Aztec Society 

Class structure 

The society traditionally was divided into two social classes; the macehualli (people) or peasantry and the pilli or nobility. Nobility was not originally hereditary, although the sons of pillis had access to better resources and education, so it was easier for them to become pillis. Eventually, this class system took on the aspects of a hereditary system. The Aztec military had an equivalent to military service with a core of professional warriors. An Aztec became a pilli through his abilities in war. Only those that had taken prisoners could become full-time warriors, and eventually the honors and spoils of war would make them pillis. Once an Aztec warrior had captured 4 or 5 captives, he would be called tequiua and could attain a rank of Eagle or Jaguar knight, sometimes translated as "captain", eventually he could reach the rank of tlacateccatl or tlachochcalli. To be elected as tlatoani, one was required to have taken about 17 captives in war. When Aztec boys attained adult age, they stopped cutting their hair until they took their first captive; sometimes two or three youths united to get their first captive; then they would be called iyac. If after certain time, usually three combats, they could not gain a captive, they became macehualli; it was shameful to be a warrior with long hair, indicating lack of captives; one would prefer to be a macehualli. 

The abundance of tributes led to the emergence and rise of a third class that was not part of the traditional Aztec society: pochtecas or traders. Their activities were not only commercial: they also were an effective intelligence gathering force. The warriors, who nonetheless sent to them their spoils of war in exchange for blankets, feathers, slaves, and other presents, scorned them. 

In the later days of the empire, the concept of macehualli also had changed. It is estimated that only 20% of the population was dedicated to agriculture and food production. Most of the macehuallis were dedicated to arts and crafts. 

Slavery 

Slaves or tlacotin (distinct from war captives) also constituted an important class. This slavery was very different from what Europeans of the same period were to establish in their colonies, although it had more in common with the slaves of classical antiquity. First, slavery was personal, not hereditary: a slave's children were free. A slave could have possessions and even own other slaves. Slaves could buy their liberty, and slaves could be set free if they were able to show they had been mistreated or if they had children with or were married to their masters. 

Typically, upon the death of the master, slaves who had performed outstanding services were freed. The rest of the slaves were passed on as part of an inheritance. 

Another rather remarkable method for a slave to recover liberty was if, at the tianquiztli (marketplace; the word has survived into modern-day Spanish as "tianguis"), a slave could escape the vigilance of his or her master, run outside the walls of the market and step on a piece of human excrement, he could then present his case to the judges, who would free him. He or she would then be washed, provided with new clothes (so that he or she would not be wearing clothes belonging to the master), and declared free. Because, in stark contrast to the European colonies, a person could be declared a slave if he or she attempted to prevent the escape of a slave (unless that person were a relative of the master), others would not typically help the master in preventing the slave's escape. 

Orozco y Berra also reports that a master could not sell a slave without the slave's consent, unless the slave had been classified as incorrigible by an authority. (Incorrigibility could be determined on the basis of repeated laziness, attempts to run away, or general bad conduct.) Incorrigible slaves were made to wear a wooden collar, affixed by rings at the back. The collar was not merely a symbol of bad conduct: it was designed to make it harder to run away through a crowd or through narrow spaces. 

When buying a collared slave, one was informed of how many times that slave had been sold. A slave who was sold four times as incorrigible could be sold to be sacrificed. Those slaves commanded a premium in price. However, if a collared slave managed to present him or herself in the royal palace or in a temple, he or she would regain liberty. 

An Aztec could become a slave as a punishment. A murderer sentenced to death could instead, upon the request of the wife of his victim, be given to her as a slave. A father could sell his son into slavery if the son was declared incorrigible by an authority. Those who did not pay their debts could also be sold as slaves. 

People could sell themselves as slaves. They could stay free long enough to enjoy the price of their liberty, about twenty blankets, usually enough for a year; after that time they went to their new master. Usually this was the destiny of gamblers and of old ahuini (courtesans or prostitutes). 

Motolinía reports that some captives, future victims of sacrifice, were treated as slaves with all the rights of an Aztec slave until the time of their sacrifice, but it is not clear how they were kept from running away. 

Recreation 

Although one could drink pulque, a fermented beverage, with an alcoholic content equivalent to beer, getting drunk before the age of 60 was forbidden under penalty of death. 

