Daily Life of the Aztecs

by Jacques Soustelle

  The basis of the Mexican woman's costume, as the maxtlatl was the basis of the man's, was the cueiti or skirt,

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  made of a length of cloth wrapped round the lower part of the body, tied at the waist by an embroidered belt, and falling almost to the ankles. Among the lower classes and in the country the women often left their bosoms uncovered, but in the town and among the women of the middle class or the better sort a kind of blouse called a huipilli was worn outside the skirt: it was embroidered at the neck. Everyday clothes were plain and white, but ceremonial or holiday clothes displayed a great variety of colours and patterns.

  All witnesses emphasise the brilliance and the splendour of the blouses and the skirts worn by the women of noble families and those who took part in the ritual dances. In the dances of the month Uey tecuilhuitl, the women, especially the auianime, danced with the soldiers 'and they were all well dressed, and they wore ornaments, and beautiful skirts and blouses. Some of their skirts were decorated with hearts, others with a braided pattern like the bosoms of birds, others with the patterns of blankets, or with spirals or leaves; and others again were of plain cloth. They were bordered and fringed: they all had (embroidered) hems. As for their blouses, some had flowing brown designs, others (patterns representing) smoke, others black ribbons; others were decorated with houses, others with fishes . . . The collars were all broad and the (embroidered) edges were also wide and full.' 55 King Uitziliuitl's two favourites are shown dressed in white blouses embroidered at the neck and waist, and in white skirts with broad embroidered hems. 56

  In this case too, it was from the east that the art of embroidering in many colours and the taste for embroidery and splendid materials came to influence the dwellers on the high plateau. The eastern goddesses, such as Tlazolteotl, always appear in the pages of the figured manuscripts with a cotton scarf wound round their heads, with spindles stuck in it. The women of the Huaxteca and the Totonacs of the slopes of the Sierra Madre, and the old nations like the Otomí who had long been in contact with their eastern neighbours, were particularly eager for style and brilliance. 'Their (the Huaxtecs') clothes are elegant and distinguished,

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  for it is in their country that are made the cloaks called centzontilmatli or centzonquachtli, which means "cloaks of a thousand colours". The cloaks decorated with monsters' heads or painted, and those which have whirlpools are brought from those parts; and the (Huaxtec) weavers surpass themselves in the making of these materials and many others like them . . . The women take great care of their appearance; they are very well dressed and they go about looking very fine.' 57

  As for the Totonacs, 'their women gaze at themselves in their looking-glasses. They wear skirts and blouses with woven patterns and they know very well how to dress themselves. So their skirts were called intlalapalcue, manycoloured skirts . . . the noblewomen were magnificently dressed in these; the ordinary women in skirts of blue. All of them threaded feathers into their hair, dyed different colours: they walked about gracefully adorned with flowers.' 58 It was the same with the people who lived on the shores of the Gulf: 'the women are excellent weavers, very expert at working in cloth; and this is quite natural, since they belong to such a good, rich country.' 59 As for the Otomí women, they were perfectly happy to take any fashions that pleased them from the neighbouring tribes, and 'whatever they saw in the line of clothes, that they put on.' 60

  It was no doubt through them that the habit of wearing that typically eastern garment the quexquemitl was introduced into central Mexico: this was a graceful lozenge-shaped pelerine or mantle, richly decorated and embroidered. In the pre-cortesian era the many-coloured quexquemitl belonged particularly to the women of the Totonacs, 61 but Aztec sculpture shows certain goddesses with their bosoms covered by this fringed cloak. 62 At the present time the Indian women belonging to the various tribes of the eastern slopes or the high plateau (Totonacs, Nahua, Otomí) still weave this traditional garment for themselves. 63

  No doubt fashion at Tenochtitlan accentuated simplicity in contrast to the showy medley sought after by the provincials; but even so a procession of women going to a temple must have been a remarkably colourful sight and

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  The Town

  1 The legendary origin of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztecs, is portrayed in the Codex Mendoza by native scribes working for Spaniards. The eagle, symbol of Huitzilopochtli, the great tutelary god, alighted on a cactus among the reeds of a lagoon, and there the Mexicans founded their city

  2 On top of the great temple two sanctuaries stood side by side. On the left, that of Tlaloc, god of rain and vegetation; on the right that of Huitzilopochtli. The Codex shows a Spanish soldier on guard

  3 The Zapotec temple at Monte Alban is earlier than the Aztec period but is situated in the same high plateau scenery to which the Aztecs migrated

  4 A reconstruction of Tenochtitlan in 1519. On the left is the great temple, in the foreground the northern canoe basin. Left and right of the great temple are the palaces of Axayacatl and Motecuzoma

  5 Round the base of the pyramid of the great temple were carved serpents' heads similar to this one at Tenayuca

  The Warriors

  6 The Emperor Tizoc (left), in his role as commander in chief, is shown taking a captive in war

  7 The two superior military orders were the 'eagle knights' whost helmet was an eagle's head (right) and the 'jaguar knights' whose battledress was a jaguar skin

