PRE-GOLUBCBIAN EDUCATION AMONG THE

AZTECS, MAYAS AND INCAS

A Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the School of Education
University of Southern California

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science in Education

Hasso heopold von Winning

 UMI Number: EP55547

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 Ed '3^
T his thesis, w ritten under the direction of the
C h a irm a n of the candidate's G uidance C om m ittee
and approved hy a ll members of the Com m ittee,
ee
has been presented to and accepted by the F a c u lty
of the School of E d ucatio n of the U niversity of
Southern C a lifo rn ia in p a r t ia l fu lfillm e n t o f the
requirements f o r the degree of M a s t e r of Science
in Education.

D a te

Dean

Guidance Com m ittee

C hairm an
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE PROBLEM, DELIMITATIONS AND DEFINITIONS . # 1
The p r o b l e m .................... 1
Statement of the p r o b l e m ............ 1
D e l i m i t a t i o n s ................ 2
Importance of the study * .................. 5
Definitions of terms u s e d ................ ?
Account of the sources u s e d .............. 10
Chronicles pertaining to Aztec history . . 11
Chronicles pertaining to Maya history ^ . 15
Chronicles pertaining to Inca history . . 17
Outline of the balance of the thesis . . . . 18
II# REVIEW OF PREVIOUS RELATED STUDIES 20
Studies related to the Aztec empire .. . . 20
Studies related to the Maya a r e a .......... 25
Studies related to the Inca e m p i r e ........ 26
Conclusions 27
III. EDUCATION IN THE AZTEC E M P I R E ............... 29
Social organization among the Aztecs . . . . 29
Early childhood training .................. 35
The telpochcalli .................. 59
The calmecac...................... .. • • . 51
 Ill
CHAPTER PAGE
Physical Education . .................... 70
Education in music, dancing and poetry . . . 73
Education for g i r l s .............. 78
Child care and training of the youth accord­
ing to the Codex M e n d o z a ........... 80
IV. 'EDUCATION IN THE MAYA A R E A ............. 95
Social organization among the Mayas. . . . 95
Education of Maya b o y s .................101
The sciences . . . . . .................... 106
Physical education.................. .. Ill
Education for girls . . . . . . . . . . . 112
V. EDUCATION IN THE INCA EMPIRE .................113
Social organization of the Inca empire . . . 113
The college at C u z c o ................ .. 119
Sciences: the quipu and mathematics. . . . 123
Physical education ........................ 124
Education for g i r l s ................ . 126
VI. SUMMARY AND C O N C L U S I O N S .............. 129
Summary . . . . . . . . .................. 129
Conclusions .......................... 132
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................ 136
GLOSSARY............................................ 147
 LIST OP PLATES

PLATE PAGE

I. Map Showing the Extent of the Aztec and Inca

Empires, and the Maya Area, at the Beginning
of the Sixteenth C e n t u r y ......... 9
II. Aztec Numbers and Methods of Enumeration
(after Vaillant) . . . . 62
III. Aztec Writing (after Vaillant) . . . . . . . . 63
IV. Pictograph of a Ball Court (tlachtli), Codex
Magliabecchiano .............. 71
V. The Ball Court at Xochicalco in Process of Ex­
cavation (Original Photograph by Author,1942) 72
VI. Codex Mendoza, Folio 57. . . . . . . . . . . 85
VII. Codex Mendoza, Folio 58 .................. .. 86
VIII. Codex Mendoza, Folio 59 . ............... 89
IX. Codex Mendoza, Folio6 0 .................. . . 91
X. Codex Mendoza, Folio 61 (Upper Section) ... 92
 CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM, DELIMITATIONS AND DEFINITIONS

It is little over a century ago that a systematic

study of the history of the ancient American civilizations
was begun. Anthropologists, on the basis of documentary
evidence as well as archaeological findings, have been
able to reconstruct many of the achievements _of peoples
long since vanished. In this endeavor some light has been
shed on the methods of education which were used to train
the youth. In particular, three great Indian civilizations
made remarkable progress in developing educational in-

I. THE PROBLEM

Statement of the problem. For several centuries

prior to their conquest by the Spaniards, the Aztec, Maya
and Inca civilizations were the most advanced on the
American continent in terms of material culture and social
organization. In some respects their achievements were
perior to those of contemporaneous European culture.
It was the purpose of this study to examine the
structure and functions of the educational institutions
 2
and of the methods of child care and training of the youth
in the three civilizations as they existed on the eve of
the impact of the Spanish Conquest.

II. DELIMITATIONS

Pre-Columbian history, by definition, ends at the

moment when the Spaniards came in contact with the natives
and subjugated them, establishing thereafter colonial
X
governments. This happened in Mexico and Peru during the
first half of the sixteenth century. The study of the
Aztecs, Mayas and Incas, therefore, covered the period to
the end of the autonomy of the native governments and did
not include educational practices that indicate European
influence. From this established endpoint, the study
ranged backward into history for several centuries. A
precise starting point cannot be determined due to lack of
complete records.
The earliest cultures occupying the areas under
discussion, according to the consensus of opinion, de-

Tatiana Proskouriakoff, A Study of Classic ..

