The Mayan, Incan and Aztec Peoples – Student Notes
Who Were They and Where Did They Come From?
Aztecs
Who were they?
 They were American-Indians who ruled a mighty empire in Mexico in the 1400’s
and early 1500’s
 They were one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americas
 Their city was where present-day Mexico City is today
Where did they come from?
 They arrived in the Valley of Mexico from the north-west
 They would wander from place to place looking for somewhere to settle but each
time they were driven away from neighboring peoples
 According to legend, the god of war told the Aztecs to search until they found an
eagle sitting on a cactus eating a snake, and that’s where they were supposed to
build their city
 They found the eagle on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built Tenochtitlan
 Mexican flag today shows an eagle eating a snake on a cactus.
Mayans
Who were they?
 They developed astronomy, the calendar and hieroglyphic writing
 The pyramids were more intricate than the Egyptian pyramids
 Many people believe that the ancestors of the Mayans crossed the Bering Strait 20
000 years ago
 They cleared large forests without metal tools to make room for the pyramids and
their cities
Where did they come from?
 Originally, Mayans were from Yucatan are of Guatemala
 They came around 2600 B.C.
 Not much is known except they adopted traditions from the Olmec people
Incas
Who were they?
 They called their empire the ‘Four quarters of the world’ because they believed
they had conquered the whole world
 Inca was the name of on emperor- after Spanish Conquest all of the people under
his rule were called Incas
 Incas were South American Indians
 They ruled one of the largest and richest states in the Americas
 They took over other areas by military force
Where did they come from?
 They started as a tribe in the city of Cusco
 They grew to power after Topa Inca died
 Cusco expanded into most powerful state in the Americas
Social Organization and Society
Maya Social Organization
• Maya cities were not united to form an empire
• ~ Each city was a separate state
• ~ The city states had been united together through various traditional ceremonies,
such as marriage, trade, art, common language, writing system, and religious
aspects
• ~ There were over 60 city states
Mayan Social System
• ~ The king had a right to collect taxes and had hereditary rule; top of social
ranking
• ~Nobles could be anyone; war captains, town councilors, prophets anyone below
the king
• ~ Priest means the highest one of the sun, they stand under the Nobles
• ~ Peasants had few rights
• ~ Slaves had little - no rights
Aztec Social Organization
Every person lived in a Calpulli it is a group of families that came from one common
ancestor
~Each capulli chose a leader to represent their government
~ Gathered their own taxes and provided soldiers
~ Had its own temple and school only boys attend
~ 3 classes: nobles, common people and slaves
~ Nobles-priests, warriors, administrators
~ Commoners-merchants, farmers
~ Slaves-criminals, prisoners of war
~ Emperor above everyone, treated as deities
~ Emperor appointed judges, generals, governors and chiefs of people defeated by Aztecs
~ Death was a common penalty
~ Mutilation was common
Inca Social Organization
Expanded by conquering neighboring peoples
~ Was a highly regimented society
~ Emperor, believed by the Incas to be a descendant of the sun god
~ Each governor appointed officials to lead smaller groups of 1000 people
~ The leaders of conquered people became part of the Inca government
The Incas made sure that an Inca princess married the chief of the conquered people
~ Commoners were not allowed to travel on the well developed roads
~ Wherever the Incas conquered they made people learn their language
~ Language was used to unite people
Clothing
Aztec
Aztec warriors wore brightly colored clothing with headdresses made of feathers. The
high-ranked people, mostly emperors, warriors and priests, wore cotton, while the
commoners wore clothing made of coarser materials. The women wore long skirts with
poncho-like tops, and the men wore loin cloths and occasionally a cape to cover their
shoulders. Capes were very important to the Aztec people.
Mayan
Like the Aztecs, Mayan clothing was mostly made of cotton and woven with a loom.