  8 A jaguar knight fights in a gladiatorial combat with a sacrificial victim to the god Xipe Totec, who is armed only with wood and is impeded by a stone attached to his leg

  9 Amphibious command operations were frequent in the marshy country. Here three canoe-borne warriors attack an island

  10 The tecuhtli or dignitaries, chosen to represent the people, were by origin elected but in practice the rank became almost hereditary. A page from the Codex Mendoza shows (above) the grades of warriors (taking prisoners in war) and ( below ) dignitaries, with progressively more elaborate headdresses and clothes

  Religion and Sacrifice

  11 The celibate priests, tlamacazqui, in the service of Quetzalcoatl, lacerated their flesh with agave knives to provide a little blood for the demanding sun

  12 Prisoners of war were almost invariably sacrificed. But before this, the victim was richly clothed to play the part of the god for a year, during which time he was well treated

  13 and 14 The human sacrifice of almost willing victims was performed by one priest while four others held down each limb over a curved altar stone at the top of the temple steps. The priest ripped out the heart with a sharp stone knife (below) and offered it to the sun

  15 The most important feature of Aztec religion was the need to sacrifice to the sun and feed it with human blood. Huitzilopochtli, tutelary deity of the warrior Aztecs sacrifices to the sun aided by his lieutenant, Motecuzoma on the right of the carving

  16 Chalchiuhtlicue, the companion of Tlaloc in her capacity as goddess of sweet waters. She was invoked by the Aztecs when they were building the great aqueduct in the reign of Auitzotl

  17 The ancient god of rain, Tlaloc, was the supreme god of the peasants

  18 Ometecuhtli and Omeciuatl, the lord and lady of the Duality, represented the primordial couple, the creator as both man and woman, whose fecundity gave birth to all the gods and men

  19 From the Pacific south coast came the cult of Xipe Totec, 'our flayed lord', god of the spring rains and of the renewal of nature and plants. His victims were pierced with arrows so that their blood dropped like renewing rain; they were then flayed and priests dressed themselves in their skins

  20 Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent, the wind god, was also the perhaps not wholly legendary god-king of Tula of the Toltecs

  21 One of the few really cheerful Aztec deities, Xochipilli, was the prince of flowers, god of music, dance and games, and was much worshipped by the young

  22 The omnipresent sorcerer god Tez
catlipoca saw in his obsidian mirror all the events of the world. This magnificent turquoise and obsidian mask was made from an actual skull, presumably of a victim to the god

  23 The average Mexican expected the most dismal and fleeting afterlife in which his soul, accompanied by a little dog (of the particular Aztec, hairless, edible breed) which was incinerated with him, wandered for four years in the cold underworld, escaping monster and finally reaching Hades

  24 The Aztecs were obsessed with the passage of time and carried the art of calendar making to an astounding perfection. This vast stone which once stood on the main steps of the great temple, was successfully used in a recent experiment to predict an eclipse

  25 The days and nights of the Aztecs were peopled with monsters such as the Tzitzimitl waiting to hurl themselves on the world the moment the sun should perish

  Everyday Life

  26 Under a universal education system there were two types of school: the calmecac for the upper class and the telpochcalli for the rest. The girls' education (right hand column) centred round domestic tasks

  27 A wedding entailed a great deal of feasting and making of speeches; the actual essence of the marriage was the knotting of the cloaks. The bride was carried on the back of an elderly matron

  28 and 29 The strongly integrated society of the Aztecs was based very largely on dances and ceremonies. Warriors, eagle and jaguar knights, held revels by night, usually of a religious nature, illuminated by huge fires on tripods and accompanied by the beating of two-toned and single drums of which a fine example is seen below

  30 This page of the Codex Mendoza shows, on the left, the names of various towns, and, on the right, the tribute to be levied from each -warriors' costumes and shields, cocoa, etc.

  31 The distribution of food and clothing to the whole population during an entire month of the Aztec year was one of the functions of the emperor in his role as father of the people

  32 The pochteca or traders were a class apart, exempt from the normal rules of justice. They had grades among themselves and dealt in an enormous variety of wares, but they always affected simplicity and humble ways

  33 Women frequently made up their faces and would go to great lengths to obtain a good obsidian mirror

  34 This cocoa jug was a part of normal household equipment

  35 Four paintings of cloaks which were the basic article of Aztec clothing and were made in a variety of rich and colourful patterns. They were tied on one shoulder by a knot

  Art and Craftsmanship

  36 The magnificent feathered headdresses, most of which have perished, varied in size with the importance of the wearer. This green and gold one was given to Cortes, and then to Charles V, by Motecuzoma himself

  37 A rock crystal skull

  38 This golden brooch representing a shield and arrows was worn by an army commander

  39 Proof of the Aztecs' aesthetic sensitivity, infinite patience and technical skill can be seen in their pure gold jewellery

  remarkably varied, for although the cut of the blouses and the skirts may have been the same, still the multicoloured stuffs, the infinite diversity of pattern, and the brilliance of the jewels and feathers made the brown-faced, brownarmed women look like the marvellous birds of the tropics. 64

