Sum ting wong

Anthropologist – A scientific study of a specific place, the places behavior and the physical, social, and cultural development of the humans there.

Archeologist - A person who studies ancient people and their culture.

Economist - A person who studies an economy.

Historian - An expert when it comes to history.

Linguist - A person who studies ancient writing and language.

Theologian - A study of marvelous and religious things.

Essential Questions: Throughout your journey, keep in mind what you want to inform the world about the Aztecs:

1. Who are the Aztecs?

2. What made them a civilization?

3. Is there evidence today of Aztec influence?

Step 1: Journey to a New Land
Where did the Aztecs originally live?

The Aztecs lived in Atzlan, which was in north/west Mexico, but they were wild and nasty so they got ‘kicked out’ of there.

What prompted them to relocate?

They were kicked out of Atzlan and Huitzilopochtli (the main god) appeared to one of the priests in a dream and told him to go to a place with a cactus an eagle and a snake.

Where did they end up and why?

The Aztecs ended up in the middle of a lake on an island infested with snakes, this is because the beautiful area surrounding the lake was already taken and the lake had a cactus, an eagle and lots of snakes, just like the priests dream.
Chose an artifact, which you feel best, represents this event. Support your choice.

Step 2: Tenochtitlan
The Aztecs ended up in the middle of a lake and built their new capital Tenochtitlan.
What were the pros and cons of settling in the middle of a lake?
A con is that they all lived on little islands made of piling up black sticky mud, leaves, etc.; another con is that eventually the whole area was made up of those little islands. A pro for living in the middle of a lake is that it is hard for invading cities to attack, they could use their canals as defense systems, and finally the Aztecs could grow crops at all times of the year because they used something called irrigation.

Describe the lay of the land and chose an image for your exhibit.

Step 3: Polytheism
Which gods were worshiped? The pyramids were built for what purpose?
Huitzilopochtli was the sun god (that they also used in war) and was the main god and the most prayed to him, but some also prayed to the forces of nature, for they were thought to be gods. In addition to those Tezcatlipoca was the god of the Great Bear constellation and of the night sky,
Quetzalcoatl was the god of morning and the evening star, Tlaloc was the eighth ruler of the days and the ninth lord of the nights, Chalchiunhetlice was the god of the fourth Sun, Chalchiunhetlice, was previously a water goddess. The enormous pyramids that the Aztecs built were built to be sacrificial places where you could worship the gods.

Step 4: Social Order
Who are the different members of Aztec society?
Nobility (high class), commoners (medium class), and slaves (low class)
What are their roles?
Slaves: Had to work the crops, had to be ruled, and were extremely low class, etc. (they were just like slaves in most ancient civilizations
Commoners: occupied in agriculture and in most of the trades and farmed in groups.
Nobility: The nobles chose a supreme leader and are made up of people who have earned it, priests, and nobles by birth.

Choose an artifact that represents the social order of Aztec society.

Step 5: Communication
The Aztecs have a spoken language. What was it called?
Did they use any other forms of communication?
Include an example of either written or visual language of the Aztecs.
The Aztecs spoke a language called Nahuatl. The language is believed to have come from the Mixtec writing system and is similarly logographic; it is also believed to have come from many other Indian languages. This language they spoke didn’t use Letter words when written out; it used pictographs (or glyphs). The only other way they communicated was simply just spoken out. Pictographs are pictures that could singly state a whole sentence, or could even tell whole stories. None of the common people or slaves could read or write

Step 6: Economy
How did the Aztecs grow food and what was their main crop?
Did they trade and with whom?
Did they have a currency (money)?
Find an image for your exhibit about making a living Aztec style.
The Aztecs grew their crops by first creating terraces. By doing this, their crops were kept unharmed by floods. The Aztecs also used a technique called the slash and burn method, just like many other civilizations. The second thing they did for crops was they made Chinampas, manmade islands, so they could farm on the lake. They used to weave big reed mats, and cover them with mud and plants. The Chinampas would be anchored in place by tree and plant roots. By doing things like this, the Aztecs managed to grow many crops such as corn, chili peppers, tomatoes, squash, beans, and other very similar foods; however, like the Maya the Aztec’s main crop was corn.
The Aztecs did in fact trade. They traded within there fellow Aztecs. To do this they built canals to make it easier to transport goods.
In the Aztec Empire Cacao beans were used as their money to by items from the markets and etc.

Step 7: Arrival of the Spanish
Discuss the Impact of Spanish Contact 1519 from both the Aztec point of view and the Spanish point of view. Find an image depicting this event.
When the Spanish arrived at the main part of the Aztec empire it was at its climax. The Aztecs believed that Hernan Cortes was one of the gods named Quetzalcoatl, this is because in the previous days signs had predicted a god was coming to earth. A woman named Dona Maria helped Hernan Cortes. They worshiped him in the start but then they realized that the Spanish wanted to rule over the Aztec empire (and the Aztec ruler had given Hernan the crown) so the Spanish began to kill people off and steal there gold. After the Spanish had gotten everything they could out of the Aztecs they then left to go conquer pretty much the rest of Mexico.

Step 8: Fall of the Empire
Discuss La Malinche or Dona Marina. Debate her positive/negative impact on Mexico past and present. What does the term Mestizo refer to? What influences remain today from Aztec.
La Malinche is the name she got from the Aztecs, or Dona Marina, as she’s named in Europe, was an interpreter (of language). She could convert Nahuatl into Mayan, and then Jeronimo de Aguilar was able to convert Mayan into Spanish for Cortes. This also worked the other way around. A lot of Mexicans believed Dona was a traitor to the Aztecs, even though she helped Mexico in more ways than one.
Some of the positive influences Dona had on Mexico is that she saved loads of people by making it possible to negotiate with Cortes, instead of him just killing people for no reason. She also helped the Spaniards to try to stop the horrific human sacrifices and even stopped them with the cannibalism.
The biggest negative impact that Dona Marina created was that she helped Cortes negotiate with the Tlascalans, creating an extremely strong joint union. This gave the Spaniards thousands of more warriors to fight with, making it easy for the Spaniards to take over the Aztecs.