Sculpture (Carnegie Institution of Washington. PubYication
5^3. Washington: 1950), p. 204.
2
George P. Murdock, Our Primitive Contemporaries
(New York: The Macmillan Company, X94S), p. 3bÔ and 445*
 3
veloped well before the birth of Christ and evolved from
primitive states to highly complex societies. This develop­
ment, however, was not one of continuous and orderly cul­
tural advancement. Some tribes progressed faster than
others and quite often it happened that some areas re­
gressed. Throughout the centuries, migrations interrupted
the advance of culture patterns and caused new develop-
%
ments in different directions.
The Aztecs and Incas, in particular, borrowed much
from the culture groups which preceded them. Precisely how
many and what kinds of elements in the field of education
these groups took over from predecessors is difficult to
determine. But there can be little doubt that the estab­
lishment of schools was the product of the relatively
higher level of social organization which began with the
Aztecs about 1403, Vaillant *s Early Aztec III Period,^
and among the Incas under the reign of Pachacutec, circa
1400-1448.^ Among the Blayas, the span included in the

George G* Vaillant, Aztecs of Mexico (Garden City;

Doubleday, Doran Company, Inc., 19ÎX), pp. 1-27, and
' Philip A. Means, Ancient Civilizations of the
Andes (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1942), pp. Ss tt»

^ Vaillant, op,* cit., p. 95#

^ Means, op. cit., pp. 255-64.
 4
study probably reached farther back in time. The northern
part of the area, in particular, was strongly influenced
by the results of a Toltee (Mexican) invasion about
1000 A.D.®
The study, then, beganr/with the period immediately
prior to the Spanish invasions and ranged back in time as
far as available records indicate the presence of educa­
tional facilities.
A full discussion of the social organization of the
cultures studied, such as customs, form of government,
material culture and religion, was not within the scope
of this thesis. Rather, emphasis was placed only on as­
pects of the cultures related to the upbringing of the
youth. Even then, the relations between parents and chil­
dren, the life cycle, and the part that the state played
in the life of the individual, were discussed only in
their essentials.
A word of caution seems in order. We are accustomed
to distinguishing between elementary, secondary and higher
education. A classification of this sort cannot be applied
to the kind of education the pre-Columbian cultures pro-

^ Sylvanus G. Morley, The Ancient Maya (Stanford

University: Stanford University Press, 1946), pp. 87 ff.
 5
vided for their youth# Even when speaking of the ”college"
at Cuzco, with its curriculum in "sciences" and its four
year plan of studies, it should he remembered that this
"college" was actually the beginning of formal schooling.

III. IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY

We owe our knowledge of the educational procedures

in pre-Columbian America almost entirely to the efforts
of the sixteenth century Spanish missionaries, some of
whom left us almost inexhaustible sources of ethnological
data.^ A dual purpose accounted for the wealth of infor­
mation recorded by these men. First, being missionaries,
the early chroniclers considered a detailed knowledge of
native customs helpful in propagating the Christian faith.
Secondly, to aid in establishing an efficient administra­
tion of their new possessions, the Council of the Indies
at Seville collected much information by sending out
8
questionnaires to the viceroyalties. These two purposes,
then, resulted in rather complete records.
Data on educational procedures, however, were not

7
For a discussion of early chronicles see pp.lO ff
® Carlos Gonzalez Pefia, Historia de la Literatura
Mexicana (Mexico; Editorial Cultura. S.A.• 1940).
ppri3^9.
of primary importance since the Spaniards were quick to
Q
establish schools of their own# Some chroniclers, how­
ever, left detailed information on this subject, much of
which has been preserved.
Between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centurie^
some historians incorporated information on education in
their works. Although much was quoted literally from
earlier sources, coverage of the subject was fragmentary
10
and often confused* The more modern authors limit them­
selves to brief summaries of the topic. Today, the primary
and secondary source material is dispersed among the an­
thropological literature in various libraries and— at
least in part— is not always easily available.
It seemed worthwhile, therefore, to study the
available sources and to bring together the information
which exists on Aztec, Maya and Inca education.
Apart from the documentary evidence, we have little

^ Itid*, pp. 4-7*

Wigberto Jimenez Moreno, in his preface to Fran­

cisco J. Clavijero’s Historia ^ t i g u a de Mexico (Mexico:
Editorial Delfin, 1944), pp. 25-557 X i ^ s the more impor­
tant chroniclers and writers on Mexican history in chro­
nological order, indicating the sources which they uti­
lized and the reliability of their accounts.
archaeological evidence on this subject.
11 Considering
the great progress archaeology has made in recent decades
in reconstructing pre-Columbian ways of life, it is possi­
ble that future findings confirm some of the available do­
cumentary information and perhaps help to extend knowledge
of education into earlier periods.
The present study seemed further justified if it is
remembered that, without cultural influence from outside
the continent, the indigenous cultures, according to the
consensus of authoritative opinion, succeeded in designing
their own educational institutions, progressing beyond the
stage of mere family training in the direction of institu­
tionalized education of the present.