  This tendency towards luxury in clothes, although it was restrained by regard for a certain traditional austerity, increased with increasing technical development, particularly with that of cloth-making. The nomadic people of the north and no doubt the Aztecs themselves to begin with, dressed in skins; the long-established settled people of the high plateau wove the fibre of the agave, ixtle. At the date of which we are speaking the plebeian's loin-cloth and tilmatli were still made of this cloth, which was considered suitable for the common people; besides, the spinners had attained such skill that they could draw an extremely fine thread from the agave fibre, and it was possible to weave very supple cloth, as some Indians still do today. 65 Some other vegetable fibres, such as those which were used for making paper, were also used for cloth. But cotton, a native of the Hot Lands of the east and of the west, soon became very much sought after by the Aztecs and was considered the essential textile staple, inichcatl intetechmonequi, 'the indispensable cotton'.

  When, at the end of the fourteenth century, the king Uitziliuitl wished to marry a daughter of the lord of Cuauhnahuac (Cuernavaca, which has a semi-tropical climate) his prime motive seems to have been to provide his city with cotton. ' King Uitziliuitl asked for the hand of a princess of Cuauhnahuac named Miahuaxihuitl, daughter of this same Ozomatzin, who ruled over Cuauhnahuac. And the old men said that the lord Ozomatzin had all the peasants of Cuauhnahuac at his command and that they brought him the indispensable cotton and all the fruits that grow in those parts: and of all these things nothing came to Mexico; this cotton did not reach the Mexicans, and for this reason they were very wretched.' 66

  The traders and then the warriors who came into the rich tropical lands from the plateaux were chiefly in search of

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  cotton: trade and tribute brought immense quantities of it to Mexico, either as the raw fibre or as manufactured cloth. 67

  The men and women of Mexico, particularly those of the working-class, often went barefoot; but as they rose in the social scale they might put on cactli, sandals with fibre or hide soles, which were kept on by interlacing straps and which had a heel-piece. 68 In the more elaborate kinds other straps were wrapped cross-wise up the wearer's shins as far as his knees, forming a greave (cozehuatl): this was the typical footwear of the warriors.

  Motecuhzoma's sandals were heavily ornamented with gold: 69 it is clear from the native iconography, from the Mayan bas-reliefs, through the figured manuscripts to the sculpture of the Aztecs, that the sandal (which has survived to our time in the form of the everyday huaracha of the Mexican Indians) could assume a great many varieties of shape and decoration. The precious metals, gems, skins of wild animals, such as jaguars, and the feathers of tropical birds could all enter into its composition.

  The clothes and the footwear of the ancient Mexicans may have been relatively plain, but on the other hand nothing can give any idea of the overflowing variety or the baroque wealth of their jewels and their head-dresses. The women wore earrings, necklaces and bracelets on their arms and ankles. The men had the same ornaments, but in addition they pierced the septum of their nose to hold gem or metal jewels; they also made holes in the skin beneath their lower lip so as to wear chin-ornaments of crystal, shell, amber, turquoise or gold; and they placed huge and splendid structures of feathers upon their heads or their backs.

  In this display of rank and of luxury everything was strictly regulated in conformity with the hierarchic order. Only the emperor might wear the turquoise nose-ornament -- the division between his nostrils was perforated with great ceremony after his election 70 -- and only warriors of a certain rank had the right to wear such and such a jewel, whose kind and shape was exactly laid down. 71 The 'emblems' or feather ornaments, dazzlingly coloured head-dresses, bronzegreen plumes of quetzal-feathers, immense butterflies, cones

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  made of feathers or gold, cloth or feather-mosaic banners to be fixed to the shoulders of chiefs, decorated shields -- all these were reserved for those who had won the right to them by their exploits, and death was the punishment for any man who should presume to attribute to himself one of these marks of honour. 72

  The Indians of Mexico and Central America have, since the remotest antiquity, (as may be seen in the Mayan frescoes of Bonampak 73 ) literally worshipped feathers -- the long, splendid green plumes of the quetzal, the red and yellow of the parrots. They formed one of the most important articles to be delivered up to the tax-collectors under the Aztec empire. The huge feather-ornaments, together with the jewels of gold and turquoise, raised the warrior, the dignitary and the emperor high above ordinary humanity. On the one side, in its simplicity Mexican costume touched the classical antiquity of the white-robed Mediter
raneans: on the other, the Redskin world of the American native, but with a delicacy unknown to the rude inhabitants of the prairie.

  We have a precise idea, from bas-reliefs and manuscripts, of the magnificent ornaments that could make of a man something greater than a man, almost a divine being, hieratic and filled with splendour. When, to the hollow scream of conchs, the beat of gongs and the harsh cry of trumpets, there suddenly appeared to the people crowded on the central square the emperor, rigid beneath the gold and turquoise diadem, amidst the brilliance of green plumes, while the armour, the emblems and the banners of the great men formed a mosaic of a thousand colours around him, who would not have thought that here was the chosen of Tezcatlipoca, 'the ruler of the world', 'the father and mother of the people'? In that society, with its very marked graduations, ornaments and jewels, gold and feathers, were the symbols of power and of the ability to govern.