The Aztecs

List of Figures x
 
List of Tables xiv
 
Preface xv
 
Guide to Pronunciation and Spelling xviii
 
1 The Aztecs of Mesoamerica 1
 
Who Were the Aztecs? 3
 
Mesoamerican Context 5
 
The Aztec Environment 7
 
Sources of Information 12
 
Ethnohistory 13
 
Archaeology 20
 
Art History 27
 
Aztec Studies Today 28
 
2 The Rise of Aztec Civilization 30
 
Timetables 31
 
Pre-Aztec Civilizations 33
 
The Aztlan Migrations 36
 
Toltecs, Chichimecs, and Aztec Identity 39
 
The Growth of City-States: The Early Aztec Period 40
 
Tenochtitlan and Empire: The Late Aztec Period 46
 
3 People on the Landscape 60
 
How Many Aztecs? 61
 
The Aztec Diet 65
 
Farming Systems 69
 
Rural Settlement 77
 
The Rural Landscape 81
 
4 Artisans and their Wares 82
 
Utilitarian Crafts 82
 
Luxury Crafts 94
 
Otumba: An Aztec Craft Center 103
 
5 The Commercial Economy 108
 
Marketplaces 109
 
Money 116
 
Material Evidence for Aztec Commerce 119
 
A Complex Economy 124
 
6 Family and Social Class 127
 
Growing up Aztec 128
 
Adult Life and Social Roles 131
 
Social Classes 134
 
Commoners 135
 
Nobles and their Palaces 143
 
7 City-State and Empire 152
 
City-States 153
 
Relations Among City-States 159
 
The Empire of the Triple Alliance 163
 
Imperial Strategies and Control 165
 
Mexica Propaganda and the Limits of Empire 177
 
8 Cities and Urban Planning 179
 
City-State Capitals 180
 
Provincial Cities and Towns 184
 
Tenochtitlan 189
 
9 Creation, Death, and the Gods 197
 
Myths of Creation 198
 
Aztec Religion: Historical Background 201
 
The Gods 204
 
Death, Burial, and the Afterlife 211
 
10 Temples and

Michael E. Smith is Professor of Anthropology in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University . He has directed excavations at numerous Aztec sites and is co-editor (with Marilyn Masson) of The Ancient Civilizations of Mesoamerica: A Reader, (Blackwell, 1999) and author of Aztec City-State Capitals (2008)