The poor dressed very simply, while the rich wore more elaborate clothing that was
colored with dye made of ground up plants or insects. The women wore long, loose
skirts or dresses, but would occasionally wear shawls as well. The poor men wore loin
clothes, but the rich men wore skirts, sandals, and richly ornamented belts. They also
wore jewelry made of jade, gold, silver, bone, wood and shells.
Inca
The Inca men wore a form of sleeveless, knee-length tunic that was made by folding a
rectangular piece of cloth in half and sewing in arm holes. The women wore long dresses
with a cape over their shoulders. Both women and men wore elaborately decorated belts
and hats, the quality of which indicated their social rank. The fanciest, most brightly
colored hats were worn by the best warriors only. Some Inca clothing has been
preserved to this day by the cold, dry climate of the Andes Mountains.
Housing
Aztecs
Most Aztecs lived in simple homes that consisted of one or two rooms and a place to
cook.
The walls were made of wattle (sticks interwoven with branches, twigs, or reeds) covered
in mud. The roofs were made of thatched leaves from the agave plant.
Most homes had very little furniture, low wooden benches, boxes and baskets for storing
clothing and tools, and reed mats which were slept on.
The homes of extended family shared a court yard and garden plot. They grew enough
food in their garden to support their family.
The higher class had two story houses with many rooms. They were built with rocks or
mud bricks.
Mayans
Rulers and priests lived near central plaza in contained large apartments.
Merchants, craftspeople, artists and government people lived in the towns. More modest
than those of the rich.
Homes were built on raised platforms to keep them cool and free of crawling insects.
Walls were made of framework, poles plastered over with dry earth. The roofs were
thatched, and steeply pitched to keep the hut cool.
Peasants homes were one room homes, with a steeply thatched roof and were located in
the farming areas
Incas
Most homes were simple and usually had one room.
If they lived in the mountains they built their houses out of stone with thatched roofs.
People who lived by the ocean made their houses out of adobe
All doors and windows faced a courtyard.
Food and Farming
Mayans
What They Ate
• Corn was the main crop, usually made into soup or tortillas
• Meat included deer, rabbits, turkeys and dried fish
• Corns, pumpkins, avocados, chili peppers, sweet potatoes and cacao were made
by the Mayans first
• Farm provided most food for the Mayans grown by peasants
Farming
• They dug canals to drain the swampy grounds
• On hilly slopes, they stored soil behind stone walls
• Made piles of dirt to grow crops in on mountaintops, they looked like giant stairs
• They dammed rivers for a steady supply of water
• Built reservoirs for irrigation
• They used sticks to make holes in the soil for seeds because they didn’t have
ploughs, metal tools, horses, oxen or wheeled vehicles
• Without special tools, they still got their work done and had enough food for
everyone
Incas
Farming
• Farmers sometimes kept llamas for food and wool and alpacas for wool
• For planting they used a digging stick that was a shaped like a chisel they
increased the amount they could grow in their mountain areas by terracing the
sides of the mountains
• Used stones to make a pathway for water to flow from its source
• They collected lots of bird dropping to use as fertilizer and spread them on fields
What they Ate
• Corn, potatoes, and millet, cotton and beans
Aztecs
What They Ate
• They both raised and ate turkeys and dogs, also they ate snakes and rats.
