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Hey guys Have a look at what I found about the Aztecs and please feel free to comment when you think the information is incorrect or if you found something different from what I found. Hope this post helps you with your project!

Team Members

Anthropologist- A person who studies about origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of people who lived before. Anthropologist would want to find artifacts that are related to Aztecs’ life style, social classes, culture, and religion.

Archeologist- A person who studies prehistoric people and their culture. They dig up old buildings and objects and examine them carefully. Archeologists are similar to anthropologists but anthropologists study more about human behaviors and their lives and archeologists study more about historical events and culture and/or what people who lived long time ago invented and their importance in today’s world. Archeologists would want to find artifacts that tells people about their history, culture, and what they invented during their times.

Economist- A person who studies about economics which is the study of the way money, goods, services, etc. are made and used in a society. Economists will try to find artifacts in Aztecs villages that shows or tells us how people traded with each other, what they valued, what they traded, how much they valued money, etc.

Historian- A person who studies history, study of past events, especially the events that reflects the people who lived during that time and something that helps today’s people by giving lessons, either good or bad. When historian goes to Aztecs’ village, he would want to find artifacts that are related to past events that are important and how people reacted to that event. A specific example will be an artifact with Ancient Aztecs’ writing that tells people why they let Cortes take control over them without fighting against him.

Linguist- Someone who studies languages. Linguists, once they get to Aztecs
’ territory, would like to find artifacts that has Aztecs’ writing and language on them and they would want to find artifacts that tells them how to speak that language. Also, they would want to know how their language was created.

Theologian- Theologian is someone who studies about theology which is the study of religions. Anthropologists are somewhat similar to theologian, but as I said, they study deeply about the human behaviors and little bit about their religions when theologians study deeply on people’s religions. Theologians will most likely try to find their artifacts in the temples in many Aztecs villages because that is where the people worshipped and prayed to their gods and they will try to find evidences with the picture of the Aztecs’ gods, picture or writing with human sacrifice, something that show people how they sacrificed people, etc.

Notes and Answers to the Guiding Questions

Step 1: Journey to a New Land

Q: Where did Aztecs originally lived?
A: The Aztecs lived in Atzlan, somewhere in North West Mexico but due to some reason, they moved, leaving their homes behind.

Q: What prompted them to relocate?
A: Aztecs were simply forced to use and live on the worst lands in the valley from the strong neighbors around them because no one wanted to live there. The legend states that Huitzilopochtli, one of the gods, appeared as one of the priests and told Tenoch, the leader of the tribe, to lead his people to a swampy island and search for an eagle that is eating a snake on a cactus, surrounded by water. There, they built a city named Tenochtitlan, their first and greatest city, and thanked Huitzilopochtli with human sacrifices.

Q: Where did they end up and why?
A: They ended up in a swampy island in the middle of Lake Texcoco, where they found an eagle eating a serpent perched on a cactus, growing from a rock or cave surrounded by water because they were told by one of their gods to do so.
Step 2: Tenochtitlan

Q: The Aztecs ended up in the middle of a lake and built their new capital Tenochtitlan. What were the pros and cons of settling in the middle of a lake?
A: Some of the pros of settling in the middle of a lake were that they were able to grow crops (they planted trees to do so because they had plenty of water and was easy to get it, it was easy to farm), were able to make canals and bridges that led into the city (they formed defense systems), and they were able to catch fish easily, which took part of their everyday meals. Also, it was easy for the government to control people because of the small size of the land and the people were able to trade easily which helped them to grow fast. On the contrary, some of the cons of settling in the middle of a lake were that they had to use canoes to move around the city, the people couldn’t find things that were needed to build temples and houses (such as rocks), and the land in the middle of the lake was marshy (soft) and therefore it was very hard for the Aztecs to build houses and temples.

Q: Describe the lay of the land and choose an image for your exhibit.
A: Tenochtitlan was built in a swampy island in the middle of a lake named, ‘Lake Texcoco’, one of the five lakes in the Valley of Mexico. There were snakes living in the island and the land was very soft and marshy.
Step 3: Polytheism

Q: Which gods were worshiped?
A: When the Aztecs moved into the new land, they brought their gods and goddesses. They were very religious. Since framing was their major work, they knew that the forces of nature would affect their profits and therefore they worshiped gods who were mostly related to the ‘forces of nature’. They strictly separated the ‘good’ gods and the ‘bad’ gods, and so they sacrificed humans in order to support and please their ‘good’ gods. Here are some gods/goddesses from many of the others:
Q: The pyramids were built for what purpose?
A: The Aztecs built the pyramids in order to sacrifice people because the emperor thought that a special temple should be built for the sacrifice. The Aztecs wanted to make their temples better than other cities’ temples and therefore they built pyramids on top of the old one to make them larger and better-looking.
Step 4: Social Order