IV. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED

The many Indian terms which appear in the body of

the study have been defined in their order of appearance,
se terms have also been listed alphabetically in the

Ignacio Marquina, ^quitectura Prehispanica

(Mexico: Institute Nacional le Antropologia e Historia,
1951), pp. 223 and 231-2, listed but one edifice bearing
the name of an educational institution within the entire
area once occupied by Aztecs and Mayas.
For the Inca empire see Means, op. cit., pp. 319-
320.
 8
glossary#
Pre-Columbian. The period before the discovery of
America by Columbus is usually called pre-Columbian, es­
pecially the time before the contact of native peoples of
12
America with Spaniards,
Aztec Empire. The empire extended from coast to
coast and reached approximately from 18® to 21® north lati­
tude on the Atlantic coast and from 14® to 19® on the Paci­
fic. Within this area, however, certain tribes retained
their independence while others welrf only nominally tribu­
tary. The capital was Tenochtitlan and occupied the site
of modern Mexico City. Nahuatl was the official language.
It belongs to the Uto-Aztecan stock and is still spoken by
I 1%
nearly a million Mexicans.
I
i Maya Area. Extending over southern Mexico, in-
jcluding the peninsula of Yucatan, the Maya area reached
Louth into British Honduras, Guatemala and part of Hondu­
ras. During the sixteenth century, the classic culture cen­
ters located in the central and southern portions had been
abandoned and the greater part of the population spread

IP
Proskouriakoff, op. cit.« p. 204

Miurdock, 0 £. cit.. p. 362.

 1 haH aM

^ a y a Area
MAlH -
WM

iz z e c
TRINIDAD

E^wqtor

empire

PLATE I
EXTENT OF THE AZTEC AND INCA EMPIRES, AND THE MAYA AREA
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
(After data from Vaillant^ Jileans, and Morley)
 10
over the northern part of the peninsula. Because of the
political arrangement the term area, father than empire
seemed appropriate. 14
Inca Empire. The territory including Ecuador, Pern,
northern Chile, western Bolivia and northwestern Argentina,
was subjugated by the Inca dynasty. Cuzco was the capital
as well as the political and intellectual center of this
15
vast empire#
Chronicler. The term chronicler, as used through­
out the study, was applied to the authors of manuscripts
from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries in­
clusively. To the authors of the nineteenth and the twen­
tieth centuries, whose works were considered secondary
sources, the term writer has been applied#

V. ACCOUNT OF THE SOURCES USED

The sources of Information which provided the data

for this study are the ivritings of the sixteenth and seven­
teenth century Spanish missionaries# Not all of the early
manuscripts are equally reliable. Consequently, only those

Thomas Gann and J. Eric Thompson, The History of

the Maya (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 193Y),
PPT 7 ^ .
1C
Murdock, 0£. cit., p. 403#
sources were utilized which have been pronounced to be
truthful by the authorities in the field.
Chronicles pertaining to Aztec history. The Fran­
ciscan friars were among the first travelers to arrive in
Hew Spain. They left us detailed descriptions, written in
the Spanish language, dealing with the customs and reli­
gious practices which they régarded to be the work of
Satan.
A Major and very reliable source of material is the
monumental work of Bernardino de Sahagun (d. 1590). This
friar is credited for conducting a most comprehensive
ethnographical investigation, long before Lafitau, who is

For a critical analysis of the chronicles see

Wigberto Jimenez Moreno’s preface to Francisco J. Clavi-
jero, Historia Antigua de Mexico (Mexico: Editorial Del­
fin, 1944), pp. 25-55. Also:
Carlos Gonzalez PeSa, Historia de la Literatura
Mexicana (Mexico: Editorial Cultura, S.A., l94o). Chapter
jr.

Sahagdn, for instance, calls the Aztec temples I

"Houses of the Devils" (Florentine Codex. General History
of the Things of Hew Spain, 15b5-69$ Monographs of the
School of American Research, Ho. 14, Part III, Santa Fe,
1951, p. 204).
 12
generally considered the first great ethnographer, wrote
his treatise on the Iroquois.^® Sahagun’s writings were
republished during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Surprisingly enough, only a few chapters of the parts
written in the Nahuatl (Mexican) language have been trans­
it
lated, first into German by Seler, then into Spanish. A
complete English translation is in process. Part of

Wigberto Jimenez Moreno in his preface to Ber­

nardino de Sahagun, Historia General de las Gosas de Hueva
Espaga (Mexico, Pedro Robredo, 1958), vol. I, p. xTv.
1Q
Eduar Seler, Ein Kapitel aus dem Geschichtswerk
in Aztekischer Sprache Geschrlebenen tJngedruckten Materia-
Txen zu dem Gescnlchtswerk des P. Sahagun (Veroe^fentlich.
aus dem Koenigl. Museum fuer Voelkerkunde, Band I, Berlin,
1890).

Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, Historia General de

las Cosas de Nueva EspaHa (Mexico: Editorial Pedro kobreÙo,
1958J 5 voTs. This edition excells that of Carlos Maria
de Bustamante, whose second edition in four volumes ap­
peared in Mexico, 1890-6.
The entire works of Çahagdn are being translated
from Nahuatl into English by A.J.O. Anderson and Chas.
Dibble, who have completed so far two books (Book I, The
Gods, and Book II, The Ceremonies). These publications
appeared under the title of
Florentine Codex. General History of the Things of
Hew Spain (1569-9) (Monographsof theSchool of American
Research, Ho. Ï4, Part II, 1950, and Part III, 1951;
Santa Fe, H.M.).
 13
Sahagun’s information on the education of the Aztecs was
confirmed hy TezozSmoc, a Mexican Indian, who wrote his
Gronica in 1598#^^
Fray Torihio de Benavente, whose excessive auster­
ity led the Indians to call him Motolinia, the Poor One, a
name which he then formally accepted, was also among the
first twelve Franciscans to come to this continent. His
information, like Sahagun’s, is generally considered to he
accurate. His Historia was written between 1536 and 1541.
Detailed information about the informal training of

Fernando de Alvarado fezozdmoe, Crdnica Mexicana

(1598) (Mexico: Editorial Leyenda, S.A., 1944), 545 pp.

