The agriculture was a fundamental part of the life of the pre-Columbus time.
The corn was part from its contribution to the diet of the Europeans. In mesoamerica they didn't have animals for carying loads or to plow.
For the Aztecs, the crops more productive were cultivated in the chinampas, prepared lands in swamped areas.
The corn was planted with the help of an utensil of digging.
The chinampas got ready defining with stakes narrow and rectangular fringes in marshy lakes. Among them narrow channels were built so that the canoes circulated. A chinampa got ready with layers of aquatic vegetation coming from the lake and mud of the bottom. They were heaped alternatingly until leaving prepared the land. In the borders sallows were planted to assure the chinampa.
The hunt and the fishing was important also. The meat and the fish were part of the diet .
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The religion influenced in all the aspects of the Meso-American life. One of the many aspects of their religious rites was the sacred constructions, or temples, dedicated to the gods.
The Aztec also adored sacred places. Their religion was related with the sun. They believed that they lived in the era of the fifth sun and that one day the world would finish violently. With the purpose of retarding the destruction, the men carried out human sacrifices. Their obligation was to feed to the gods with human blood and to maintain this way the sun alive.
The Meso-American towns adored to many gods. People requested to the gods good health or her well-being.
Mictlantecuhli was the god of the deads in the Aztec Mexico. Those that died from natural death went to the Mictlan, where the god of the cold or infernal region lived off those fleshed. |
The Meso-American man as husband and father was responsible for the well-being of his family. It sustained to the family, as well as to their government, working
hard and paying taxes.
The woman, as wife and mother, dedicated their time and energy to the house and to be in charge of of the children.
The girls were taught domestic tasks, as to knit and to cook, and the children accompanied their parents while they worked.
The children received education free and the noblemen had their own schools.
They used to live in simple houses, many of them of a single main room. |