Like in modern Mexico, the Aztecs had strong passions over a ball game, but this in their case it was tlachtli, the Aztec variant of the ulama game, the ancient ball game of Mesoamerica. The game was played with a ball of solid rubber, about the size of a human head. The ball was called "olli", whence derives the Spanish word for rubber, "hule". The city had two special buildings for the ball games. The players hit the ball with their hips. They had to pass the ball through a stone ring. The fortunate player that could do this had the right to take the blankets of the public, so his victory was followed by general running of the public, with screams and laughter. People used to bet on the results of the game. Poor people could bet their food, pillis could bet their fortunes, tecutlis (lords) could bet their concubines or even their cities, and those who had nothing could bet their freedom and risk becoming slaves. 

Tenochtitlan 

Tenochtitlan covered an area of 8 square kilometers. There is no agreement on the estimated population of the city. Most authorities prefer a conservative 80,000 to 130,000 inhabitants, still bigger than most European cities of the time, surpassed only by Constantinople with about 200,000 inhabitants, Paris with about 185,000, and Venice with about 130,000. Eduardo Noguera estimated 50,000 houses and 300,000 inhabitants. Soustelle gives an estimate of 700,000 people, if the populations of Tlatelolco and the small satellite cities and islets around Tenochtitlan are included. Tlatelolco was originally an independent city, but it became a suburb of Tenochtitlan. 

The city was divided into four zones or campan, each campan was divided on 20 districts (calpullis), and streets or tlaxilcalli crossed each calpulli. There were three main streets that crossed the city and extended to firm land; Bernal Díaz del Castillo reported it was wide enough for ten horses. The calpullis were divided by channels used for transportation, with wood bridges that were removed at night. It was in trying to cross these channels that the Spaniards lost most of the gold they had acquired from Moctezuma. 

Each calpulli had some specialty in arts and craft. When each calpulli offered some celebration, they tried to outdo the other calpullis. Even today, in the south part of Mexico City, the community organizations in charge of church festivities are called "calpullis". 

Each calpulli had its own tianquiztli (marketplace), but there was also a main marketplace in Tlatelolco. Cortés estimated it was twice the size of the city of Seville with about 60,000 people, trading daily, Sahagún give us a more conservative 20,000 daily and 40,000 on feast days. Aztecs had no coins, so most trade was made in goods, but cacao was so appreciated, it was used as an equivalent of coins. Gold had no intrinsic value: it was considered as a raw material for crafts. Gold jewelry had value, but raw gold had little. For the Aztecs, the destruction of objects to get a few pieces of gold was incomprehensible. 

There were also specialized tianquiztli in the small towns around Tenochtitlan. In Chollolan, there were jewels, fine stones, and feathers, in Texcoco there were clothes, in Aculma was the dog market. The Aztecs had three special breeds of dogs with no hair, of which only one survives. They were the tepezcuintli, the itzcuitepotzontli and the xoloizcuintli. These hairless dogs were mainly for eating and also were offerings for sacrifice. The Aztecs also had normal dogs for company. 

In the center of the city were the public buildings, temples and schools. Inside a walled square, 300 meters to a side, was the ceremonial center, there were about 45 public buildings, the main temple, the temple of Quetzalcoatl, the ball game, the tzompantli or rack of skulls, the temple of the sun, the platforms for the gladiatorial sacrifice, and some minor temples. Outside was the palace of Moctezuma, with 100 rooms, each one with its own bath, for the lords and ambassadors of allies and conquered people. Near, also was the cuicalli or house of the songs, and the calmecac. The city had a great symmetry. All constructions had to be approved by the calmimilocatl, a functionary in charge of the city planning. No one could invade the streets and channels. 

The palace of Moctezuma also had two houses or zoos, one for birds of prey and other for other birds, reptiles and mammals. About three hundred people were dedicated to the care of the animals. There was also a botanical garden and an aquarium. The aquarium had ten ponds of salt water and ten ponds of clear water, containing fishes and aquatic birds. Places like this also existed in Texcoco, Chapultepec, Huastepec (now called Oaxtepec) and Tezcutzingo. 

Bernal was amazed to find latrines in private houses and a public latrine in the tianquiztli and main streets. Small boats went through the city collecting garbage; and excrement was collected to be sold as fertilizer. About 1,000 men were dedicated to cleaning the city's streets. 

For public purposes, and to be able to set the pace of official business, trumpets were sounded from the tops of the temples six times a day: at sunrise, later on in the morning, at midday, again in the mid-afternoon, after sunset, and at midnight. 

