Gli aztechi.

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La religione azteca si può definire sincretica, cioè si è sviluppata prendendo elementi da altre religioni di culture mesoamericane. La religione azteca era caratterizzata dal dualismo e dall’opposizione. Il mondo stesso sarebbe nato da un dio duale, maschile e femminile allo stesso tempo, da cui nacquero molti dei, che a loro volta diedero vita alla Terra, al Cielo e al Regno dei morti. The Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) and significant participation of indigenous people in the struggle in many regions, ignited a broad government-sponsored political and cultural movement of indigenismo, with symbols of Mexico's Aztec past becoming ubiquitous, most especially in Mexican muralism of Diego Rivera. [168] [169] Though the Aztecs had superior numbers, their weapons were inferior, and Cortes was able to immediately take Montezuma and his entourage of lords hostage, gaining control of Tenochtitlan. The Spaniards then murdered thousands of Aztec nobles during a ritual dance ceremony, and Montezuma died under uncertain circumstances while in custody.

In the first 50 years after the founding of the Mexica dynasty, the Mexica were a tributary of Azcapotzalco, which had become a major regional power under the ruler Tezozomoc. The Mexica supplied the Tepaneca with warriors for their successful conquest campaigns in the region and received part of the tribute from the conquered city states. In this way, the political standing and economy of Tenochtitlan gradually grew. [36] The Spanish, led by conquistador Hernando Cortés, arrived in what is now Mexico in 1519. They were looking for gold, and the gifts from the Mexica ruler, Motecuhzoma, proved that gold was present. Upon arriving in Tenochtitlan, Cortés took Motecuhzoma prisoner and attempted to rule on his behalf, but this did not go well, and Cortés fled the city in June of 1520.

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Gran parte della scultura era decorativa delle opere monumentali e le grandi costruzioni assieme alla pittura con vividi colori privi di sfumature sempre simbolica che decorava gli edifici esternamente e con affreschi interni seguendone la composizione architettonica. Nei secoli prima dell'arrivo dei conquistatori spagnoli nell'era dell'esplorazione europea, gli Aztechi governavano un potente impero in tutto il Messico centrale. Un aspetto importante dell'Impero azteco e della storia sono le loro credenze e pratiche religiose. La religione azteca include i miti, le credenze e le usanze dell'impero azteco prima della conquista spagnola del Messico. Dopo il XIV secolo, gli Aztechi contattarono le tribù vicine, assorbirono le caratteristiche culturali di ciascuna tribù e impararono dai loro miti, rituali religiosi e credenze. Maffie n.d., sec. 2f, citing Caso 1958; Leon-Portilla 1963, ch. II; H. B. Nicholson 1971, pp. 410–2; and I. Nicholson 1959, pp. 60–3. Song and poetry were highly regarded; there were presentations and poetry contests at most of the Aztec festivals. There were also dramatic presentations that included players, musicians and acrobats. There were several different genres of cuicatl (song): Yaocuicatl was devoted to war and the god(s) of war, Teocuicatl to the gods and creation myths and to adoration of said figures, xochicuicatl to flowers (a symbol of poetry itself and indicative of the highly metaphorical nature of a poetry that often used duality to convey multiple layers of meaning). "Prose" was tlahtolli, also with its different categories and divisions. [115] [116]

Most ethnic groups of central Mexico in the post-classic period shared basic cultural traits of Mesoamerica, and so many of the traits that characterize Aztec culture cannot be said to be exclusive to the Aztecs. For the same reason, the notion of "Aztec civilization" is best understood as a particular horizon of a general Mesoamerican civilization. [4] The culture of central Mexico includes maize cultivation, the social division between nobility ( pipiltin) and commoners ( macehualtin), a pantheon (featuring Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc, and Quetzalcoatl), and the calendric system of a xiuhpohualli of 365days intercalated with a tonalpohualli of 260days. Particular to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan was the patron God Huitzilopochtli, twin pyramids, and the ceramic styles known as AztecI to IV. [5] Lucia, Kristin De (2018). "Style, Memory, and the Production of History: Aztec Pottery and the Materialization of a Toltec Legacy". Current Anthropology. 59 (6): 741–764. doi: 10.1086/700916. ISSN 0011-3204. S2CID 150354407.

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After the fall of the Aztec Empire, entire Nahua communities were subject to forced labor under the encomienda system, the Aztec education system was abolished and replaced by a very limited church education, and Aztec religious practices were forcibly replaced with Catholicism.