Fray Toribio de Benavente Motolinfa, Historia de

los Indios de la Hueva Espaha (Mexico: Editorial S* Okavez
Eiyhoi713‘
4l7,”3'2ü-Wr
Motolinfa’s writings were recently translated by
Elizabeth Andros Foster, Motolinia*s History of the In­
dians of Hew Spain (Santa F e : The Cortes Society, Univer-
siiy o T ^ ^ w "Mexico Printing Plant, 1950), 294 pp.
The following translation, which was partly used for this
thesis, is profusely annotated:
Francis B. Steck, Motoiinfa’s History of the In­
dians of Hew Spain (Publications of the Acaaemy of Am.
Franciscan History, Documentary Series, vol. I, Washing­
ton: Academy of American Franciscan History, 1951),
358 pp.
 14
23
Aztec boys and girls is contained in the Codex Mendoza,
a pictorial manuscript completed in 1553.
Among the seventeenth century writers, Torquemada’s
Monarqufa^^ was a valuable source of data. Published first
in 1614 in three thick volumes, and reprinted in 1723, it
contains the most comprehensive treatment of Mexican
history since Sahagun. Although Torquemada spent practi­
cally all his life in Mexico, dedicating over twenty years
to his writings, he is often criticised for forgetfulness
and for poor judgment, which is manifested in contradic-
25
tory statements.
26
In the eighteenth century, Clavijero’s Historia
is outstanding. He was the first historian who applied an
approach modern for his time and used discriminatory judg­
ment in digesting the numerous earlier sources at his dis-

Co<3lex Mendoza, the Mexican Manuscript knd(Knas the

Collection of"Mendoza and Preserved in the Bodleian Library
Oxford, edited and translated by James Cooper Clark
(London: Waterlow & Sons, Ltd., 1938) 3 vols.
24
Juan de Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana, con el
Orfgen...(1611), Second edition, Madrid, 1723, 3 voTs.
The Southwest Museum at Los Angeles has vol. II.
25
Moreno in Clavijero, o£. cit, p. 29.
Clavijero, o^,* cit. , see p. 6, footnote 10,
Supra.
 15
posai, many of which have not been preserved.
27

Chronicles pertaining to Maya history. Strangely

enough, the man who left us the most extensive and re­
liable record of the life and customs of the Maya Indians
was also responsible for destroying systematically all the
sacred books and codices of these people. Bishop Diego de
Landa (1524-1579), in his fanatical zeal to stamp out
28
everything pagan, nevertheless left us in his Relacion
an invaluable account of the life of the Indians, and to
him we owe most of the information concerning Maya educa-
29
tion# Five native manuscripts, the so-called Books of
Chilam Balam contain chronological accounts of historical
events and shed no light on our topic.
The other leading early Spanish authorities wrote
about a century after Landa— Cogolludo in 1656 and Villa-

27
* Peha, op. cit., p.
28
Diego de Landa, Relacion de las Cosas de Yuca­
tan (1566) (Merida, Yuc., Mexico; E.G. Triay e hijos,
ID78), 297 pp.
29
Alfredo Barrera Vasquez , "Nota Sobre la Vida y
la Obra de Fray iDiego de Landa," in Landa, 0£. cit..
pp. ix-xxi.
50
Morley, op. cit.. p
 16
51
gutierre Soto Mayor in 1700. Their works were unavail­
able for consultation.
Only three original pre-Columbian Maya codices
have survived. Their contents is essentially ritualistic,
one of them being a treatise oh a s t r o n o m y . M o informa­
tion relevant to education was obtainable from these sour­
ces.
The main source of information then remained Landa*s
Relacion, and the English reader can avail himself of
55
Tozzer’s translation accompanied by copious footnotes
and annotations which make this work encyclopedic and
comparable in abundance of information to Sahagun *s
writings. It was Tozzer*s translation of Landa and a
54.
Spanish edition which appeared in 1938, that furnished
most of the data about Maya education discussed in
Chapter Four.

Ibid., p. 94.

32 pp. 295-7

Alfred M. Tozzex, Landa's Relacldn de las Cosas

de Yucatan (1566) (Papers of the Peabody Museum of Amer.
Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, vol.XVIII,
Cambridge, 1941), 394 pp.
Landa, op. cit.
 17
ChroniclQSspertaining to Inca history* Among the
numerous manuscripts written after the Conquest which
dealt with the history of the Inca Empire, only two refer
to the methods of instruction. One of the foremost com­
mentators was the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. A member of
the royal family, he was born in Cuzco in 1559, died in
Spain, 1616, and left us in his Comentarios Eeales^^ a
comprehensive account of historical events which he wit­
nessed. According to Howe,^"^ the only other chronicler
who included information on education in his Historia was
the Friar Martin de Morda,^^ who lived from about 1560
until sometime after 1590.

55
John H. Rowe, "Inca Culture at the Time of the
Spanish Conquest," Handbook of South American Indians
(Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology,
Bulletin 143, vol. II, The Andean Civilizations. Washing­
ton: Ur S. Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 283.
56
El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. Comentarios
Reales...de los Incas... (1609 and 1617) (iÈüenos Aires:
Ëmecé EdiYofes, S.A., 1943) 2 vols. The Library of the
Southwest Museum at Los Angeles also possesses the
edition of 1723.

