Mexico People & Cult Test 1

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5 Major Geographical Regions

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1. The Pacific Northwest- consisting of the northwestern edge of the main land mass plus the Baja California Peninsula
2. The Large Central Plateau- extending southward down the center of the country and including the Sierra Madre ranges
3. The Lowlands of the Gulf Coast and Yucatan Peninsula
4. Central Mexico- occupying the transverse volcanic range at the southern end of the Central Plateau
5. The Highlands to the South of that Region

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7 States of Central Mexico

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1. Guerrero
2. Mexico
3. Morelos
4. Hidalgo
5. Tlaxcala
6. Puebla
7. Veracruz
& the Federal district which includes Mexico city

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Human Population

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-Total population: 112,336,538
-Most populated state: Mexico (15,176,000)
-Over 3/4 of the population living in urban areas
Median age: 26
indigenous population: 15,700,000. 13.5% (11th largest indigenous population)
-Distribution of Indigenous populations by state: Oaxaca, Yucatan & Chiapas
-Population speaking indigenous languages: 6,695,228
-most spoken indigenous language in Mexico: Nuhuatl

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Early Humans in Mesoamerica

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Migrated from Asia across the Bering Strait about 50,000 years ago

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Mesoamerica

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A distinct cultural region inhabited by a large set of loosely related ethnic groups who share important cultural practices:
1. set of crops they depended upon
2. spiritual principles they venerated
3. the way they farmed and built their houses

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Mesoamerica time periods

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Flexible divisions and the labels have been contested. They are best taught as chronological:
1. Pre-Classic (1500 BC- AD 150) also referred to as the Formative period (mesoamerican populations are going to develop more intesive agricultural techniques, begin to govern societies, emergence of urban societies, regional governments become highly segmented)
2. Classic period (AD 150-900) (rise of the major Mesoamerican civilizations, widespread literacy, use of sophisticated numerical and writing systems, religious beliefs)
3. Post Classic period (AD 900-1519) (significant developments among Zapotecs)

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Ancient Civilizations of Mesoameria

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• OLMEC; PRE-CLASSIC OR FORMATIVE (located in the heartland in the Southeastern coastal area)
• TEOTIHUACAN; CLASSIC ( central highlands)
• ZAPOTEC; CLASSIC (Oaxaca)
• MAYA; CLASSIC & POST CLASSIC (Maya Region)
• AZTEC; POST-CLASSIC ( Central Highlands)

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Mayan southern lowland cities either collapsed or abandoned at the End of Classic period. The possible causes:

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-natural disasters
-supernatural signs
-crop failures
-diseases and wars
-problems of both overpopulation and environmental degradation

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Unraveling Mexica culture: a note on methods

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-The Mexica civilization was abruptly terminated by Spanish conquistadors in 1521
-3 methods anthropologists used for unraveling this culture lost in time:
1. ethnohistory
2. arcahaeology
3. ethnographic analogy

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3 methods used to uncover culture of Mexica (in depth)

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1. Ethnohistory
-relies heavily on historical documents like pictorial manuscripts (called codices) to Spanish conquest, administrative, judicial and religious records to native language documents dealing w/ a wide range of affairs from tax records to wills & private letters.
-Advantages of historical records: Richness in detail
-Disadvantage: Bias, doc may be purposefully manipulated to serve an individual/group, ethnocentrism (belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group), and omission
2. Archaeology- Advantages-allows an understanding of changes over long time period & focuses on physical remains. Disadvantages- Materials are perishable, information is selective, site destruction & access, and costs
3. Ethnographic Analogy-many native customs continued to the present day (many in modified form), the living speakers offer us spoken linguistic info that are unavailable in other sources

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Example of ethnographic analogy

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Ancient Aztecs tending to Chinampas which are gardens used to cultivate-kept in place by roots and trees planted around the boarders
-key to food production

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Classic Features of Civilization States

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-monumental public constructions and urban planning
-sophisticated irrigation agriculture (chinampas)
-occupational specialization (complimented w/ many exchange mechanisms including markets, foreign trade)
-exchange mechanisms
-control over the production and allocation of critical resources exercised by political city-states
-Polytheistic religions reflected both
--cultural heterogeneity (thru numerous specialized & patron deities)
--hierarchical principles of organization (thru the ranking of deities & their public servants, the priests)
-Warfare & conquest
--notion of triple alliance is crucial)

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Aztec Empire 2 historical phases

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1st Phase 1325-1428
-Adaptation to existing patterns
-Mexica were subject to forces already at play, and they adapted to existing patterns
Phase 2 1428-1519
-they took an aggressive, imperial position, actively shaping and directing the course of history of much of Mesoamerica
-accomplished much, slowly establised alliances w/ major basin cities, use marriages to seal alliances, allow Mexico rules to claim

