Aztec People

Cara Scroggs

Lets take it back to the 6th century in Central Mexico, based in the valley which was
wide, and highly elevated in the mountains. They called themselves the mexica, but we know
them better as the Aztec. The Aztec began in the 6th century all the way through 1525 when the
Aztec ruler named Cuauhetemoc was hung by spaniards, this was the last Aztec emperor.

The Aztec were ruled over by a king or emperor, when the emperor died a new one is
chosen by the high ranking nobles. The Aztec consisted of city-states which was each ruled by a
supreme leader. The Aztec had different beliefs and practices. The religion was a combination
of astronomy and cosmology. There is a big importance given to the sun, moon, and venus. The
practices were revolved around a calendar which had different festivals, rituals, and sacrifices,
they would be headed by the priests to the gods. The Aztec worshiped many gods, they had a
different god for each day along with each month. Also each civilization had its own god, and
ritual. One example would be a feast that they held to favor the god of rain. This was mainly
about the farmers and importance of the crops they were presented with. The Aztecs were
agricultural people. The leaders would research the movement of the sun and planets in the sky.
Along with the practices for these solar, lunar, and planetary religious activities that accompanied
them. It was the calendars which directed these people to continue in these paths. Some
calendars consisted of dates that ceremonies were held, others consisted of the gods for the
certain days. While some were used to determine the future outlook and upcoming generation.

People in the aztec had many different jobs. There was farming and fur traders, these
people send their goods to the central market. Another job that was common would be the
artisans, these are the people that created paintings or jewelry to also trade in the market. There
was healers and scribes which would find herbs to heal people and others would sell the herbs.
The priests and warriors were also big jobs in the Aztec empire. The Aztec would trade anything
and everything. The objects were sold by farmers and craftspeople along with traveling
merchants. The Aztecs used different things as currencies to purchase an item. Some things
that were used were chocolate and cotton. This shows that they did not always trade one good
for another one they would use money to buy items. The people in the Aztec empire were
divided into different groups by wealth, and sometimes gender. These differences also affected
the way that they lived. The poor class in the Aztec society had jobs such as farming and hunting
with also some forms of craftsmanship of war-weapons. The middle class people of the Aztec
had more of an diversity on their job opportunities. These jobs consisted of painters and
sculptors, or even lawyers and merchants. The priest were in their own class. Men from the
middle and lower class could become worriers which brought things like high wages and land.
While the nobility owned the land and directed the slaves. They made military decisions and
lead the soldiers in time of battle. They were in charge of government and creating laws for the
Aztec. There were different classes which gave certain people different outlooks on their life but
they all had certain jobs which helped the empire.

The Aztec empire consisted of a way of living that used calendars and many gods with
many people who believe and follow through with their practices. Even though the Aztecs

Work Cited:
 http://www.aztec-history.com/
http://www.ancient.eu/Aztec_Civilization/
http://www.crystalinks.com/azteculture.html