Rowe, l o G . cit.
58
Martin de Morua, Historia de los Incas, Reyes
del Perd, edited by HoraeioM. Urteaga and Carlos A.
Romero (ïima, 1922).
 VI. OUTLINE OF THE BALANCE OF THE THESIS

In Chapter II previous studies hy writers of the

nineteenth and twentieth centuries were reviewed.
Chapter III deals with Aztec education. It was
deemed necessary to give a brief account of the social
pattern under which the Aztecs were organized, particular­
ly since they differed so markedly in most aspects of
their culture from our modern ways of life. Having estab­
lished the general framework in which the educative pro­
cess took place, the remainederof the chapter was devoted
to an analysis of the various institutions and methods for
the education of boys. After considering aspects of phy­
sical education and education in music, dancing and poetry
separately, the education of girls was discussed. The last
part of this chapter was devoted to describe child care
and training as depicted in the Codex Mendoza.
In Chapters IV and V education among the Mayas and
the Incas, respectively, have been dealt with. Because of
differences in contents, the organization of these two
chapters did not parallel, but followed a similar pattern
to, that of Chapter III.
Chapter VI summarized the findings and attempted at
drawing conclusions in the light of the data presented.
 Documentary evidence for this thesis was taken
chiefly from sixteenth and seventeenth century chronicles.
Since the original manuscripts and the extremely rare
first editions of these works are scattered throughout the
libraries of Europe, it was necessary to make use of
second and even later editions. In doing so great care was
taken to choose only those editions which are considered
reliable and complete by the authorities in the field.
A fine collection of re-issues of these early
sources is to be found in the Library of the Southwest
Museum at Los Angeles. The library of the University of
California at Los Angeles is in possession of a modern
(1938), but already rare, edition of the Codex Mendoza.
Fortunately, it was possible to locate all of the impor­
tant materials for this thesis in the Los Angeles area.
 20
CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF PREVIOUS RELATED STUDIES

During the present and the past centuries, many

writers summarized the pre-Columbian history of the
Aztecs, Mayas and Incas# For the purpose of this thesis
only those authors were considered who have dwelt upon the
subject of education.

I. STUDIES RELATED TO THE AZTEC EMPIRE

Joiee, in Mexican Archaeology,^ informed about the

education of boys as well as of girls and included data on
the Maya area#
p
Bandolier, who studied intensively the social
structure and form of government of the Aztecs did not by­
pass the educational aspects. However, his general deduc­
tions seem biased bÿ the purpose he had in mind. Strongly

^ Thomas A. Joiee, Mexican Archaeology, (Hew York:

Putnam’s Sons, 1914), 384 pp.
2
A. Bandolier, ”0n the Social Organization and
[ode of Government of the Ancient Mexicans,” Twelfth
Annual Report, Harvard University Peabody Museum, vol. II,
no. 3, (Cambridge, 1880), pp. 557-599.
 21
influenced by the anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan, Bande-
lier considered that the Aztec empire was not an empire at
3
all but a loose confederacy of democratic Indian tribes#
Some caution in accepting his conclusions, therefore, r:0:1
seems indicated.
V a i l l a n t in his chapter on government, law and
social customs, set forth the basic ideas of Aztec educa­
tion# He stated that education began after weaning in the
third year and referred to the Codex Mendoza for an expo­
sition of Aztec ideas on child psychology. Likewise, the
two main educational institutions were differentiated and
the author concluded that ;
The calmecac seems to have been an addition to
ordinary training, required by the development of
ritual, whereas the telpochcalli carried on in
special quarters instruction given in a simpler
by the old men of the c l a n . 5

3
T. Waterman, ’’Bandolier’s Contribution to the
Study of Ancient Mexican Social Organization,” Univer­
sity of California Publications on American Arckaeology
and E'iHnology (Berkeley: \Jniv. oT~California, Feb. l9l7),
vol. Xll, ppV 249-82.
A
/\ George C. Vaillant, Aztecs of Mexico (Garden City:
Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1941), pp. 1Ù9-111.

5 Ibid.. p. 111.
 22
Krickeberg^ discussed the historical development of
the main culture areas of this continent. Education is
very briefly treated as part of the life cycle of the
7
Aztecs.'
Q
Murdock analyzed eighteen different cultures in
Our Primitive Contemporaries. The chapter dealing with the
Aztecs contains a detailed account of the life cycle in-
9
eluding a paragraph on education*"^
A special study of education among the Aztecs and
Mayas was first undertaken by Mena in cooperation with
Arriaga.^^ This work is discussed later in this chapter.
Monz6n,^^ in his article entitled "Educacion” dealt
extensively with Aztec education. He states that in the

Walter Krickeberg, Etnologia de America, Spanish

version by Pedro Hendrichs, (Mexico : Fondo de Ôultura Eco­
nomica, 1946), 498 pp. Part III, Chapter I, deals with
the Aztecs; Chapter II describes the Mayas, and Chapter
VIII considers the Inea Empire.

Ibid.. p. 291.
Q
Murdock, op. cit.

^ Ibid., pp. 383-84.