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Human Sacrifice

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-Religious or idealization explanation
• Places motivations behind sacrifices and
cannibalism in the Aztec symbolic and
beliefs system
• Belief systems as prime mover of behavior
-also cultural predisposition
Materialist explanation:
--counter argument against religious explanation, ecological approach belief system was not a good explanation that could be enough to explain how a society could create customs such as sacrifice/cannibalizes
-had to do this because of dietary deficiency (proteins & fats) the population was increasing and the people were reusing their resources thru sacrifice. Only high ranking persons could consume human flesh-argues that this was an incentive for greater efforts on the battle field
• Whichever explanation is ultimately best
supported – ideational, materialistic,
demographic/political
• Politics, warfare, and human sacrifice all
had a profound impact on every Mexica’s
life
• Each of these areas were supported by
intense religious beliefs and demands
Religion penetrated every aspect of
Mexica life profoundly

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Fall of Aztec empire

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1521
-conquistadors-Hernan Cortez & Bernal Diaz del Castillo
-Spanish succeeded with little men b.c.
--obsession w/ gold
--element of trickery
--cut off food and water supply and siege the city which was not how the Aztecws were used to waging warfare
--Aztecs goal was to capture unlike the Spanish who were out to kill
-Technology (thick armor, steal swords, cannons, muskets)
-Military-goals and tactics
-Loose structure of Aztec empire-alliance

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La Malinche

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aka Malintzin, Malinalli, Dona Marina
-cortes's lover
-ambiguous figure because seen as a trader to her own land/country

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Combination of 2 abilities among Cortes's crew

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the expertise of sailors and that of horsemen

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Cortes

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the leader of a dream of gold, often described as a very cultivated man
-excellent horseman, good in the use of arms and a womanizer
-financed his own expedition
-through Aztec women given to Cortez he was able to communicate (speech used a weapon)

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Montezuma

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ruler of Tenochtitlan

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Gifts presented to Montezuma's ambassadors

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Cortes offered them green-tinted glass beads..cuentas verdes...color jade had a lot of meaning to the Indians--in exchange gave them gold

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3 factors at the basis of Spanish success in conquest of the Aztecs

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1. technology
2. military tactics & goals
3. the loose structure of the Aztec Empire

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Demography

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• devastating decline in native population
• indigenous population of Central Mexico estimated at 12 to 15 million at the time of conquest
• just over 1 million at the beginning of the 17th century
Cause:
-European epidemic diseases -famine
- dislocation
-overwork on Spanish estates & mines
- warfare

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Smallpox

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-Most fearsome ally of the Europeans in the reconquest of Tenochtitlan
-Often spread intentionally by Spanish soldiers using contaminated rags
• 1545 – must have caused close to 800,000 deaths
• Decisive weapon in the conquest of Yucatan and central America

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Economy

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• economy of Aztec Mexico based primarily on agriculture
• agrarian production system
• Spaniards added technologies, foodstuffs, goals, and institutions novel to the Indian way of life
• introduction of both livestock and Spanish crops
• reduction of the area allotted to traditional Indian maize cultivation
• Indian labor diverted from traditional cultivation through the encomienda system
Dual economy
• indigenous subsistence economy geared toward Indian consumption
• Spanish import-export economy
supporting a more elevated Spanish
standard of living

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Ecomienda

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• Grants of native labor to prviledged
Conflicts between the crown and the settlers often revolved around the institution of the ecomienda. It consisted of grants of native labor to privileged Spanish colonists
• Grants did not allocate land
• Only rights to the tribute and labor of specified native groups

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Goals of Urbanization

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-Spaniards created hundreds of cities and towns
-on or near established indigenous sites
- in newly conquered lands beyond the limits of the former Aztec empire
-Assure military & political control of the vast region i.e. New Spain
-create a system for exploiting its human, mineral and agricultural resources for the benefit of the home country (also a counter flow from Spain to Mexico of immigrants)
-Urban system and install parallel administrative system implement this on the tribal city states

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Political Life
define Viceroy

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-Dissolution of the Aztec State & empire
-Highest levels of political administration now occupied by Spanish officials
--Viceroy (most important/powerful figure)
--Members of the royal audiencia
--treasury officials
--variety of lesser bureaucrats

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Cabecera & Sujeto

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status awarded to a community with a well-entrenched native ruler (tlatoani)
-as a tlatoani's capital, a cabecera was the "head town" of a region with a number of sujietos (subjects or tribute-paying depended settlements under its jurisdiction)
- cabecera-sujeto relationship defined dominant-subordinate relations and fixed tribute obligations
-political affairs of each cabecera were directed by a governor and council
-often the governor was also the local tlatoani
-became increasingly common for the governor to be a diff person from the tlatoani
-thus undermining the tlatoani's rule/control

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Tlatoani

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native ruler

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Religion

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-Public worship of Aztec deities was forcibly suppressed following conquest
-Central Aztec themes of warfare & sacrifice were destroyed
-Aztecs werre faced w/ a sudden rupture in their belief system
-Alternative they faced was Christianity

