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The Structure of 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; 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 a certain time, usually three combats, they could not gain a captive, they became '' Macehualli ''; their hair would still be quite long, indicating that they had not gotten a captive yet. That was rather shameful. 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. They were scorned by the warriors - who nonetheless sent to them their spoils of war in exchange for blankets, feathers, slaves, and other presents. In the later days of the empire, the concept of ''macehualli'' also had changed. Eduardo Noguera (''Annals of Anthropology'', UNAM, Vol. xi, 1974, p. 56) estimates only 20% of the population was dedicated to agriculture and food production. The ''chinampa'' system of food production was very efficient; it could provide food for about 190,000 people. Also, a significant amount of food was obtained by trade and tribute. The Aztec were not only conquering warriors, but also skilled artisans and aggressive traders. Eventually, most of the ''macehuallis'' were dedicated to arts and crafts. Their works were an important source of income for the city (Sanders, William T., ''Settlement Patterns in Central Mexico. Handbook of Middle American Indians'', 1971, vol. 3, p. 3-44). Excavations of some cities under Aztec rule show that a sizeable number of luxury items were produced in Tenochtitlan. More excavations are needed to show if this was true in other Aztec provinces, but if trade was as important as it seems, this could explain the rise of the Pochteca as a powerful class. 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 much in common with the Slaves Of Classical Antiquity . (Sahagún doubts the appropriateness even of the term "slavery" for this Aztec institution.) 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 described by Manuel Orozco Y Berra in ''La civilización azteca'' (1860): 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. |