Ramon Mena y Juan Jenkins Arriaga, Educacién

Intelectual y Ffsica entre los Hahuas y Mayas Precolom-
Finos (Mexico, 193Ol• Y5 PP.
Arturo Monzon, ”La Educaci6 n,” Mexico Prehis-
panico (Mexico, 1946), pp. 734-64.______
 23
Aztec state education was of very great importance and
concluded that:
...since education was founded on the basic needs
of the community, the frictions that caused social
disturbances could be controlled, to a large degree,
only because of this education.1 ^
All writers have drawn from the chronicles men­
tioned in the previous chapter and have made much use of
the works of Sahagun and the Codex Mendoza.

II. STUDIES BELATED TO THE MAYA AREA

13
Gann and Thompson, in the History of the Maya,
devote a paragraph to education of boys and girls in their
chapter on the daily life.
Morley,^^ in the Ancient Maya, discussed some as­
pects of child training. The information of these authors
was drawn from Landa’s writings.

12
Ibid., p. 764. Translation mine.
13
Gann and Thompson, 0£. cit.

Morley, p£. cit.

 24
The monograph by "Mena and Arriaga on education of
the Aztecs and Mayas has been mentioned earlier in this
chapter.^^ Since this work to date is the only treatise
that covers Maya education specifically and in view of
what seem to be inaccuracies and unsupported conclusions
a few comments are necessary.
In the prologue the authors presented the hypothe­
sis that the cultural advancement of the pre-Columbian
people, especially in the field of education, was so re­
markable that it would not have taken a long time for them
to arrive at the level of western civilization through
their own efforts, without the interventions of the Span­
iards.^^ Although this seems a moot speculation, Maya ci­
vilization at the beginning of the sixteenth century was
definitely on a downward trend and it seems questionable
whether a renaissance without cultural influence from out­
side would have been possible since all indications
pointed toward a relapse into isolationism and social
17
disintegration.

1*5
Mena and Arriaga, pp. cit.

Ibid.. p. 5.
17
cf. Gann and. Thompson, pp. cit,, pp. 84 ff.,and
, pp. cit., pp. 94 ff.
 25
Furthermore, Mena and Arriaga give quite an inac­
curate picture of the extent of the Hahua and Maya popu-
18
lation in terms of their languages# Ho Maya was spoken
19
in Panama nor in northern Columbia. Hor did the various
Hahua migrations from the north and west into Maya terri-
20
tory take place at a date before Christ. The arrival of
the culture hero Quetzalcoatl, dated by the authors
21
around 1300 B.C., did not take place until 1000 A.D.
Likewise the authors state that the Hahua and Maya had a
22
culture which was ”mainly astronomical,” whatever that
may mean, and that their superior knowledge of computing
time was brought with them from their places of origin

18
Mena and Arriaga, pp. cit., p. 6.
19
Frederick Johnson, "The Linguistic Map of Mexico
and Central America,” The Maya and Their neighbors (Hew
York; D. Appleton Century Company, l940), pp. 107-114.
See also:
Wigberto Jimenez Moreno, Mapa Lingufstico de Horte-
Z Centro-America (Mexico: Museo Macional7 193b). T “map.
20
Mena and Arriaga, pp. cit., p. 6; cf. Morley,
pp. cit,,p. 89.
21
Mena and Arriaga, pp. cit., p. 7 ; of. Morley,
op. cit., p. 89.
22
Mena and Arriaga, pp. cit., p. 10.
 26
23
"in the east." This statement is unconvineing if we
consider that a migratory people— with only such material
culture as can be easily transported— could not likely
have developed a system of astronomical computations and
a calendar before they had settled and achieved the cul­
ture level and the kind of social organization which allow
for enough leisure time to pursue intricate calendrical
24.
calculations. Some of the other shortcomings in the
monograph are pointed out in the annotated bibliography.

III. STUDIES RELATED TO THE IHCA EMPIRE

For general reference the reader is referred to

Rowe’s study in the Handbook of South American Indians.
The education of girls, the amauta schools, the tests in
connection with the puberty rites and other aspects are

23
L o g , cit. For a discussion of the origin of
the Maya civilization see Morley, pp. cit.« Chapter III,
OL
Cf. Morley, op. cit., pp. 43 ff.
25
Rowe, pp. cit., pp. 256-88.
 27
mentioned as reported by the early chronicles#
M e a n s , d i s c u s s e d in some detail the educative
procedures and their role as an integral function of the
state. He concluded that the greatness of the Inca nobi­
lity arose not merely from status and political power, but
27
also from superior education#
Krickeberg’s and Murdock’s works have been men-
28
tioned earlier in this chapter. In their discussion of
the entire framework of Incaie culture, both authors de­
vote comparatively little space to the topic of education.

IV . COHCIiUSIOHS

Two conclusions could be drawn from a review of the

related literature. First, the various secondary sources
discussed in this chapter revealed only information for
the topic of this thesis that is either condensed or frag­
mentary. Ho single study placed the education of the three
civilizations side by side for comparative evaluation.
In the second place, the only specialized studies

of.
Means, ppm cit.

Ibid.. p. 305.