Irreconcilable differences
-Christianity was a monotheistic proselytizing religion
-Aztec religion was polytheistic and tended to absorb, rather than to reject, foreign deities

Similarities
-RItes of baptism and confession (in Aztec belif a person could only confess once in their life)
-Notion of virgin birth (Guadalupe)

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Virgin de Guadalupe

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1531 Juan Diego an Indian, reported seeing a dark skinned virgin on a hill. Indian in appearance and requested a church b built on that very stop. Indigenous in apearance and not really matching description of Aztec goddess at first
-Dec 12 holiday--rebirth and new beginning. People go to the place where the church was built

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Social Stratification

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evolving social stratification system which has shaped its politics,
economics, and racial-ethnic relations.
• Especially important is transition from; legally defined, hereditary estate system to the more fluid class structures of the present day
Estate strat & Class strat are not equal

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Estates vs Class stratification

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Class- relatively fluid aggregates, with memberships that is not stricly inherited
Estates- legally defined strata, each associated with particular occupations and each having its own enforceable (as well as customary) rights, privileges and duties.
-characteristics-
--membership is typically inherited
--marriage is larely endogamous
--estates are unequal before the law
--nobility & commonality are the basic building blocks of state stratification

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3 Racial estates of the 16th century

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1. Spaniards (and other Europeans)
2. Indians
3. Afro-Mexicans

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Present Social Classes of Central Mexico

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upper stratum < 1%
Middle Stratum 32-40%
Urban lower class 55-65%

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Plutocracy

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Mexico's present ruling class exerts a strong, determinative behind-the-scens influence w/o hold formal political position
• Arose from middle class after revolution
•Became wealthy in manufacturing, commerce, and finance rather than aristrocracies enterprise
•1980s, new plutocracy displaced the aristocracy as the dominant class of the country’s superordinate social stratum
•Several political shifts
o Central gov in 90’s dropped post revolutionary reteric
o Move towards neo-liberal
o Plutocracy wealth increase greatly
Carlos Slim Helu & family (telecommunications)

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The Political class

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upper stratum
present and former political officeholders and the most influential members of this class have held high federal offices in Mexico City
-always been small

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Urban lower classes in which authors distinguish two classes

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Lower Statum 55-65%
-working class
-marginal class

working class generally holds relatively steady, blue-collar jobs in the formal economy
the marginal class's employment is sporadic and/or in hte informal (unlicensed,untaxed) economy. Many members are periodically self-employed service providers, street vendors
much fluidity of membership between these classes

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poverty

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= the hallmark of the urban lower classes

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Quetzalcoatl

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On the other hand, according to some historians, the representations of Quetzalcoatl depict him as a tall and bearded white male. That’s why it is assured that this notable personage may have been, in fact, genuine: a Viking who reached the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to later become the god of the Toltecs, because of all the new knowledge that he instilled.

The most remarkable thing about this story is that it was precisely because of these physical characteristics and the golden glow of his armor and clothing, that the Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortes, was mistaken for this god.

The dates coincided, as well as the omens promised by the magicians and Aztec priests, so that an entire civilization, believing in these prophecies, immediately thought of the return of Quetzalcoatl. Unfortunately, they realized too late that this god was nothing more than a man who came in search of gold and who was willing to end entirely with a great civilization.

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Casta system

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When the tripartite estate system could no longer categorize the complex individuals another system was adopted. The colonial administration tried to save the system by defining an intermediate estate of casta for interracial person. Casta is the equivalent to lineage, kind, race. Originally there had been only 2 major recognized products of interestate unions: Mestizo (spanish man and indian woman) and mulato (mixed spanish & african or Afro-mexican unions). The casta system was designed to handle the much more complicated situation that arose from the backbreeding & interbreeding of the mixtures themselves. Only about 7 out of the sixteen categories were used to designate a hierarchical ordering of racial groups according to their proportion of Spanish blood or likeness. Classification became so ambiguous that Mexico's population was increasingly being lumped into 2 categories: Indian and Non-Indian. The casta system was not officially abolished until 1822 following the Mexican independence from Spain.

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RELIGION DIFFERENCES
& SIMILARITIES

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1. The aztec gods required human assistance thru sacrifice. The Christian god was omnipotent or almight and required no assistance
2. The Aztec gods were represented by idols. The Christian god was an abstraction
3. The Aztec values emphasized collective responsibilities in maintaing order in the universe. The Christian values promted the ideal of individual perfection.
4. The course of individual Aztec lives depended on fate. Those of individual Christains on free will.
5. The type of afterlife awaiting Aztecs was determined by the circumstances of his/her death. The afterlife a Christian was a result of his/her conduct in life.

Similarities: both shared riteds of baptism and confession although the Aztec's only confess once in their life. And both believed in the notion of virgin birth. The fusion of these two virgin figures = Virgin de Guadalupe