ethnographic research in 1533. Box 6.1 provides an example of one of these calen-
drical codices from the Colonial period.
The Codex Mendoza,thought to have been commissioned in the early 1540s by the
colony’s first viceroy, is one of the most beautiful and informative of colonial codices
(Figure 6.11). Illustrated by a master artist and glossed in Spanish by a priest, the
codex comprises three parts. The first two are pre-Columbian in style and based on
earlier documents: One is a history of the Mexica rulers and their conquests, the
second is a catalog of all the tribute those rulers demanded from each of their sub-
ject provinces. Such information was of obvious value to Spaniards wanting to know
what riches they could wrest from their new territories.
The third section is unique. It deals with the life of the Mexica (Aztec) people:
the upbringing of male and female children from birth to marriage (Figure 6.12),
the different professions for young men, the military and the priesthood with their
various ranks, the conducting of warfare, and the operation of the courts of law and
the royal palace. To create this pictorial ethnography, the artist had, in a sense, to
stand outside his own culture and look at it analytically, to play the role of interpreter
between his own people and the foreigners who now ruled over them. The portrait232 UNIT 2 COLONIAL MESOAMERICA
Figure 6.8 A native artist’s map of the Nahua town of Tetlistaca, painted in 1581 in response
to a royal questionnaire. Tetlistaca and three subject communities are represented by their
churches; their names are given in alphabetic and glyphic form. Footprints mark the routes
from the outlying settlements to the main town square. The local vegetation is depicted in
native style, showing the roots (see also Figure 12.15). Photo courtesy of the Nettie Lee Benson
Latin American Collection, The University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.