Religion and the Aztec State
[This is a spoken version of Brumfiel 1998.]
In this analysis, I examine the role of religion in sustaining the Aztec state. First, I explain how the Aztec state actively promoted an religion that linked warfare, the engine of imperial expansion, to the natural cycles that sustained human life. Second, I ask whether this religion operated as a dominant ideology, i.e., is there evidence that commoners believed that warfare was crucial in maintaining the cosmos? Third, I ask whether this ideology had a different target audience, namely, the lower ranking nobility that made up the core of the Aztec military. And finally, I suggest some general observations on how religion might help elites maintain their power even when they constitute only a small minority of a total population.
Aztec Ideology
slide: Aztec Empire, outer provinces: The Aztec Triple Alliance was a military alliance among three city-states in the Basin of Mexico: Tenochtitlan, the dominant partner, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. From the year of its formation in A.D. 1430, the Triple Alliance enjoyed great military success. In a short ninety-year span prior to Spanish Conquest, the Triple Alliance created an empire that extended from the Gulf to Pacific coasts, from central Mexico to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, encompassing an area of approximately 200,000 square kilometers and a population of five to six million people.
slide: Codex Mendoza, tribute: Tribute, collected from thirty-one imperial provinces, supplied the basis of the state economy. Tribute supplied the food staples that fed the ruler, his large household, and the several hundred lords and nobles who attended his person each day, feathered warrior's costumes and other sumptuary goods that were awarded to soldiers of outstanding accomplishment, and large quantities of cloth that were distributed to servants of the state on a routine basis. Lower ranking nobles and commoners probably used this cloth to purchase foodstuffs and other household necessities in the urban market.
slide: Aztec calendar stone: Aztec state religion linked warfare to the natural cycles that sustained human life. The Aztecs recognized that human life depended upon the orderly alteration of cycles: day and night, summer and winter, birth and death. But while we see these cycles as natural and inevitable, the Aztecs asserted that they were the contingent outcomes of cosmic struggles where the strong prevailed over the weak. For example, the sun rose victorious each morning, driving off the moon and stars to capture the daytime sky. But the sun's victory was only provisional, for each afternoon and evening, the sun sank in weary defeat, and the moon and stars took back the heavens. The sun's success in this daily struggle depended upon its being nourished with the hearts and blood of sacrificial victims, preferably captives taken in warfare.
To underscore the contingency of human survival, the Aztecs embedded diurnal and seasonal cycles in longer cycles of orderly creation and destructive chaos. The Aztecs believed that four previous creations had come to an end: one destroyed by an invasion of jaguars, one by hurricane winds, one by a rain of fire, and the last by floods. This creation was destined to be destroyed by earthquakes. The present creation would persist only so long as it was strengthened by human sacrifice.
This view was vividly set forth in items of material culture commissioned by the Aztec state. For example, the Aztec calendar stone is filled with symbols that refer to cosmic cycles: the four worlds that preceded the current one, the twenty days of the Aztec divinatory calendar, the solar and starry skies which alternate with day and night and which change together with the seasons during the annual cycle. The need for human sacrifice is underscored at the center of the calendar stone by the sacrificial knife which protrudes from the mouth of the central deity and by the talons on either side of the deity's face which grasp human hearts (Townsend 1979: 63-70).
slide: Templo Mayor, general view: The importance of warfare and sacrifice was also communicated by monumental architecture. The Aztec Great Temple was a prominent, centrally-placed building that represented Snake Mountain ("Coatepetl"). slide: Azcatitla Codex, Huitzilopochtli at Coatepec: Snake Mountain was the place where the Aztecs' patron deity, Huitzilopochtli, was born in a primordial act of warfare and sacrifice (Matos 1988). According to Aztec texts, Huitzilopochtli was conceived in his earth-goddess mother as she performed religious duties at a shrine at the top of Snake Mountain. Because the earth-goddess' pregnancy shamed her daughter, the moon, and her other children, the stars, they decided to kill her. As they approached Snake Mountain, Huitzilopochtli, within his mother's womb spoke: "Do not fear, Mother. I know what to do." As Huitzilopochtli's sister and brothers neared the crest of Snake Mountain, Huitzilopochtli leapt from his mother fully armed. He attacked his sister and cut her to pieces; her dismembered body fell to the base of the mountain. Huitzilopochtli then attacked his brothers, and they scattered leaving Huitzilopochtli, the Aztecs' solar deity, in uncontested possession of the celestial field (Sahagún 1950-81 Bk.2, Ch.X).