Although the lake was salty, dams built by the Aztecs kept the city surrounded by clear water from the rivers that fed the lake. Two double aqueducts provided the city with fresh water; this was intended mainly for cleaning and washing. For drinking, water from mountain springs was preferred. Most of the population liked to bathe twice a day; Moctezuma was reported to take four baths a day. As soap they used the root of a plant called copalxocotl (saponaria americana); to clean their clothes they used the root of metl. Also, the upper classes and pregnant women enjoyed the temazcalli, which was similar to a sauna bath and is still used in the south of Mexico; this was also popular in other Mesoamerican cultures. 

Sahagún reports that the city also had beggars (only crippled people were allowed to beg), thieves and prostitutes. At night, in the dark alleys one could find scantily clad ladies with heavy makeup (they also painted their teeth), chewing tzicli (chicle, the original chewing gum) noisily to attract clients. There seem to have been another kind of women, ahuianis, who had sexual relations with warriors. The Spaniards were surprised because they did not charge for their work, so perhaps they had other means of support. 

Education 

Until the age of fourteen, the education of children was in the hands of their parents. There was a collection of sayings, called huehuetlatolli ("The sayings of the old"), that represented the Aztecs' ideals. It included speeches and sayings for every occasion, the words to salute the birth of children, and to say farewell at death. Fathers admonished their daughters to be very clean, but not to use makeup, because they would look like ahuianis. Mothers admonished their daughters to support their husbands, even if they turn out to be humble peasants. Boys were admonished to be humble, obedient and hard workers. 

Male children went to school at age 15. There were two types of educational institutions. The telpochcalli taught history, religion, military fighting arts, and a trade or craft (such as agriculture or handicrafts). The calmecac, attended mostly by the sons of pillis, was focused on turning out leaders (tlatoques), priests, scholars/teachers (tlatimini), and codex painters (tlacuilos). They studied rituals, the reading of the codex, the calendary, songs (poetry), and, as at the telpochcalli, military fighting arts.

Aztec teachers propounded a spartan regime of education – cold baths in the morning, hard work, physical punishment, bleeding with maguey thorns and endurance tests – with the purpose of forming a stoical people. 

There is contradictory information about whether calmecac was reserved for the sons and daughters of the pillis; some accounts said they could choose where to study. It is possible that the common people preferred the tepochcalli, because a warrior could advance more readily by his military abilities; becoming a priest or a tlacuilo was not a way to rise rapidly from a low station. 

Girls were educated in the crafts of home and child raising. They were not taught to read or write. There were also two other opportunities for those few who had talent. Some were chosen for the house of song and dance, and others were chosen for the ball game. Both occupations had high status. 

Diet 

The Aztecs created artificial islands or chinampas on Lake Texcoco, on which they cultivated crops. The Aztecs' staple foods included maize, beans and squash. It is interesting to note that much has been said about a lack of proteins in the Aztec diet, but there is little evidence to support it: a combination of maize and beans provides the full quota of essential amino acids, so there is no need for animal proteins. The Aztecs had a great diversity of maize strains, with a wide range of amino acid content; also, they cultivated amaranth for its seeds, which have a high protein content. More important is that they had a wider variety of foods. They harvested acocils, a small and abundant shrimp of Lake Texcoco, also spirulina algae, which was made into a sort of cake that was rich in flavonoids, and they ate insects, such as crickets (chapulines), maguey worms, ants, larvae, etc. Insects have a higher protein content than meat, and even now they are considered a delicacy in some parts of Mexico. After the Spanish conquest some foods were outlawed, like amaranth, and there was less diversity of food. This led to a chronic malnutrition in the general population. 

They also used maguey extensively; from it they obtain food, sugar (aguamiel), drink (pulque), and fibers for ropes and clothing. Use of cotton and jewelry was restricted to the elite. Cocoa grains were used as money. Subjugated cities paid annual tribute in form of luxury goods like feathers and adorned suits. 

Sacrifices 

For the Europeans, human sacrifice was the most striking feature of Aztec civilization. Human sacrifice was widespread at this time in Mesoamerica and South America (during the Inca Empire), but the Aztecs practiced it on a particularly large scale, sacrificing human victims on each of their 18 festivities. 