• Trapped ducks and fish
• Mostly ate corn, tortillas, beans, chili, peppers, and meat
• They also ate blue/green algae
Farming
• Was the basis of economy and society
• They used simple hoes and digging sticks to plant crops
• The main crops were corn, peppers, tomatoes, beans, and squash
• All available land was farmed
• Drained swamps to make more farm land
• Families tended their own gardens and grew fruits and vegetables
Education
Incas
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Only children to learn where the sons of the Sapa Inca nobles
Boys learned about law and geography
Other gifted students were allowed schooling if they showed promise
Writing was not taught because they had no written language
School was run by priests and they beat the children if they misbehaved
Arithmetic education was very important
Children that stayed home were expected to learn from parents
Boys learned hunting and preparing the ground for crops
They learnt furnishing for their homes
Boys were also trained soldiers
Manhood was considered to be at age 14
Women learned how to cook, weave cloth, and sew clothing
Sapa Inca ( Highest priest) received education in domestic arts
Mayans
• Writing was a sacred gift from the gods
• Only a small group of people learned to read and write
• Maya writing was in the form of hieroglyphs
• The glyphs represented words or syllables and where combined to form words
and concepts
• Used writing as propaganda tool rather than as a way of recording their history
• Scribes carved glyphs into stone and wood on monuments and architecture or
paint them on walls
Aztecs
• Girls were trained in their homes from an early age for their role after marriage
• Male children attended school between the ages of 12 and 15
• They learned religious songs and public speaking
• Studied history and religion
• Young nobles attended temple schools
• Trained to be soldiers, priests, lawyers, and engineers
• Women could participate in business, own property and take legal action
• Wife in the Aztec language means “one who is the owner of man”
• If a women is mistreated by her husband she could divorce him
Spirituality
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Worship many deities
Most Important gods and goddesses of all the deities were sun, moon, corn,
lightning and rainbows.
Sang hymns to their deities while they worked
The Incas believed to give the first share of the crop to their deities
Aztec
• The Aztecs strongly believed human sacrifices.
• Men and women were both sacrificed.
• Without these sacrifices the Aztecs believed that Deities would not let the sun
rise.
Mayan
• Believed in Spirits
• Caves were believed to be a place where the real world and spiritual world met
• Believed every creation had an unseen power
The Arts
Mayan
 The Maya created astonishing sculptures, statues, jewelry and carvings, as well as
books with drawings and illustrations that show what life was like back in Mayan
times
 Most Mayan art was a reflection of lifestyle, culture or had religious meaning
 The Maya had about 800 glyphs
 Art was made upon paper and plaster, carvings in wood, Obsidian, bone, shells,
jade and stone, clay and stucco models, and terracotta figurines from molds
 Stelae were carved to show a Mayan god or ruler. There were glyphs on the stelea
to tell information about the rule, family and date the stelea was made
Aztec
 Aztec art was mostly used for religious ceremonies and expressions
 Art was usually paying tribute to a god or goddess so the art was used for
communication
Inca
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The Inca believed that the sun god had ownership of all the gold. As a result, they
made most of their art work and buildings out of gold.
The Incas used ceramics, precious metals, and textiles for their art
Ceramics were painted with numerous designs like animals, birds, waves,
domestic animals and geometric patterns
Shaping items from a variety of metals was another form of Incan art
The Inca attire was also very interesting art
On tapestry and textiles the Incas used energetic colours and geometric patterns
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Most of the Incan art was melted down by the Spanish to please their want for
gold and silver
Chichen Itza
Where is it?
 Located in the center of Yucatan Peninsula (present day Mexico)
What is it?
 Main city of the Maya lowlands.
 Some of the Mexican culture came from this city.
 Name means “at the mouth of the well of Itza”
History
 All rivers run underground
 There are two huge sink holes or cenotes used for human sacrifice
 Also where they get water
 Jade and other stone and human remains are found in the ground because of their
beliefs
Political Organization
 Chichen Itza was thought to be ruled by a council of Elite people
Decline of Chichen Itza
 It fell around 1000 A.D.
 Believed to be conquered by Mayapans in the 13th century
 As it fell, population decreased
Arrival of Spaniards
 1526- Spanish conquistador Francisco De Montejo started the invasion
 1527- invaded almost all of Yucatan Peninsula
Machu Picchu
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Was built during the height Incan empire
Situated in the Andes Mountains in Peru
Was never found by the Spaniards
Abandoned in 1527 during a civil war due to the outrageous costs the city needed
Life in Machu Picchu
• Around 1200 residents
• Majority of the population was either construction workers or gardeners who took
care of the city
• City included many houses and apartments, temples and storage facilities
• Potatoes and corn were grown and water was accessed from an underground
stream