slide: snake sculptures at the base of the Templo Mayor: Snake sculptures at the base of the Great Temple identified the structure as a representation of the mythical Snake Mountain. Atop the temple, Huitzilopochtli's statue stood within its shrine. At the base of the stairway leading to the shrine, a carved stone monument bore the dismembered body of Huitzilopochtli's unfortunate sister (slide). Clearly, the layout of the Great Temple was meant to evoke the story of Huitzilopochtli's birth and to remind viewers that warfare was a cosmic necessity upon which human life depended.
slide: Templo Mayor, successive building stages: Some practices connected with the Great Temple suggest that it was intended to communicate with subordinate peoples. Aztec rulers made sure that the Great Temple would not be ignored. slide: Sacrificial slaying, Sahagún 1950-82Vol. 2, illus. 52, For example, the Aztec state sponsored highly-dramatic ceremonies of human sacrifice atop the Great Temple. Because of the temple's height, these ceremonies could be seen from all parts of the city. To draw attention to these sacrifices, they were announced by the beat of drums and the blare of trumpets. Díaz del Castillo, who fought with Cortés against the Aztecs, records:
again there was sounded the dismal drum of [Huitziopochtli] and many other shells and horns and things like trumpets and the sound of them all was terrifying, and we all looked towards the lofty [pyramid] where they were being sounded, and saw that our comrades whom they had captured...were being carried by force up the steps, and they were taking them to be sacrificed [Díaz del Castillo 1956:436].
In addition, Aztec rulers frequently rebuilt and expanded the Great Temple. The front stairs of the Great Temple were reconstructed thirteen times in its two-hundred year history (Matos 1988:30). When reconstructions were undertaken, commoners were brought to Tenochtitlan from numerous subject communities to labor upon the structure (Durán 1967 II:133-137).
slide: Codex Matritense del Palacio Real, Madrid, walled civic-ceremonial precinct, Tenochtitlan: On the other hand, some practices connected with the Great Temple suggest that communication with subordinate peoples was not an important goal. For example, the Great Temple lay within a walled civic-ceremonial precinct to which commoners could not easily gain access. Excluded from this precinct, commoners would not have seen the snakes that lay at the base of the temple nor would they have seen the carving of Huitzilopochtli's sister that lay horizontally, like a large pavement stone at the base of Huitzilopochtli's shrine. Thus, commoners would have missed much of the symbolism of the Great Temple that identified it with Snake Mountain and the story of Huitzilopochtli's birth.
Doubts about the dissemination the warfare-centered ideology to subordinate populations are deepened by archaeological evidence from the hinterland site of Xaltocan, Mexico. This evidence suggests that commoners were not impressed by the state's claim that its military activity was crucial for their existence.
Ideology and Commoners
slide: map, Basin of Mexico: Xaltocan lies 35 km north of Mexico City/Tenochtitlan in the middle of what was once a shallow, swampy lake, slide: Xaltocan from afar.
slide: Xaltocan, plaza: Xaltocan has been continuously inhabited for 1100 years (or more). For the first 400 years of its existence, it was the capital of a small autonomous city-state that received tribute from two dozen towns in the northern Basin of Mexico and southern Hidalgo. In 1430, it fell subject to Aztec rule, and its own king was replaced by an Aztec governor, and it began to pay tribute to the Aztec Triple Alliance.
slide: Xaltocan, Operation N, surface: Xaltocan is a great site. Obsidian tools and pieces of pottery litter the surface of the site. slide: Operation G, north wall: standing adobe walls and house floors can be found in excavations. slide: Operation I, Luis Gonzaléz: Xaltocan is a deeply stratified site with up to five meters of deposits in some places. This is very good because we can compare artifacts from the lower, pre-Aztec levels with artifacts from the higher levels representing the period of Aztec dominance, and see what changes occurred as the result of the rule of the Aztec state.
slide: male figurine, Xaltocan: We might expect that the state's ideology of cosmic warfare and human sacrifice would be reflected in elements of commoner material culture. For example, almost all Postclassic rural sites in the Basin of Mexico contain low frequencies of small, molded, ceramic figurines. These figurines were made by craft specialists (Otis Charlton 1994), but they were used in household contexts—at least this is suggested by the invariable association of figurines with household debris. The figurines may have been used in ritual activity at the household level, or they may have been toys. In either case, they should reflect popular priorities and concerns. The frequencies of different types of figurines in hinterland communities before and during the period of Aztec dominance should provide an indication of the extent to which popular consciousness was affected by state ideology.
