valley 200 BC-650 AD
• Mysterious -- no writing
• Very powerful for long time
• Evidence of a great fire near time of collapse
• Tula ruled Valley 968-1200 (Toltec)
• Warrior culture

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• Aztec Arrived in valley 1218.
• Last to arrive in Valley
• Trouble finding land
• Founded Tenochtitlan on islands in lake Texcoco
  1325
• Worked as mercenaries and laborers for other
  Nahua city-states
• Became very weathly and grew in population
  (power)
• Eventually take over valley

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• Economy and society
• Complex system of agriculture based on irrigation
  
• Extensive trading system all over Central and
  North America
• Expansionist tribute (Bugs Life) vitally
  important

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• tribute trade goods
• Yearly tribute included
• 14 million lbs corn
• 8 million lbs beans
• 2 million cloaks
• Countless weapons and gems
• Feed markets in Tenochtitlan
• Traders/merchants sent out (spies)

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• Organization
• Major social unit was the calpulli - ward/clan

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• Creating the Empire
• Begin big push outward in 1430, gained control of
  north Mesoamerica.
• Itzcoatl (1428-1440) builds the empire
• feared warriors

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• Religion and Empire
• Sense of Doom
• Man is rootless, without foundation
• Universe is doomed - cycles of sun, each must end
  - 5th Sun must die

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• Huitzilopochtli - God of War and the Sun
• Huitz. The chief tribal god of Aztecs
• Sun formed by god sacrificing himself on coals
  each day - reborn as sun
• Nourishment from human heart (purity) - must be
  physically fed
• Human sacrifice vital to religion
• Numerous examples of human sacrifice to many
  gods. (18 major holidays, 20 temples, 300-12,000
  victims per year)
• New Year's celebration - lighting the fires
• Flayed One's - Priests wearing human skins
• Rededication of Temple Mayor - in 1487, as many
  as 80,000
• Increasingly common on community, family level

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• All nations must serve Huitzilipotchli
• Tribute cities give sacrificial victims
• Flowery war
• Meant to take captives, not kill
• Hurt them with Spaniards (not killing)

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• An empire based on fear
• Did not govern their conquests directly
• Left them as source of tribute
• Left them as source of "war captives" for
  sacrifice
• Constant fear
• Yet a society that valued speech, dance, poetry
• This empire of fear left them vulnerable to
  Spaniards (locals turned on them)
• Lesson Moderation???