Children of the Aztecs
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An Environmental History of the Middle Rio Grande Basin
United States Department of From the Rio to the Sierra: Agriculture Forest Service An Environmental History of Rocky Mountain Research Station the Middle Rio Grande Basin Fort Collins, Colorado 80526 General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-5 Dan Scurlock i Scurlock, Dan. 1998. From the rio to the sierra: An environmental history of the Middle Rio Grande Basin. General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-5. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 440 p. Abstract Various human groups have greatly affected the processes and evolution of Middle Rio Grande Basin ecosystems, especially riparian zones, from A.D. 1540 to the present. Overgrazing, clear-cutting, irrigation farming, fire suppression, intensive hunting, and introduction of exotic plants have combined with droughts and floods to bring about environmental and associated cultural changes in the Basin. As a result of these changes, public laws were passed and agencies created to rectify or mitigate various environmental problems in the region. Although restoration and remedial programs have improved the overall “health” of Basin ecosystems, most old and new environmental problems persist. Keywords: environmental impact, environmental history, historic climate, historic fauna, historic flora, Rio Grande Publisher’s Note The opinions and recommendations expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USDA Forest Service. Mention of trade names does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the Federal Government. The author withheld diacritical marks from the Spanish words in text for consistency with English punctuation. Publisher Rocky Mountain Research Station Fort Collins, Colorado May 1998 You may order additional copies of this publication by sending your mailing information in label form through one of the following media. -
The Olmec, Toltec, and Aztec
Mesoamerican Ancient Civilizations The Olmec, Toltec, and Aztec Olmecs of Teotihuacán -“The People of the Land of Rubber…” -Large stone heads -Art found throughout Mesoamerica Olmec Civilization Origin and Impact n The Olmec civilization was thought to have originated around 1500 BCE. Within the next three centuries of their arrival, the people built their capital at Teotihuacán n This ancient civilization was believed by some historians to be the Mother-culture and base of Mesoamerica. “The city may well be the basic civilization out of which developed such high art centers as those of Maya, Zapotecs, Toltecs, and Totonacs.” – Stirling Cultural Practices n The Olmec people would bind wooden planks to the heads of infants to create longer and flatter skulls. n A game was played with a rubber ball where any part of the body could be used except for hands. Religion and Art n The Olmecs believed that celestial phenomena such as the phases of the moon affected daily life. n They worshipped jaguars, were-jaguars, and sometimes snakes. n Artistic figurines and toys were found, consisting of a jaguar with a tube joining its front and back feet, with clay disks forming an early model of the wheel. n Large carved heads were found that were made from the Olmecs. Olmec Advancements n The Olmecs were the first of the Mesoamerican societies, and the first to cultivate corn. n They built pyramid type structures n The Olmecs were the first of the Mesoamerican civilizations to create a form of the wheel, though it was only used for toys. -
In What Ways Were the Maya, the Aztecs, and the Inca Advanced for Their Time?
DO NOT EDIT--Changes must be made through “File info” CorrectionKey=A perform the task In what ways were the Maya, the Aztecs, and the Inca advanced for their time? You will read: You will write: ▶ THREE INFORMATIVE ▶ AN INFORMATIVE ESSAY ARTICLES In what ways were the Maya, the Mayan Civilization Aztecs, and the Inca advanced for their time? Aztecs The Inca © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • ImageVision/Getty ©Digital ImagesCredits: Unit 2: Informative Essay 55 9_LNLEAS147591_U2S3O.indd 55 5/30/13 1:52 PM DO NOT EDIT--Changes must be made through “File info” DO NOT EDIT--Changes must be made through “File info” CorrectionKey=A CorrectionKey=A Part 1: Read Sources Source 1: Informative Article Mayan Civilization 30 by Suzanne Hopkins AS YOU READ Identify key Long before the rise of the Inca and Aztec Empires, Mayan terms that you might want to civilization flourished in Central America. The Maya first settled use in your essay. in the region as early as 1500 BC, growing maize and living in small agricultural communities. But by about AD 200, these villages were NOTES becoming cities. At its height, Mayan civilization included more than 40 cities, each with a population of 5,000 to 50,000 people. The cities had 40 huge stone buildings, including palaces, pyramids, and temples. Each city-state was ruled by a king. Mayan Society Mayan society was hierarchical, divided by both class and 10 profession. Below the king was a class of nobles; a middle class was composed of priests and commoners; at the lowest level were slaves. -