Krickeberg, op. cit.. Part III, Chapter VIII;

and Murdock, pp. cit.. Chapter XIV#
 28
on education which were available, were lacking some of the
characteristics of scientific research publications. Mon-
z 6nj writing for the general public, did not buttress his
expositions with bibliographical references# His study was
confined to the Aztec realm. Mena and Arriaga included in
their monograph statements which are not now supported by
authorities in the field. Furthermore, they documented
their sources insufficiently and, in various instances,
inaccurately. Considering these discrepancies in details,
the question arises as to the accuracy of the balance of
these authors in giving a truthful picture of Aztec and

For a study of education among the three great pre-

Columbian civilizations it was therefore necessary to rely
mainly upon the chronicles and the Codex Mendoza. The lar­
gest body of information recorded by the early Spanish
missionaries referred to the Aztec Empire which was con­
sidered in the following chapter#
 29

CHAPTER III

EDÜCATIOH IH THE AZTEC EMPIRE

Within the framework of the highly complex social

organization that characterized the Aztec Empire, educa­
tion was a great concern of the leaders of that state.

I. SOCIAL ORGAHIZATIOH AMONG THE AZTECS

A comprehensive account of the life and customs of

the Aztecs and of the social controls that operated within
their empire is contained in Murdock’s Primitive Contem-
%
poraries. It is from this hook that the following
paragraphs are taken:
In 1325, the Aztecs, the last of the various Hahua
tribes which settled in the valley of Mexico, founded
there the island city of Tenochtitlan, or Mexico. Fifty
years later they elected their first king. Protected by
their inhospitable and almost inaccessible location, they
gradually advanced in civilization and increased in num­
bers. Warring against the Hahua tribes and the Otomf on

^ Murdock, pp. G i t . , pp. 359-400*

the north, the Huaxtecs and Totonacs on the east, the Za-
potecs and Mixtecs on the south, and the Tarascans on the
west, the Aztecs gradually built up a loose empire extend­
ing from coast to coast and reaching from 18^ to 21® north
latitude on the Atlantic coast of Mexico and from 14® to
19® on the Pacific.
In the division of labor by sex, the women cared
for the house, prepared and cooked the food, and performed
the lighter agricultural tasks. The men did the heavy
agricultural labor, engaged in war and governmental acti­
vities, and monopolized the specialized trades, such as
carpentry, masonry, stone-cutting and metal working# It
was common, but not compulsory, for a son to follow his
father’s occupation.
Aztec society was organized into twenty exogamous
clans (calpulli)♦ united by descent in the male line. Lo­
calized in separate districts in the city of Mexico, the
several clans, each with its own temple, school, council
house and officials, tilled their lands and carried on
economic activities. A war chief led the forces of the
clan in battle, instructed the youth in military exer­
cises, and preserved order and executed justice#
Above the ordinary clansmen stood a class of hono­
rary lords or knights (tecuhtin). This rank was conferred
 31
for life upon ment conspicuous for prowess in war, for
meritorious public service or religious devotion# The con­
quests of the Aztecs and the resulting prosperity tended
in several ways to elevate the class of lords and to dif­
ferentiate them more and more from the ordinary people. As
military leaders and public officials they enjoyed special
privileges. The son of a wealthy lord was almost certain
to acquire in some way the rank of his father, as he was
to inherit a share of the property. The freemen, with
their clan affiliations, were overwhelmingly preponderant
in numbers and formed the backbone of the state#
Below the common clansmen in the social scale stood
two unprivileged classes— a propertyless proletariat and
a class of slaves. The proletariat, consisting partly of
expropriated aliens and partly of persons who had forfeited
their clan membership for refusal to marry or to till
their lands, earned their livelihood either as porters or
as virtual serfs, tilling the lands of the lords under
heavy burdens of taxes and services#
Slaves were recruited from several sources# Debtors
who could not meet their obligations were forced into sla­
very. Members of this group also included criminals of
certain types, youths and girls delivered by suject
peoples as part of their tribute, and children sold by
 32
parents in dire distress. On the whole, slavery assumed a
very mild form. The master owned, not the person of the
slave, but only the right to his services. The slave re­
tained the right to marry, to acquire property, to raise
a family and his children were free.
Within the tribe a council of twenty speakers, re­
presenting the twenty clans, administered the ordinary
affairs of state, declared war, and made peace* A Great
Council included, besides the speakers, the headmen, and
war leaders of the clan, other high officials and the
ranking priests.
The Aztec king (tlacatecuhtli) chief of men) was
elected by the Great Council from the members of a single
royal line according to a fairly definite rule of suc­
cession. Gradually the Mexican rulers were able to add to
their original functions such influence in legislation
and administration that they approached, even though they
never quite attained, the stature of absolute monarchs
in the European sense.
The criminal law of the Aztec’s reveals many ad­
vanced features. Such primitive traits as biood-revenge,
responsibility for the crime of a kinsman, and punishment
for injuries accidentally inflicted, had completely dis­
appeared, preparing the way for a consideration of per-
 33
sonal and subjective factors. Weight was given to the age
and intent of the wrongdoer. The interest of the state in
prevention and punishment had entirely superseded private
self-help. Partly for this reason, perhaps, the penalties
were exceedingly severe. The law prohibited drunkenness,
although it did not penalize temperate drinking. For ap­
pearing intoxicated in public, except at certain religious
festivals, a youth was punished by death, an adult had his
hair shorn and his house razed. A person over seventy
years of age, however, was privileged to tipple to his
heart’s content.
CJ " The life of the Aztecs, in nearly every aspect,
centered upon war. Exploitation by arms formed the basis
of their economic prosperity. Their social hierarchy was
rooted in military honors and rewards. When no war was in
progress the Aztecs called themselves "idle". In the ab_