Details of clothing and anatomy can be used to identify males and females. Males have bare chests and loin cloths. slide: female figurine: Females wear skirts, floopy hairdos, have chests with breasts, and sometimes hold children. I thought that if Aztec ideas of warfare and sacrifice were accepted at Xaltocan, we should see two changes in the figurines. First, the ratio of male warrior figurines to female figurines should increase because Aztec ideology placed greater emphasis on role of the male warrior. slide: kneeling statue of Chalchiuhtlicue: Second, the poses of female figurines should change from a standing position to a kneeling position which was pose given women in media sponsored by the Aztec state such as sculpture and manuscript painting. slides: Codex Mendoza, a woman teachers her daughter to weave, a woman teaches her daughter to cook: Women worked in a kneeling position to weave cloth and to grind corn, so the use of the kneeling pose by the Aztec state probably emphasized women's roles as producers of food and cloth.
slide: female bodies from Xaltocan: However, the data were surprising. Prior to Aztec rule male and female figurines were found in about a 1:1 ratio. Under the Aztecs, female figurines outnumbered male figurines by a 3:1 margin, slide: male bodies from Xaltocan: and many of the male figurines are not warriors: they sit rather than stand and they hold drums rather than weapons and shields. slide: Female figurine with children: Furthermore, female figurines stand rather than kneel and often hold children as if to emphasize their roles in reproduction. This suggests that concern with male warriors and their work did not increase during the period of Aztec domination.
slide: temple figurine: The period of Aztec domination did produce a new figurine type, the temple replica. Temple replicas are small models of temple pyramids topped by temple structures or deity figures. Kaplan suggests that the temple replicas may have integrated peasant ritual with the cults of the urban elites (Pasztory 1983:289-291). This might be true, but temple replicas are very rare at rural sites. They constitute less than 10% of the figurine collections, and usually less than 5% (Brumfiel 1996:155; Parsons 1972:105-106). In contrast, in a collection of seven figurines from metro excavations at the center of Tenochtitlan, two were temple replicas, and four were women presented in a kneeling pose (Arana and Cepeda 1967). This is what ideological domination would look like had it been present in hinterland sites.
The low frequency of warfare-centered images in the material culture of hinterland populations suggests that the ideology of cosmic warfare did not diffuse to rural regions of the empire. Comparing the well-documented expenditures of the Aztec state on architecture and monumental sculpture with its apparent lack of success in impressing commoners, we might well question the state's competence as a purveyor of ideology.
Ideology and the Nobility
slide: Codex Mendoza, titled warriors: But perhaps Aztec ideology was not aimed at subordinate groups. Perhaps Aztec ideology had a different target group: the younger sons of noble families. These men had been a source of endemic political instability during the pre-Aztec era. Before the formation of the Triple Alliance, the younger sons of rulers entered numerous conspiracies to seize control of local polities from their fathers and brothers (Brumfiel 1983:268-270). Political stability under the Triple Alliance depended upon deactivating this unstable element. Triple Alliance rulers offered these low-ranking nobles an ideology that weighed achievement in warfare over seniority of descent as a determinant of status, and they established the worth of these achieved rankings with exclusive dress, special club houses, flashy rituals, and the promise of apotheosis as warriors of the sun.
slide: Moctezuma distributes gifts to warriors, Sahagún 1950-82Vol. 8, illus. 99: Military achievement was recognized with numerous items of military attire and civilian dress, distributed according to a strict sumptuary code. Warriors were given different prizes according to their performance on the battlefield. If a warrior distinguished himself by taking one, two, three or five captives for sacrifice, he was entitled to wear military costumes and civilian cloaks of specific designs (Durán 1971:197-8, Sahagún 1950-81 Bk.8, Ch.21).
slide: Codex Megliabechiano, textile designs: These bold designs alluded to supernatural beings or powers. slide: Codex Mendoza, commanders: The iconography of the costumes insured that the successful warrior would be associated with, and perhaps feel himself united with, supernatural powers of various sorts (Anawalt 1992). Outstanding warriors were also given titles with mythological and cosmological implications, adding to their exalted status.
slide: Precinct of the Eagle Warriors, Templo Mayor: Once a warrior had taken four captives, he gained entry to the Cuauhcalli, the Eagle House, a special hall associated with the ruler's palace (Durán 1971:187-8; Sahagún 1950-81 Bk.8, Ch.14). Here, celebrated and titled warriors passed their days in the company their fellows. The daily activities of men in this exclusive club are not described, but the primary attraction seems to have been the heady enjoyment of of their own exalted company.