Myths and Legends: the Feathered Serpent God 1 Storytimetm
TM Storytime Myths and Legends: The Feathered Serpent God 1 Teaching Resources The Feathered Serpent God is a myth from the Aztec civilisation IN BRIEF about one of their most important gods, Quetzalcoatl, and how he brought people to life. 1 LITERACY LESSON IDEAS The Feathered Serpent God is a good story to read alongside learning about the Aztec civilisation. Quetzalcoatl was an important and powerful god in ancient Central America. Find out more about him on our Quetzalcoatl Fact Sheet and find out about other Aztec gods in our Top 10 Aztec Gods Sheet. See our Feathered Serpent God Word Wise Sheet to find the meanings of any new or tricky words, and have a go at our Quick Comprehension Checker and writing exercises. Put this myth in the correct order using our Story Sequencing Sheet. Looking at the pictures, write the story in your own words using our Simple Storyboards. Make up your own myth to explain why humans come in different shapes and sizes. Discuss your ideas in class. Use our Storytime Writing Sheet to write it. Act out The Feathered Serpent God myth using our printable Quetzalcoatl, Xolotl and Skeleton Masks. The skeletons can be the Lord and Lady of the Underworld. 2 SCIENCE LESSON IDEAS Imagine you are Quetzalcoatl and you have to put the bones you’ve carried back together to make a human. Do you know where each bones goes? Fill in the blanks on our Super Skeleton Sheet and learn the names of some important bones too. Continued on page 2... © storytimemagazine.com 2018 TM Storytime Myths and Legends: The Feathered Serpent God 2 Teaching Resources 3 HISTORY LESSON IDEAS The Aztecs were fascinating. -
Hierarchy in the Representation of Death in Pre- and Post-Conquest Aztec Codices
1 Multilingual Discourses Vol. 1.2 Spring 2014 Tanya Ball The Power of Death: Hierarchy in the Representation of Death in Pre- and Post-Conquest Aztec Codices hrough an examination of Aztec death iconography in pre- and post-Conquest codices of the central valley of Mexico T (Borgia, Mendoza, Florentine, and Telleriano-Remensis), this paper will explore how attitudes towards the Aztec afterlife were linked to questions of hierarchical structure, ritual performance and the preservation of Aztec cosmovision. Particular attention will be paid to the representation of mummy bundles, sacrificial debt- payment and god-impersonator (ixiptla) sacrificial rituals. The scholarship of Alfredo López-Austin on Aztec world preservation through sacrifice will serve as a framework in this analysis of Aztec iconography on death. The transformation of pre-Hispanic traditions of representing death will be traced from these pre- to post-Conquest Mexican codices, in light of processes of guided syncretism as defined by Hugo G. Nutini and Diana Taylor’s work on the performative role that codices play in re-activating the past. These practices will help to reflect on the creation of the modern-day Mexican holiday of Día de los Muertos. Introduction An exploration of the representation of death in Mexica (popularly known as Aztec) pre- and post-Conquest Central Mexican codices is fascinating because it may reveal to us the persistence and transformation of Aztec attitudes towards death and the after-life, which in some cases still persist today in the Mexican holiday Día de Tanya Ball 2 los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. This tradition, which hails back to pre-Columbian times, occurs every November 1st and 2nd to coincide with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ day in the Christian calendar, and honours the spirits of the deceased. -
Knowledge of Skull Base Anatomy and Surgical Implications of Human Sacrifice Among Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican Cultures
See the corresponding retraction, DOI: 10.3171/2018.5.FOCUS12120r, for full details. Neurosurg Focus 33 (2):E1, 2012 Knowledge of skull base anatomy and surgical implications of human sacrifice among pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures RAUL LOPEZ-SERNA, M.D.,1 JUAN LUIS GOMEZ-AMADOR, M.D.,1 JUAN BArgES-COLL, M.D.,1 NICASIO ArrIADA-MENDICOA, M.D.,1 SAMUEL ROMERO-VArgAS, M.D., M.SC.,2 MIGUEL RAMOS-PEEK, M.D.,1 MIGUEL ANGEL CELIS-LOPEZ, M.D.,1 ROGELIO REVUELTA-GUTIErrEZ, M.D.,1 AND LESLY PORTOCArrERO-ORTIZ, M.D., M.SC.3 1Department of Neurosurgery, Instituto Nacional de Neurologia y Neurocirugia “Manuel Velasco Suárez;” 2Department of Spine Surgery, Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación; and 3Department of Neuroendocrinology, Instituto Nacional de Neurologia y Neurocirugia “Manuel Velasco Suárez,” Mexico City, Mexico Human sacrifice became a common cultural trait during the advanced phases of Mesoamerican civilizations. This phenomenon, influenced by complex religious beliefs, included several practices such as decapitation, cranial deformation, and the use of human cranial bones for skull mask manufacturing. Archaeological evidence suggests that all of these practices required specialized knowledge of skull base and upper cervical anatomy. The authors con- ducted a systematic search for information on skull base anatomical and surgical knowledge among Mesoamerican civilizations. A detailed exposition of these results is presented, along with some interesting information extracted from historical documents and pictorial codices to provide a better understanding of skull base surgical practices among these cultures. Paleoforensic evidence from the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan indicates that Aztec priests used a specialized decapitation technique, based on a deep anatomical knowledge. -
