THE AZTECS OF MEXICO 27
and astrology, and training in history through the
study of the Xiuhamatl(Books of the Years). The tla-
matinime (sages) who taught in the Aztec schools
were also concerned with the formation of “a true
face and heart,” the striking Nahuatl metaphor for
personality. Self-restraint, moderation, devotion
to duty, a stoic awareness that “life is short and
fi lled with hardships, and all comes to an end,” an
impeccable civility, and modesty were among the
qualities and concepts that the Aztec sages instilled
in their charges.
Girls had special schools where they were
taught such temple duties as sweeping, offering
incense three times during the night, and prepar-
ing food for the idols; weaving and other wom-
anly tasks; and general preparation for marriage.
Education for men usually terminated at the age of
twenty or twenty-two, and for girls, at sixteen or
seventeen—also the ages at which marriage was
contracted. The development of Aztec militarism
may have led to some decline in women’s status,
and the Aztec “speeches of the elders” warned the
wife that “your obligation is to obey your husband.
You are to make the beverage, the food for him,
and his shirt, his cape, his breeches.” The model
wife was represented as a diligent housewife and
a mother dedicated to the careful raising of her
children. But in some respects, the status of Aztec
women was complementary rather than subordi-
nate to that of men. Childbirth, for example, was
symbolically compared to warfare: successful de-
livery was equated with the taking of a prisoner,
and death in childbirth was equivalent to being
killed in battle. For the rest, Aztec women worked
as doctors, artisans, merchants, and priests.
In a society with such a complex economic
and social life, disputes and aggressions inevitably
arose and necessitated the development of an elab-
orate legal code. A hierarchy of courts was topped
by two high tribunals that met in the royal palace
in Tenochtitlán. The punishments of the Aztecs
were severe. Death was the penalty for murder, re-
bellion, wearing the clothes of the other sex, and
adultery; theft was punished by slavery for the fi rst
offense, by hanging for the second.
Economic life in Aztec Mexico rested on a base
of intensive and extensive agriculture. Intensive
irrigation was practiced in areas with reliable wa-
ter sources; its most notable form was that of the
chinampas. Slash-and-burn cultivation, with fi eld
rotation, was the rule in other areas, but maize and
beans were the principal crops in almost every area.
In the absence of large, domesticated animals as a
source of manure, “night soil” (human waste) was
regularly used as fertilizer in chinampa agriculture
in the Valley of Mexico. To prevent contamina-
tion of the valley’s two freshwater lakes by fl ows
of water from the saline ones that were harmful to
chinampa agriculture and to maintain the fairly
constant water level that it required, an elaborate
system of dikes, canals, and aqueducts began to be
constructed during the reign of King Itzcoatl. This
led to the creation of large chinampa areas that
produced foodstuffs for Tenochtitlán. Productive
as they were, however, it is estimated that they ac-
counted for only 5 percent of the city’s subsistence
needs, and their expansion was limited by the sa-
linity of the remaining lakes. For the balance of its
food needs, therefore, Tenochtitlán had to rely on
imports obtained by way of tribute and trade. An
elaborate, state-controlled trade and transporta-
tion network, based on regional and metropolitan
markets, the tlameme(professional carrier) system
of portage, and an effi cient canoe traffi c that linked
the entire lake system of the Valley of Mexico, fun-
neled a vast quantity of foodstuffs and other bulk
goods into Tenochtitlán. Manufactured goods were
then exported from Tenochtitlán to its hinterlands,
forming a core-periphery relationship.
The vast scale on which the exchange of goods
and services was carried on in the great market of
Tenochtitlán aroused the astonishment of the con-
quistador Cortés, who gave a detailed account of
its immense activity. “Each kind of merchandise is
sold in its respective street,” he wrote, “and they
do not mix their kinds of merchandise of any spe-
cies; thus they preserve perfect order.” The Az-
tecs lacked a unitary system of money, but cacao
beans, cotton mantles, quills fi lled with gold dust,
and small copper axes were assigned standard-
ized values and supplemented a barter system of
exchange. The Aztecs had no scales; goods were
sold by count and measure. The market was pa-
trolled by offi cials who checked on the fairness of