Excavations on the north side of the Great Temple have revealed a structure commonly referred to as the Precinct of the Eagle Warriors (Matos 1988:82-83). It consists of two connecting rooms: an outer western room bordered by low benches and an inner eastern room with a sunken patio or impluvium. Whether it was in fact the Eagle House, or another structure where Tenochtitlan's military elite gathered, this structure reveals how such places contributed to a reified atmosphere that would have promoted the ideological indoctrination of elite warriors. First, this site had limited access. Privacy was insured by off-set doors that shielded the inner patio from the eyes of passers-by (Molina 1987:102). The limited access underscored the exclusiveness and prestige of the group inside, and within these private confines, the military elite could be subjected to intense ideological and emotional experiences.
slide: Precinct of the Eagle Warriors, bench: Second, military elites were positively represented. The benches at the entrance to the structure and within the west room were decorated with processions of carved and painted warrior figures, richly attired in military dress. These figures were led by the Aztec ruler who is, himself, dressed as a warrior (Klein 1987:314). These images implied a high status for the military, almost on a par with the ruler.
slide: Precinct of the Eagle Warriors, clay eagle warrior: Elite warriors were also depicted in large ceramic statues. Statues of warriors dressed in eagle costumes bordered the door leading to the western room, and statues of skeleton figures stood on either side of the door leading to the interior patio. These statues evoked the fate of soldiers who died in battle or sacrifice. Transported to the sky, they accompanied the sun in its ascent from the eastern horizon to the zenith. They presided at the triumph of light over darkness (Sahagún 1950-82 Bk.6, Ch.29).
slide: Coatlicue statue: Implicitly, these triumphal male images contrasted with two other sculptural forms in Aztec art. In the first, defeated foes were depicted as female sacrificial victims. Several of these statues have been recovered from locations in the civic-ceremonial precinct. These include the monumental rendering of Huitzilopochtli's dismembered sister, described above, and the nine-foot tall statue of the earth goddess, Coatlicue. This sculpture celebrated the Aztec conquest of Xochimilco by rendering Coatlicue, Xochimilco's patron deity, as a beheaded sacrificial victim (Klein 1988). Thus, the triumphal male images inside the Precinct of the Eagle Warriors contrasted with the effeminate conquered enemies elsewhere in city's central core.
The eagle warrior images also contrasted with the images of Aztec women who died in childbirth. In many ways, women who died in childbirth were the female counterparts of warriors who died in battle or sacrifice. Like fallen warriors, women who died in childbirth rose to the sky to accompany the sun on its journey across the heavens. But, whereas men who died in warfare accompanied the sun during its morning rise to the zenith, women who died in childbirth accompanied the sun during its afternoon descent (Sahagún 1950-82 Bk.6, Ch.29). slide: statue of a cihuateteo: Moreover, women who died in childbirth periodically returned to earth as violent spirits (the cihuateteo) who haunted crossroads at night, possessed and paralyzed adults, and stole children. The negative image of the disruptive and predatory cihuateteo, carved in stone and set by lonely crossroads, served to heighten the nobility of their male counterparts, the eagle warriors.
This group of elite soldiers was, I would suggest, the real focus of the ideology of cosmic warfare. Through this ideology, Aztec rulers transformed young nobles from a political problem to the core of an alliance network that could exercise coercion against any subordinate group.
Conclusions
What do I conclude from all this? That Aztec rulers did try to communicate ideas of cosmic warfare and the necessity of human sacrifice, but they directed these ideas not so much at the people that they conquered. Instead, they were intent on communicating with a select target group, young male nobles, in order to create a cohesive army that would maintain Aztec rule by force. Aztec rulers tried to engage these young men in a "project," defined by Ortner (1984:152) as actions shaped by "images and ideas of what constitutes goodness—in people, in relationships, and in conditions of life." Aztec rulers developed a religion that linked cosmic warfare and human survival to the role of warrior, conferring upon young men dignity, social status and esteem. With the loyalty of these young men, the core of the Aztec army, the Aztec ruler could dominate conquered people by force. As the largest organized group able to wield coercive force, the Aztecs, through their warfare-centered religion, were able to impose their will on the conquered people who greatly outnumbered them, but who had few possibilities for collective action.