26 CHAPTER 1 ANCIENT AMERICA
populations, and other integrative policies. Re-
cently, however, it has been argued that rather
than being inferior, the Aztec imperial system
represented an alternative—but no less effi cient—
approach to the problem of extracting surplus from
tributary peoples at a minimal administrative and
military cost. The Aztec army mobilized only for
further conquests and the suppression of rebel-
lions. By leaving the defeated regimes in place and
avoiding direct territorial control, the Aztec state
was spared the expense, which was inherent in a
more integrated empire, of maintaining provincial
administrations, standing armies, permanent gar-
risons, and fortifi cations.
AZTEC CULTURE AND SOCIETY
The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán had a population
that was estimated to be between 150,000 and
200,000. Like Venice, the city was an oval island
connected to the mainland by three causeways
that converged at the center of the city and served
as its main arteries of traffi c. Instead of streets,
numerous canals that thronged with canoes and
were bordered by footpaths provided access to the
thousands of houses that lined their sides. An aq-
ueduct in solid masonry brought fresh water from
the mountain springs of Chapultepec.
On the outlying chinampas, the Aztec farmers,
who paddled their produce to town in tiny dugouts,
lived in huts with thatched roofs resting on walls
of wattle smeared with mud. Inside each hut were
a three-legged metate (grinding stone), a few mats
that served as beds and seats, some pottery, and lit-
tle more. The majority of the population—artisans,
priests, civil servants, soldiers, and entertainers—
lived in more imposing houses. Built of adobe or a
reddishtezontli lava, they were always lime-washed
and painted to give them a more spruce appearance.
Far more pretentious than most were the houses of
calpulli leaders, merchants, and nobles.
As in housing, Aztec clothing differed accord-
ing to the individual’s economic and social status.
For men, the essential garments were a loincloth
with broad fl aps at the front and back, usually dec-
orated with fringes and tassels as well as embroi-
dery work, and a blanket about two yards by one
yard in size. This blanket hung under the left arm
and was knotted on the right shoulder. Common-
ers wore plain blankets of maguey fi ber or coarse
cotton; rich merchants and nobles displayed very
elaborate cotton mantles that were adorned with
symbolic designs. Women wore shifts, wraparound
skirts of white cotton tied with a narrow belt, and
loose, short-sleeved tunics. Both shifts and tunics
were decorated with vivid embroidery. Men wore
sandals of leather or woven maguey fi ber; women
went barefoot.
As with dress, so it was with food: wealth and
social position determined its abundance and va-
riety. The fare of the ordinary Aztec consisted of
ground maize meal, beans, and vegetables cooked
with chili. Meat was rarely seen on the commoner’s
table, but on festive occasions, dog meat might be
served. It was different with the nobility: a native
account of the foods eaten by the lords mentions
many varieties of tortillas and tamales, roast tur-
key hen, roast quail, turkey with a sauce of small
chilies, tomatoes, and ground squash seeds, veni-
son sprinkled with seeds, many kinds of fi sh and
fruits, and such delicacies as maguey grubs with
a sauce of small chilies, winged ants with savory
herbs, and rats with sauce. They fi nished their re-
past with chocolate, a divine beverage that was
forbidden to commoners.
Education among the Aztecs was highly for-
mal and served the dual purpose of preparing
boys and girls for their duties in the world and
indoctrinating them with Aztec ideals. Boys were
sent to school at the age of ten or twelve. Sons of
commoners, merchants, and artisans attended
theTelpochcalli (House of Youth), where they re-
ceived instruction in religion, good usage, and the
art of war. The Calmecac (Priests’ House), a school
of higher learning, was reserved in principle for
the sons of the nobility, but some children of mer-
chants and commoners were also admitted. Here,
in addition to ordinary training, students received
instruction that prepared them to be priests, public
offi cials, and military leaders. The curriculum in-
cluded what we would today call rhetoric, or a no-
ble manner of speaking, the study of religious and
philosophical doctrines as revealed in the divine
songs of the sacred books, the arts of chronology