Not all sacrifices involved human sacrifice. Most cultures of Mesoamerica gave offerings to the gods and the sacrifice of animals was common, a practice which the Aztecs bred special dogs for. The cult of Queztalcoatl required the sacrifice of butterflies and humming birds. Self-sacrifice was also quite common; people would offer maguey torns, tainted with their own blood. Blood held a central place in Mesoamerican cultures; in one of the creation myths, Quetzalcoatl would offer blood extracted from a wound in his own penis to give life to humanity and there are further several myths, where Nahua gods offer their blood to help humanity. 

In the usual procedure of sacrifice, the victim would be painted with blue chalk (the color of sacrifice) and taken to the top of the great pyramid. Then the victim would be laid on a stone slab, his abdomen ripped open with a ceremonial knife (an obsidian knife could hardly cut through a ribcage) and his heart taken out and raised to the sun. The heart would be put in a bowl held by a statue, and the body thrown on the stairs, where it would be dragged away. The sacrifice was supposed to be voluntary, but if faith was not enough, drugs could be used. Afterwards, the body parts would be disposed of various ways: the viscera were used to feed the animals in the zoo, the head was cleaned and placed on display in the tzompantli, and the rest of the body was either cremated or cut into very small pieces and offered as a gift to important people. Recent evidence also points to removal of muscles and skinning (José Luis Salinas Uribe, INAH, 2005). 

Other kinds of human sacrifice existed, some of them involving torture. In these, the victim could be shot with arrows, burned or drowned. However, compared with European methods of execution, the Aztecs were not very imaginative. 

For the construction of the main temple, the Aztecs reported that they sacrificed about 84,400 prisoners in four days. How a city of 120,000 people could take, accommodate and dispose of that many prisoners is not clear, especially since they reported that Ahuitzotl sacrificed them personally. This translates into about 17 sacrifices per minute over the course of four days. Some scholars believe that it is more probable that only 3,000 sacrifices took place and the death toll was drastically inflated by war propaganda. 

Another figure used is from Bernal Díaz del Castillo, the Spanish soldier who wrote his account of the conquest 50 years after the fact. In the description of the tzompantli, a rack of skulls of the victims in the main temple, he reports to have counted about 100,000 skulls. However, to accommodate that many skulls, the Tzompantli would have had a length of several kilometers, instead of the 30 meters reported. Modern reconstructions account for about 600 to 1,200 skulls. Similarly, Díaz claimed there were 60,000 skulls in the tzompantli of Tlatelolco, which was as important as that of Tenochtitlan. According to William Arens in The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy (1979, ISBN 0195027930), excavations by archeologists found 300 skulls. 

Bernardino de Sahagún, Juan Bautista de Pomar and Motolinía report that the Aztecs had 18 festivities each year. Motolinía and Pomar clearly state that only in those festivities sacrifices were made. Each god required a different kind of victim, young women were drowned for Xilonen, sick male children were sacrificed to Tlaloc (Juan Carlos Román: 2004 Museo del templo mayor), Nahuatl speaking prisoners to Huitzilopochtli, and an Aztec (or simply nahua, acording to some accounts) volunteer for Tezcatlipoca. 

Not all these sacrifices were made at the main temple; a few were made at "Cerro del Peñón", an islet of the Texcoco Lake. According to an Aztec source, in the month of Tlacaxipehualiztli, 34 captives were sacrifice in the gladiatorial sacrifice, to Xipe Totec. A bigger figure would be dedicated to Huitzilopochtli in the month of Panquetzaliztli. This could put a figure as low as 300 to 600 victims a year, but Marvin Harris multiplies it by 20, assuming that the same sacrifices were made in every one of the sections or calpullis of the city. There is little agreement on the actual figure. 

Aztecs waged "flower wars" to capture prisoners for sacrifices they called nextlaualli, "debt payment to the gods" so that the sun could survive each cycle of 52 years. 

It is not known if the Aztecs engaged in human sacrifice before they reached the Anahuac valley and acquired and absorbed other cultures. The first human sacrifice reported by them was dedicated to Xipe Totec a deity from the north of Mesoamerica. Aztec chronicles reported human sacrifice began as an institution in the year "five knives" or 1484 under Tizoc. Under Tlacaelel's guidance, human sacrifice became important part of the Aztec culture, not only because of religious reasons, but also for political reasons. 

