Aztec and Inca: Empires in the Dust

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES • VOLUME 5 NUMBER 6 • DECEMBER 1984 Humanities AZTEC AND INCA: EMPIRES IN THE DUST The Spanish conquerors were a mixed lot, ranging from the semi-educated, hardbitten conquistadores to the gentle, learned, and idealistic Franciscan friars who came along to convert the natives to the true religion of Christ. Accordingly, the accounts of the Aztec and Inca civilizations that we have from their hands vary widely in quality. These and the stories of the native intelligentsia describing their peoples in indigenous tongues or in Spanish give us a richly documented, albeit uneven, picture of pre-Spanish cultures in Mexico and Peru. A continuing source of ambiguity in the study of these two civilizations, however, is that the Inca had no real writing; while the Aztec had written docu ments that were largely pictorial and focused on economic and ritual matters. The surviving Aztec histories, written after the conquest in Spanish or the Aztec tongue, Nahuatl, and using the Roman alphabet, are couched in a chronology of recurrent fifty-two-year cycles. Although one knows exactly on what day in a cycle an event occurred, it is often impossible to determine what particular cycle it was. Finally, every account has an axe to grind. The Amerindian elites were making every effort to hang onto the lands, tribute payments, and prerogatives that they had inherited from their ancestors; the Spanish conquistadores and land barons were doing their best to separate the nobility from these resources and virtually to enslave the peasant populations; and the friars were trying to root out what they considered idolatry, while attempting to alleviate the sufferings of the natives. Every docu ment we have must be evaluated in this light. This much is clear: Both civilizations were the last to flourish in their respective areas before the Spanish conquest, both were the creations of late upstarts, and both drew, on the rich heritage of much older civilizations. Civilized life in Mexico goes back to the ancient Olmec of the southern Gulf Coast of Veracruz and Tabasco, who by 1200 B.C. had established great ceremonial centers along the rivers that meander through this rich, tropical environment. The Olmec are famous for their production of gigantic basalt monuments, such as the Colossal Heads that por tray their rulers, and for their magnificent jade carv ings. The next great civilization was that of Teotihuacan, the New World's first and largest pre- Spanish city, located northeast of Mexico city in its own valley, a side pocket of the Basin of Mexico that was and still is the focal point of Mexican statehood. Teotihuacan, according to the great survey under taken by Rene Millon and his University of Rochester team, was founded about the time of Christ as a planned metropolis, and reached a population peak of 125,000 by A.D. 500-600—one of the largest cities of the world in its day. Machu Picchu, Peru The city of Teotihuacan seems to peregrination, the various descent opposites” : life vs. death, male vs. have prospered on its enormous groups that made up the tribe set female, etc., conceptualized as an Editor's Notes production of obsidian artifacts for tled down on the shores of the androgynous creator divinity The theme of this issue is “ Ancient export, on its advanced craft in Great Lake that once filled the known to them as Lord Duality. Civilizations of North and South dustry, and on the highly produc Valley, first becoming serfs of one The Aztec received a very bad America," but we cannot pretend tive agriculture carried out on of the powerful local kingdoms, press from their conquerors, who to offer anything more than a brief raised fields or chinampas (“ floating then forced to wander because of had every reason to falsify the glance at some of the peoples who gardens") under its control. But the their penchant for war and human record. They were probably no inhabited the western hemisphere raison d'etre of the metropolis prob sacrifice. Finally, in the early four more prone to sacrifice than any in pre-Columbian times. Michael ably took in much of southern Mex teenth century, the Aztec estab other Mexican or Central American Coe explains how various archaeo ico and Central America, for lished their capital on the island of people, including the supposedly logical finds have enabled us to Teotihuacan seems to have been Tenochtitlan in the midst of the peaceful Maya. The bittersweet, understand the complex societies of the nexus of a huge empire that in lake, fulfilling their tribal god's decidedly pessimistic Aztec mind the Aztec and Inca empires, while cluded even the advanced Maya. prophecy. Their destiny, he had set is reflected in their poetry, John Hyslop describes how the vast