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 majority of the Aztecs lived in what is now called the Valley of Mexico. Located at an elevation of over 7, 000 feet, the large valley has housed many great cities. From the massive pyramids of Tenochtitlan, to the inhabitants of the vast hub of modern Mexico City, the great valley has been the heartland of many empires. The mighty Aztecs were the last indigenous group of people to enter the Valley of Mexico. Like many other pre-Columbian cultures, the Aztecs developed their own political system, religion, social structure, agricultural techniques, lifestyle and worldview.
The Aztecs were truly unique. The early Aztecs were semi-nomadic hunters and farmers. According to legend, in about 1000 AD the Aztecs left their mythic, island homeland of Aztlan in the desert frontiers of northern Mexico to begin their 100-year migration south to the Valley of Mexico. Led by their powerful patron god, Huiziloposhtli, they continued their migration southward, stopping along the way to plant crops, to build temples for their gods, and to offer human sacrifices in their honor.
From groups they encountered as they traveled, the Aztecs adopted new customs and traditions. The Aztecs were becoming a very religious people. When the Aztecs reached the Valley of Mexico in about 1193, this fertile inland basin was already heavily populated and little land was left for them to colonize. The Aztecs appeared rude and uncivilized to the members of the older city-states that clustered around the basin. For about another 100 years they continued to look for a permanent home.
As they continued their search they served as mercenary soldiers and servants for their powerful neighbors. They continued to absorb the traditions, manners, and customs of the more advanced and established communities that surrounded them. As the Aztecs grew in number, they established superior military and civil organizations. According to the famous legend, the Aztecs finally settled at a spot where an eagle sat upon a cactus eating a snake.
This was a sign foretold by their patron god. The sign, found by the priests, finally appeared on a small island in Lake Tex coco. By 1325, on the island, the Aztecs built a temple to Huitziposhtli and began to construct the city of Tenochtitlan, the ‘Place of Prickly Pear Cactus Fruit.’ Over the next 200 years, the city slowly became one of the largest and most powerful cities of the world, and was the giant heart of the Aztecs Empire. The Aztecs society was structured in a hierarchy with nobles at the top. Social status was determined primarily at birth. All members of the nobility could trace their lineage to the first Aztecs ruler Acamapichtli.
The only way one could rise up to another class in the system was to perform an outstanding military achievement. Aztec society had four main classes: nobles, commoners, serfs, and slaves. The nobles usually held high military offices and government positions. However, nobles were also teachers, priests, and bureaucratic officials. The nobles controlled most of the wealth in Aztec society. Obviously, their lifestyles were different and more luxurious than those of the commoners and slaves.
Most nobles also had their own private land or received extra government land for use during their term in public office. Commoners made up the majority of the Aztec population, and many of them made a living by farming their government owned plots. The commoners were the backbone of Aztec society, forming the large labor and military forces that maintained and controlled most of the empire. The serfs worked the land held by the nobles and remained on the land when a new noble acquired it.
Slaves were considered property, but their children were born free. Most of the slaves were prisoners of war, criminals or people who could not pay their debts. The Aztecs also bought slaves from other groups. Social structure was an important thing in the lives of every Aztec. Religion was extremely important in Aztec life. The people devoted much of their time to religious practice and even waged war largely to obtain prisoners to sacrifice to their various gods.
Much of the was based on traditions already established in ancient Meso-America. Older gods from ancient cultures were the basis for the gods they worshipped, but new gods were always being added to the list. The Aztecs performed ceremonies in the gods’ honor that included gifts of incense, flowers, birds, and animals. These offerings were usually given to “happy” gods, mainly Quetzalcoatl. Unfortunately, human sacrifice was also included in the list of offerings, whose hearts and blood were considered the supreme gift. Huiziloposhtli, the god of the sun and war, was the god that demanded the most sacrifices.
Human and animal sacrifices were a major part of Aztec religion. For warriors, the ultimate honor was to be slain in battle or to volunteer for sacrifice in a major ritual. Prisoners were often used for less important rituals. In the important ritual of human sacrifice, the priests would take the victim to the heights of the pyramids where they would stretch the victim over a convex stone.
One of the Aztec priests would then slice open the victim’s chest with a sharp knife and evict his heart as a tribute to the gods. The Aztecs believed that the gods needed human hearts and blood to remain strong, one of the reasons sacrifices were so important. After the heart had been removed from the victim, the priests would boil the body and members of the village would consume it as an act of ritualistic cannibalism. They may have thought that the dead person’s strength and bravery passed to anyone who ate the flesh. Men were usually the victims of such sacrifices but women and children were also sacrificed. Women were sacrificed at a fall festival honoring the mother goddess of growing ripe corn.
They were decapitated and their bodies were consumed. Children were sacrificed to mainly two gods: the god of rain, Tlaloc, and the god of fire, Xiuhtecuhutli. Children sacrificed to Tlaloc were usually strangled or drowned, and children sacrificed to Xiuhtecuhutli were usually tossed into fire, roasted on hot coals, or boiled to death. While each victim died in a different way all victims had their hearts removed. The Aztecs held many other religious ceremonies in which nobles and commoners alike participated.
Throughout the year people were called upon to participate in colorful performances that pleased the gods. The performances were held outside on the steps of the pyramids and in the great plazas. These ceremonies included musicians who played various musical instruments and dancers who would parade around the pyramids and through the city streets. Most of the other religious activities took place inside walled ceremonial temples on top of the giant pyramids. Priests would climb the huge stairways to the temples and give gifts to the gods. There were also ceremonial centers in which the priests would reside and people would come to pray and give offerings to the gods.
The centers also included gardens, living quarters for the priests, and racks to hold the skulls of sacrificial victims. Many centers also had a playing court for a popular game called lachtli, which is somewhat like basketball. The players (usually nobles) tried to hit a rubber ball through a ring with their hips and knees. They could not use their hands or feet in the game. One of the most exciting rituals of Aztec religion was the honoring of the god Tezcatlipoca, the patron god of Aztec rulers. Tezcatlipoca was honored at a yearly ceremony in which a handsome young male was chosen from a group of warriors to impersonate the god.
The young impersonator lived in luxury for one year. He learned many things during this period. He learned to play the flute, to hold a smoking tube, to carry flowers and to speak graciously. Throughout the year he moved freely about the city. All the people he met bowed before him and greeted him as the god himself.
During the year the young warrior was taken before Montezuma, who gave him precious gifts of gold and turquoise, fine clothes and many other luxuries. Twenty days prior to the ceremony, the impersonator was stripped of his beautiful clothes and dressed as a warrior once again. He was given four wives that would pleasure him until the day of his death. On the day of the great ceremony the youth was taken to a small temple south of the city where he was promptly sacrificed.
That very day, another young man was chosen to impersonate Tezcatlipoca and the cycle started over once again. This is truly one of the more fascinating stories of Aztec religion. The typical Aztec household consisted of a husband and a wife, their unmarried children and a number of the husband’s relatives. All members of the family helped with the household work. The husband’s responsibility was to support the family usually by farming or craftwork. The wife’s duties included weaving clothing and cooking the family’s food.
Family activities often took place in the patio: meals were cooked, children played, and neighbors stopped in to chat and exchange local news. Boys were educated by their fathers until the age of about 10. They then went to a school run by their neighborhood. These schools provided general education and military training. There were also temple schools that prepared boys to become priests or other leaders. Some girls attended the temple schools, but the majority learned all their skills at the home.
The Aztecs married at an early age, about 16. The family was, more or less, important in Azt.