FEATURED ESSAYS 1. The Toltecs, Aztecs, And Mayans 2. Montezuma 3. Aztecs 4 4. Aztecs 5 5. Broken Spears 6. The Aztec Indians 7. Cortes 2 8. The Aztec Indians 9. Mayan Beliefs 10. Aztec Civilization 11. Ancient Civilizations 12. Daily Life Of The Aztecs 13. Mexico 14. Day Of Dead

The Toltecs, Aztecs, and Mayans

TOLTECS>
  The Toltecs were an Indian tribe who existed from 900 A.D.  to 1200. They
had a capital city of Tollan, and their influences reached south to the
Yucatan and Guatemala.  They were a composite tribe of Nahua, Otomi, and
Nonoalca.  The Tolt ecs made huge stone columns decorated like totem poles.

AZTECS>
  Aztecs were an American Indian people who rule an empire in Mexico during
the 1400's and early 1500's.  They practiced a religion that affected every
part of their lives.  To worship the Aztecs built towering temples, created
huge sculptures, and had human sacrifices.  The center of Aztec
civilization was a river valley in Mexico.  The emperor of the Aztecs was
called the "huey tlatoani" (great speaker).  A council of high-ranking no
bles chose him from the members of a royal family.  The Aztec society had
four main classes nobles, commoners, serfs, and slaves.  The typical Aztec
household consisted of a husband and wife, their unmarried children, and a
number of the husbands relative s.  Boys were educated by their father
until aboutn 10 years of age. The Aztecs married at an early age, women at
about 16, men at about 20. Warfare was considered a religious duty by the
Aztecs.  They fought not only to enlarge their empire but also to take
prisoners to sacrifice to the gods.  The market place was a major center of
Aztec life, more than 60,000 people visited it daily.  They had no system
of money, they traded goods and services for other goods and services. They
had no pack-animals, a nd as a result, they themselves had to carry all
their goods over land.  The end of the Aztec empire came when the Spaniards
came.  The first time the Spaniards were mistaken for returning gods.  When
they returned to Spain, they told of all the gold that the Aztecs had.  The
Spaniards returned one year later with canons and they had the help of the
other indian tribes of the area, in destroying the Aztec empire.

MAYANS>
  The Mayan civilization flourished from the 3rd to the 16th centuries in
an a rea the included the peninsula of Yucatan and the eastern part of
Chiapas in Mexico, most of Guatemala, the western region of the Republic of
Honduras.  In the Spanish conquest only a few Mayans resisted the
conversion to Christianity. The Mayans believe d that 13 heavens were
arranged in layers above the earth, and under the earth were nine
underworlds also arranged in layers.  The concepts are closely related to
those of the Aztecs.  The religion has partly survived to this day among
the Christianized M ayans.  Mayan mathematics included the discovery of
zero, the duration of the solar year, and a method of predicting solar
eclipses.  Mayan cities were primarily ceremonial, government, and market
centers.  Sacrifices were numerous of animals, birds, inse cts, fish,
plants, blood from tongues, ears, arms, and legs.  For rain victims were
hurled into deep wells.  Drawing blood from bodies often preceded
ceremonies and sacrifices.  These practices had become so deeply rooted
that, even after the Spanish conq uest, Christian--pagan ceremonies took
place with sacrifices featuring heart removal or crucifixion.  The custom
of human sacrifice ended in 1868.  Ritual activities were complex, and
consisted of bloodletting from ears and tongues, sacrifices, and dances .
Every social group celebrated its own religious feast.  Sorcerers and
medicine men were both prophets and inflicters or healers of disease.  They
used magic formulas, chants, and prayers for healing methods.