The second class were the mācehualtin, originally peasants, but later extended to the lower working classes in general. Eduardo Noguera estimates that in later stages only 20percent of the population was dedicated to agriculture and food production. [55] The other 80percent of society were warriors, artisans and traders. Eventually, most of the mācehuallis were dedicated to arts and crafts. Their works were an important source of income for the city. [56] Macehualtin could become enslaved, (Nahuatl languages: tlacotin) for example if they had to sell themselves into the service of a noble due to debt or poverty, but enslavement was not an inherited status among the Aztecs. Some macehualtin were landless and worked directly for a lord (Nahuatl languages: mayehqueh), whereas the majority of commoners were organized into calpollis which gave them access to land and property. [57] Hassig, Ross (1988). Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. Civilization of the American Indian series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2121-5. OCLC 17106411. Il nome Aztechi però era usato dagli Europei, nella loro lingua, il nahuatl, essi si chiamavano Mexica o Tenochca. Furono chiamati “ Aztechi” dagli Spagnoli per il mitico paese di provenienza “ Aztlán”, che significa “terra del sole”. Il luogo di origine degli Aztechi non è ancora certo: secondo la mitologia azteca essi provenivano da una zona del Messico settentrionale.

Architettura e scultura

Although the form of government is often referred to as an empire, in fact most areas within the empire were organized as city-states, known as altepetl in Nahuatl. These were small polities ruled by a hereditary leader ( tlatoani) from a legitimate noble dynasty. The Early Aztec period was a time of growth and competition among altepetl. Even after the confederation of the Triple Alliance was formed in 1427 and began its expansion through conquest, the altepetl remained the dominant form of organization at the local level. The efficient role of the altepetl as a regional political unit was largely responsible for the success of the empire's hegemonic form of control. [67] Economy [ edit ] Agriculture and subsistence [ edit ] Cultivation of maize, the main foodstuff, using simple tools. Florentine Codex Spanish friars also produced documentation in chronicles and other types of accounts. Of key importance is Toribio de Benavente Motolinia, one of the first twelve Franciscans arriving in Mexico in 1524. Another Franciscan of great importance was Fray Juan de Torquemada, author of Monarquia Indiana. Dominican Diego Durán also wrote extensively about pre-Hispanic religion as well as a history of the Mexica. [26] An invaluable source of information about many aspects of Aztec religious thought, political and social structure, as well as history of the Spanish conquest from the Mexica viewpoint is the Florentine Codex. Produced between 1545 and 1576 in the form of an ethnographic encyclopedia written bilingually in Spanish and Nahuatl, by Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún and indigenous informants and scribes, it contains knowledge about many aspects of precolonial society from religion, calendrics, botany, zoology, trades and crafts and history. [27] [28] Another source of knowledge is the cultures and customs of the contemporary Nahuatl speakers who can often provide insights into what prehispanic ways of life may have been like. Scholarly study of Aztec civilization is most often based on scientific and multidisciplinary methodologies, combining archeological knowledge with ethnohistorical and ethnographic information. [29] Central Mexico in the classic and postclassic [ edit ] The Valley of Mexico with the locations of the main city states in 1519

There are few extant Aztec painted books. Of these, none are conclusively confirmed to have been created before the conquest, but several codices must have been painted either right before the conquest or very soon after– before traditions for producing them were much disturbed. Even if some codices may have been produced after the conquest, there is good reason to think that they may have been copied from pre-Columbian originals by scribes. The Codex Borbonicus is considered by some to be the only extant Aztec codex produced before the conquest– it is a calendric codex describing the day and month counts indicating the patron deities of the different time periods. [26] Others consider it to have stylistic traits suggesting a post-conquest production. [126] When the International Congress of Americanists was formed in Nancy, France in 1875, Mexican scholars became active participants, and Mexico City has hosted the biennial multidisciplinary meeting six times, starting in 1895. Mexico's ancient civilizations have continued to be the focus of major scholarly investigations by Mexican and international scholars. When New Spain achieved independence in 1821 and became a monarchy, the First Mexican Empire, its flag had the traditional Aztec eagle on a nopal cactus. The eagle had a crown, symbolizing the new Mexican monarchy. When Mexico became a republic after the overthrow of the first monarch Agustín de Iturbide in 1822, the flag was revised showing the eagle with no crown. In the 1860s, when the French established the Second Mexican Empire under Maximilian of Habsburg, the Mexican flag retained the emblematic eagle and cactus, with elaborate symbols of monarchy. After the defeat of the French and their Mexican collaborators, the Mexican Republic was re-established, and the flag returned to its republican simplicity. [163] This emblem has also been adopted as Mexico's national coat of arms, and is emblazoned on official buildings, seals, and signs. [161]Cáceres-Lorenzo, M.T. (2015). "Diffusion trends and Nahuatlisms of American Spanish: Evidence from dialectal vocabularies". Dialectologia et Geolinguistica. 23 (1): 50–67. doi: 10.1515/dialect-2015-0004. hdl: 10553/43280. S2CID 151429590. Berdan, Frances (1982). The Aztecs of Central Mexico: An Imperial Society. Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. ISBN 978-0-03-055736-1. OCLC 7795704. A 260-day ritual calendar was used by Aztec priests for divination, alongside a 365-day solarcalendar. At their central temple in Tenochtitlan, Templo Mayor, the Aztecs practiced both bloodletting (offering one’s own blood) and human sacrifice as part of their religious practices. The Spanish reaction to Aztec religious practices is believed to be partially responsible for the violence of the Spanish conquest.