As Laurette Séjourné comments, the human sacrifice would also put a strain in the Aztec culture. They admired the Toltec culture, and claimed to be followers of Quetzalcoatl, but the cult of Quetzalcoatl forbids human sacrifice, and as Sejourne points, there were harsh penalties for those who dare to scream or faint during a human sacrifice. 

When Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan, he forbid human sacrifice, so the Spaniards did not witness human sacrifice in the city. 

It is interesting to note that there are no pre-Cortesian representations of human sacrifice, of Aztec origin – all known were depicted several years after the conquest, although the destruction of Aztec codices could explain that. Also, of the two possible witnesses who wrote on human sacrifice, Cortés and Bernal, Cortés wrote on the subject: "it could be that I am mistaken on this relation, since a lot of this had not been seen, except by information of the natives" (Letter to Charles V, 10 July 1519). 

Cannibalism 

While there is universal agreement that the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice, there is a lack of scholarly consensus as to whether they also practiced cannibalism and, if so, to what extent. At one extreme, Materialist anthropologist Marvin Harris, who wrote about cannibalism in Our Kind and Cannibals and Kings has suggested that the flesh of the victims was a part of an aristocratic diet as a reward, since the Aztec diet was lacking in proteins. According to him, the Aztec economy would have been unable to support feeding them as slaves, so the columns of prisoners were "marching meat". At the other extreme, William Arens doubts whether there was ever any systematic cannibalism. 

While most historians of Mesoamerica believe that there was ritual cannibalism related to human sacrifices, they do not support Harris's thesis that human flesh was ever a significant portion of the Aztec diet. 

There is little documentation of Aztec cannibalism. There are only five accounts of cannibalism from the date of the conquest, none of them particularly suggestive of widespread ritual cannibalism, and only one – the Ramírez codex – (equivocally) tying cannibalism to ritual sacrifice. The four specific accounts of cannibalism are: 

Cortés wrote in one of his letters that his soldiers had captured an Aztec who had a roasted baby ready for breakfast.  

Gomarra, reported that during the siege of Tenochtitlan, the Spaniards had asked the Aztecs to surrender since they had no food. The Aztecs answered, asking the Spaniards to try to attack, so they could be taken as prisoners, and then served with "molli" sauce. In the books of Bernardino de Sahagún, there is an illustration of an Aztec being cooked by an unknown tribe. This was reported as one of the dangers that Aztec traders faced. The Ramírez codex, written by an Aztec after the conquest using European characters, reports that after the sacrifices the flesh from the hands of the victim were given as gift to the warrior who made the capture. According to the codex this was supposedly eaten, but was in fact discarded and replaced with turkey.  

In his book "Relación de Juan Bautista Pomar", Juan Bautista de Pomar states that after the sacrifice, the body of the victim was given to the warrior resposible of the capture, he would boil the body to be able to cut small pieces of meat, to be offered as gifts to important people in exchange for presents and slaves, but it was rarely eaten, since they considered it had no value; instead it was replaced by turkey, or just thrown away. It is at least interesting that the one account by an Aztec and the account by a "meztizo" of supposed cannibalism following ritual sacrifice claim that the apparent cannibalism was a sham. This is congruent with the Laurette Séjourné and Miguel León-Portilla's theory that the upper classes were aware that the religion created by Tlacalel was something of a forgery. 

Recent archeological evidence (INAH 2005) in some of the bodies found under the "Catedral Metropolitana", from the basement of Aztec temples, show some cuttings indicating the remotion of muscular masses. Not all the bodies show this treatment. 

Despite this paucity of contemporary sources, accounts of the Aztec Empire as a "Cannibal Kingdom" (Marvin Harris's expression) have been commonplace, from Bernal Díaz to Marvin Harris, William H. Prescott, and Michael Harner. Harner has accused his colleagues – especially those in Mexico – of diminishing or hiding evidence of Aztec cannibalism. The question, of course, is whether such evidence exists to be hidden. Even Díaz (who participated as a soldier in the conquest of Mexico) does not claim to have been an eyewitness to cannibalism. It is possible that Aztec cannibalism was simply a blood libel by the victorious Spanish. 

Dominican priest Diego Durán's Historia de las Indias de Nueva España y islas de tierra firme, while clearly a useful source of information (he had access to the survivors of Tenochtitlan), must be doubted on the subject of human sacrifice. Apparently combining a blood libel against the Aztecs with that against the Jews, he argued that the Aztecs were one of the lost tribes of Israel, and adduced human sacrifice and cannibalism as part of his evidence.