Certainly, all later cultures in the told them, was to rule the world much of which has survived. The network of Inca roads worked to Valley of Mexico, the Aztec among from that place. In the next century great poet-king Nezahualcoyotl, bind millions of Andean peoples to them, rested on the shoulders of and a half, with the exception of lord of Texcoco, wrote: gether. (There are still seven mil Teotihuacan. the Maya, force of arms had Even jade is shattered, lion South American Indians who Following the violent destruction brought much of Mexico under of Teotihuacan around A.D. 700, Aztec sway. Even gold is crushed, speak the Inca language of Que- Even quetzal plumes are torn . there was a political hiatus in cen Aztec society on the eve of the chua.) We also learn how an NEH- One does not live forever on this tral Mexico. This was soon to be Spanish conquest was no democ supported Corpus of Maya Hiero earth: glyphic Inscriptions may finally lead filled by the Toltec, a people of racy. At the top was the emperor, We endure only for an instant! to an unraveling of the mystery of generally barbarian heritage who Motecuhzoma II, a hereditary ruler the Maya. had intruded into central Mexico with absolute power, “elected" by Perhaps his pessimism prophesied Closer to home, Robert Coles from the northern deserts, around a council drawn from the royal the day in April 1521, when the laments the passing of an ancient A.D. 900. They founded their capi house. Under him were the nobili great capital of Tenochtitlan, was Eskimo civilization that had re tal of Tula in the modern state of ty, then the land-holding com ground to bits by the white-faced, mained almost unchanged until the Hidalgo, and soon established moners. At the bottom were serfs bearded conquerors. last decade. Jarold Ramsey shows hegemony at Chichen Itza. who worked the lands of the nobili Like the Aztec, the Inca who how the formal study of native Although much of their history is ty, and slaves, mostly war captives. were their contemporaries, were American oral/traditional literature shrouded in myth, excavations Vast quantities of tribute were re latecomers in the full historical as literature and the widespread have established that there really ceived semiannually from con sweep of New World civilizations. critical recognition of contemporary was a Toltec civilization, at least quered provinces, while a special The exact counterpart to the Olmec native American writing are inti until A.D. 1200. The Aztec con guild of merchants traveled to civilization of Mexico is the Chavin mately related. sidered the Toltec the most pol foreign markets for luxury goods. culture of Peru, which dates to the In this issue you will also find an ished and civilized of their prede Aztec politics and society can be period 1000-400 B.C.; of possible eight-page, pull-out Guide to NEH cessors, a great nation of artists and understood only by understanding Amazonian origin, it is presaged in Challenge Grants, as well as the artificers for whom nothing was im their religious life. Basically, the both the Andean highlands and annual NEH book list. We welcome possible. The Aztec emperor even Aztec believed in cyclical time, that dry, coastal valleys by a long devel your comments in the form of a let claimed descent from the Toltec the universe had undergone re opment of ceremonial architecture ter to the editor. kings. This is all somewhat of a peated creations and destructions, and religious art. Chavin art in —Judith Chayes Neiman mystery, because archaeology has each new world being called a sculpture, ceramics, textiles, and failed to reveal anything remarkable "S u n ." Our own Sun was to be other media centers on an awesome in Toltec art and architecture, destroyed by great earthquakes, a cult of jaguar, harpy eagle, serpent, which might almost be described as terrible fate that could be avoided and crocodile, a cult that unified shoddy. Perhaps to the barbaric only by the continual sacrifice of the highly diverse Andean ecologi Humanities Aztec in their early years, the war captives and the offering of cal zones for the first time. The sec Toltec seemed wonderful. their hearts and blood to the Sun. ond period of unity originated in The “people whose face nobody The taking of captives for this pur Bolivia on the north shore of A bimonthly review published by the knows" is what the horrified, civ pose was thus a major preoccupa Titicaca, where the Tiahuanaco National Endowment for the Humanities ilized denizens called the wild, un tion of Aztec tactics in battle, a fac civilization arose around the time of Chairman: William J. Bennett couth peoples who arrived in the tor that greatly aided the Spanish Christ; its stylized art was trans Director of Public Affairs: Susan H.

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