Place Names Describing Fossils in Oral Traditions
Place names describing fossils in oral traditions ADRIENNE MAYOR Classics Department, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305 (e-mail: [email protected]) Abstract: Folk explanations of notable geological features, including fossils, are found around the world. Observations of fossil exposures (bones, footprints, etc.) led to place names for rivers, mountains, valleys, mounds, caves, springs, tracks, and other geological and palaeonto- logical sites. Some names describe prehistoric remains and/or refer to traditional interpretations of fossils. This paper presents case studies of fossil-related place names in ancient and modern Europe and China, and Native American examples in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Evidence for the earliest known fossil-related place names comes from ancient Greco-Roman and Chinese literature. The earliest documented fossil-related place name in the New World was preserved in a written text by the Spanish in the sixteenth century. In many instances, fossil geonames are purely descriptive; in others, however, the mythology about a specific fossil locality survives along with the name; in still other cases the geomythology is suggested by recorded traditions about similar palaeontological phenomena. The antiquity and continuity of some fossil-related place names shows that people had observed and speculated about miner- alized traces of extinct life forms long before modern scientific investigations. Traditional place names can reveal heretofore unknown geomyths as well as new geologically-important sites. Traditional folk names for geological features in the Named fossil sites in classical antiquity landscape commonly refer to mythological or and modern Greece legendary stories that accounted for them (Vitaliano 1973). Landmarks notable for conspicuous fossils Evidence for the practice of naming specific fossil have been named descriptively or mythologically locales can be found in classical antiquity. -
God of the Month: Tlaloc
God of the Month: Tlaloc Tlaloc, lord of celestial waters, lightning flashes and hail, patron of land workers, was one of the oldest and most important deities in the Aztec pantheon. Archaeological evidence indicates that he was worshipped in Mesoamerica before the Aztecs even settled in Mexico's central highlands in the 13th century AD. Ceramics depicting a water deity accompanied by serpentine lightning bolts date back to the 1st Tlaloc shown with a jaguar helm. Codex Vaticanus B. century BC in Veracruz, Eastern Mexico. Tlaloc's antiquity as a god is only rivalled by Xiuhtecuhtli the fire lord (also Huehueteotl, old god) whose appearance in history is marked around the last few centuries BC. Tlaloc's main purpose was to send rain to nourish the growing corn and crops. He was able to delay rains or send forth harmful hail, therefore it was very important for the Aztecs to pray to him, and secure his favour for the following agricultural cycle. Read on and discover how crying children, lepers, drowned people, moun- taintops and caves were all important parts of the symbolism surrounding this powerful ancient god... Starting at the very beginning: Tlaloc in Watery Deaths Tamoanchan. Right at the beginning of the world, before the gods were sent down to live on Earth as mortal beings, they Aztecs who died from one of a list of the fol- lived in Tamoanchan, a paradise created by the divine lowing illnesses or incidents were thought to Tlaloc vase. being Ometeotl for his deity children. be sent to the 'earthly paradise' of Tlalocan. -
UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Nahua and Spanish
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Nahua and Spanish Concepts of Health and Disease in Colonial Mexico, 1519-1615 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Rebecca Ann Dufendach 2017 © Copyright by Rebecca Ann Dufendach 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Nahua and Spanish Concepts of Health and Disease in Colonial Mexico, 1519-1615 by Rebecca Ann Dufendach Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor Kevin B. Terraciano, Chair This dissertation uses a wide variety of original historical sources to examine Nahua (Aztec) and Spanish concepts of health and sickness in the sixteenth century, and how both cultures applied these concepts in their attempt to understand the widespread, devastating epidemics that plagued colonial Mexico or New Spain. The Nahuatl and Spanish texts of the Florentine Codex and the Relaciones Geográficas, in addition to several other pictorial and alphabetic writings, abound with information on a topic that is little explored and poorly understood: how did indigenous peoples comprehend and remember the terrible, recurring diseases that wiped out about 90% of their population over the course of a century? How did they associate disease with the arrival of the Spaniards, the conquest, Christianity, and colonial rule? How did they speak and write about these matters? And how did their words on these topics differ from what the Spaniards said? How did Spanish cultural concepts, based on Greek, Roman, -