Q: Who are the different members of Aztec society? What were their roles?
A: 1. Slaves: They were the people at the very low social classes. The children of the slaves could be sold, usually for short period of time since the slaves could buy back their freedom. Slaves who escaped and reached the royal palace without being caught were freed instantly.
2. Commoners: Most of the Aztecs were commoners who were related to agriculture and common trade. Commoners worked the land in family units and were allowed to keep what they harvested. They were given an area of land until they die but the lower groups of commoners, tenant farmers, were not allowed to own property and therefore they had to work in other people’s land. The lowest groups of commoners were the peasants who worked in the land owned by the noble people and who received part of the harvest.
3. Nobilities: They were part of the highest social groups who were either born nobles, priests, or earned their rank. The highest groups of the highest social groups were called pipiltin. They were the ones to govern and control people. Once the nobles chose the leader, he was the one to rule until his death. Other than pipiltin, warriors, priests, nobles, the most outstanding artisans, physicians and truly wise teachers were highly respected.
Step 5: Communication

Q: The Aztecs have a spoken language. What was it called?
A: The Aztecs spoke a language called, ‘Nahuatl’.

Q: Did they use any other forms of communication? Include an example of either written of visual language of the Aztecs.
A: The Aztecs also used pictographs called glyphs that were used to communicate through writing. Some of the pictures didn’t only mean a word but they also symbolized ideas and/or represented the sounds of the syllables. The people joined few glyphs to make sentences.
Step 6: Economy

Q: How did the Aztecs grow food and what was their main crop?
A: The Aztecs grew food using many methods. Firstly, they made terraces (land for agriculture that looks like stair) because it kept their crops from flooding. Second method that they used to grow food is the slash-and-burn method. The Aztecs also planted giant reed mats (trees) in the swampy island and covered with mud/soil and farmed there. They were able to grow corn, chili peppers, squash, tomatoes, beans, and other kinds of food through these methods.

Q: Did they trade and with whom?
A: The Aztecs traded with other people in different cities and they also traded with people who lived in Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras.

Q: Did they have a currency (money)?
A: Although the Aztecs were very developed, they were not advanced enough to use currency to trade. Instead, they just traded goods and ideas with other people. Something that most likely acted the role of money was cacao beans.
Step 7: Arrival of the Spanish

Q: Discuss the Impact of Spanish Contact 1519 from both the Aztec point of view and the Spanish point of view.
A: When the Spaniards arrived at the southern boundary of the Valley of Mexico, the Aztec Empire was still growing. Hernan Cortes was the leader of the Spanish and he had roughly about 400 soldiers with him when he reached the capital of Aztec. He wanted to conquer the Aztecs and therefore asked some tribes who were fighting against the Aztecs to fight with him. When they reached Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs thought that Cortes was the descent of one of their gods, Quetzalcoatl. Therefore, their emperor, Moctezuma, greeted them with many valuable gifts. However, the relations between the Spanish and the Aztecs changed rapidly and Moctezuma was prisoned by Cortes. While Cortes was away, the Aztecs freaked out and started to resist. When Cortes came back, he showed Moctezuma to his people, thinking that they will calm down, but when the emperor was hit in the head and died after few days, Cortes fought against the Aztecs along with other tribes and took control over them. After he conquered the Aztecs, he enslaved them along with the other people from the tribes who helped them, and he took all their properties.
Step 8: Fall of the Empire
Q: Discuss La Malinche or Dona Marina. Debate her positive/negative impact on Mexico past and present.
A: La Malinche is thought to be born to a noble family but after her father’s dead who was a chief, her mom remarried and gave birth to a son. Her mother thought that her son would be a better chief than her and therefore handed her over to some traders. La Malinche was then enslaved when she met Hernan Cortes and became an interpreter. Her name has become into a word that describes someone who betrays his own culture. Dona Maria’s negative impact is that some people consider her as a betrayer of the Aztecs and think that she shouldn’t have helped Cortes because he was the one who conquered the Aztecs (therefore the Aztec civilization collapsed) and destroyed much of their culture. However, many women in Chicana consider her as an outstanding historical figure. Her positive impact is that it made good relations with the Aztec Emperor when she interpreted and helped Cortes to communicate with other people.
Q: What does the term Mestizo refer to?
A: Mestizo means a person of mixed racial ancestry, especially of mixed European and Native American ancestry.

Q: What influences remain today from Aztec culture of the past?
A: The Spanish who destroyed much of their culture (such as books with writing).