Aztec Agriculture and Tribute Systems Reaches Its Pinnacle
Agriculture in History 1502-1520: Aztec Agriculture and Tribute Systems Reaches Its Pinnacle The reign of the last preconquest Aztec emperor, Montezuma II, witnessed the culmination of imperial control over the Central Mexican Plateau. The urban capital of Tenochtitlán boasted a dense, socially diverse population, sustained through a unique productive economy and raised-plot agriculture and augmented by tribute from conquered peoples, before it fell to the Spanish. Locale: Tenochtitlán, Aztec Empire (now Mexico City, Mexico) Cateogries: Government and politics; colonization Key figures Montezuma II (1467-1520), Aztec emperor, r. 1502-1520 Ahuitzotl (d. 1503), Aztec emperor, r. 1486-1502, and uncle of Montezuma II Hernán Cortés (1485-1547), Spanish conquistador and conqueror of the Aztecs Summary of Event Montezuma II was the ninth emperor of the Mexica, or Aztec, a militaristic culture that had resided in the Valley of Mexico since the early fourteenth century. Montezuma II inherited the territorial acquisitions, diplomatic alliances, and economic institutions that had evolved under his predecessors. The populations of the Valley of Mexico maintained an uneasy relationship with one another. Political alliances were constructed through marriages and trade networks and functioned to maintain stability. Warfare in earlier centuries was common, as it was under Montezuma II, as individual states attempted to absorb one another. The Aztecs, from their capital city of Tenochtitlán on Lake Texcoco, united in 1428 with the Texcocans and the Tacubans to form the Triple Alliance, a political-military union designed to conquer and extract tribute. When Montezuma II ascended the throne in 1502 the empire was at its zenith. -
Cannibalism and Aztec Human Sacrifice Stephanie Zink May, 2008 a Senior Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Require
CANNIBALISM AND AZTEC HUMAN SACRIFICE STEPHANIE ZINK MAY, 2008 A SENIOR PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN- LA CROSSE Abstract As the nature of Aztec cannibalism is poorly known, this paper examines the extent to which it was practiced and the motives behind it. Using the methodology of documentary research I have determined that the Aztecs did in fact engage in cannibalism, specifically ritual and gustatory cannibalism, however, the extent of it is indefinite. The analysis that I have conducted suggests that, while several hypotheses exist, there is only one that is backed by the evidence: Aztec cannibalism was practiced for religious reasons. In order to better understand this issue, other hypotheses must be examined. 2 Introduction Cannibalism is mostly considered a taboo in western culture, with the exception of sacraments in Christianity, which involve the symbolic eating of the body of Christ and the drinking of Christ’s blood. The general public, in western societies, is disgusted by the thought of humans eating each other, and yet it still seems to fascinate them. Accounts of cannibalism can be found throughout the history of the world from the United States and the Amazon Basin to New Zealand and Indonesia. A few fairly well documented instances of cannibalism include the Aztecs; the Donner Party, a group of pioneers who were trapped while trying to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the winter of 1846-1847; the Uruguayan soccer team that crashed in Chile in 1972 in the Andes Mountains (Hefner, http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/c/cannibalism.html). -
Insights from the Ancient Word: the Use of Colonial Sources in the Study of Aztec Society
This is a repository copy of Insights from the Ancient Word: The use of colonial sources in the study of Aztec society. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/98075/ Version: Accepted Version Book Section: Dodds Pennock, C. (2011) Insights from the Ancient Word: The use of colonial sources in the study of Aztec society. In: Roque, R. and Wagner, K.A., (eds.) Engaging Colonial Knowledge: Reading European Archives in World History. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series . Palgrave Macmillan , Basingstoke , pp. 115-134. ISBN 9780230241985 Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version - refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher’s website. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Insights from the ‘Ancient Word’: The use of colonial sources in the study of Aztec society Caroline Dodds Pennock When the Spanish conquistadors invaded Mexico in 1519, they found themselves confronted with a society who regarded the fundamentals of civilization in an entirely different way.