sence of a good cause, such as a revolt or an outrage to

a traveling merchant or ambassador, the Aztecs readily
fabricated a pretext for precipitating hostilities.
The life of the day began, in an Aztec household,
with a libation to the god of fire. After a few hours of
work, the family assembled for a breakfast of maize gruel.
The principal meal— the only cooked one— was taken shortly
after midday, followed by a smoke and a siesta. The sexes
 34
always ate separately, the men first and the women later.
For the ablutions, which were scrupulously observed both
before and after meals, finger bowls and napkins were
served. In their social intercourse the Aztecs followed an
elaborate pattern of etiquette, especially in the matter
of visits, the offering of condolences and congratulations,
and the exchange of presents.
They engaged in footraces for their amusement and
I
played a game called patolli# which resembles our parchisi.
On courts in the temple grounds, a ball game with strong
religious associations was played.
Women were subordinate to men, but had certain
rights, such as holding property, making contracts, and
going to court. Motherhood was regarded by the Aztecs as
the feminine equivalent of war. The newborn child was
likened to a captive taken in battle. Women who died in
childbirth were accorded the same honors as to warriors
slain in action. At the hour of birth, the attendant, mid­
wife raised the battle cry of the warriors to announce
that the mother had taken a captive. Shortly after birth,
the child’s parents consulted a soothsayer to learn its
fate.
At the proper age— from twenty to twenty-two for
boys and from sixteen to eighteen for girls— it became the
 35
social duty of an Aztec to marry. %he parties concerned
enjoyed a certain degree of freedom in the selection of
their partners,nhut the parents made all the arrangements
and their consent was required.
The Aztecs worshipped hundreds of gods, and their
religion was a compOsi:fe of heterogeneous elements which
included elaborate rites of imitative magic, nature wor­
ship, and many traits of shamanism. A class of priests
presided over the cults of the various deities. Cult acti­
vities included fasting, prayer, and confession, but the
most important was sacrifice. Whatever men themselves
valued was offered to the gods. The most acceptable, and
as a matter of fact, indispensable, offering was human
blood, upon which the gods depended to keep them young and
vigorous. Human sacrifice, for this reason, played an im­
portant part in Aztec religion. Hence war— to replenish
the supply of victims— became a religious duty.

All. EARLY CHILDHOOD TRAINING

T >9-) ' While still in their cradles, children were sub-

y \
jected to sacrificial rites. Every 203 days, in honor of
the Lord of the Night, the entire population did penances.
At noon shell trumpets were blown and straws were passed
through the flesh to draw blood. For the same purpose.
 36
2
parents cut the ears of little children#
Mothers suckled their children to the age of three
or four, which, as the Spaniards thought, accounted for
their healthy condition.
Until the age of five a child was reared and
trained within the family group. Since the clan was unitec.
through kinship ties, it was the obligation of all clan
members to take an interest in the upbringing of the
youth. In case of death of the father or the mother, the
nearest of kin were required to carry on the parental du­
ties of the deceased.^
The rearing of new generations was based on three
main educational principles; (1 ) learning through imita­
tion, (2 ) formal instruction, and (3 ) praise and repre-
5
hension. From an early age on, the parents preached long
homilies to their children. Joice^ observed that however

p
Florentine Codex, op. cit., part III, p. 202.

^ Ibid.. p. 205.

Roque Ceballos Novelo, "las Instituciones Azte-

cas," Anales del Museo Hacional de Mexico, tomo II,
Mexico, 1937, p. 21.
*5 y
Monzon, 0£. cit., p. 754.
^ Joice, cit., p. 162.
 31
interesting these admonitions may he to show the high
morality of Aztec educational philosophy, they must have
been excessively boring to the child. The Spaniards were
greatly impressed by the addiction to moral discourse on
^ I 7
the part of the Mexicans. ISahagun, for instance, devoted
several long pages to recording their wordings. Zurita
and Mendieta,^ among others, recorded literally the exhor­
tations given at the passing of the child from one age
group to the next. Likewise, the answers given by the
children were faithfully recorded by these chroniclers.
To promote physical growth it was customary, upon a cer­
tain day, to lift up by the head all small children.
^ From an early age, children were taught to respect
their parents and other adults. The necessity to become

^ Ua h a g ^ i p op%Icit., vol. II.

Q
Alonso de Zurita, Breve Relacion de los Sehores
de la Hueva EspaSa (Mexico; Editorial Salvador Hayhoe.
iW4TT,Tn:i2T —

9 y
Geronimo de Mendieta, Historia Eclesiastica In­
diana (Mexico; Antigua Librerfa, 1870), pp. Il2-l20.
lO
Florentine Codex, op. cit., bk. Ill, p. 189.
 38
accustomed to a life of submission was impressed upon
them. The diet consisted of the minimum needed for survi­
val. A child at the age of three was given half a tor­
tilla (pancake of corn), and at five, one and one half
per meal. This ration was not increased until the age of
thil:teen, when a boy or a girl received two tortillas, j
This information is contained in pict©graphs in the Codex
Mendoza, accompanied by an explanatory commentary in
S p a n i s h . A l l the chroniclers emphasized the small
amount of food given for the purpose of accustoming the
youth to hardships.
I When a boy reached the age of five his formal edu-
cation began. Depending upon the social rank of the
father, the child entered one of two distinct schools.
The sons of the nobility entered the calmecac and the
sons of the common clansmen entered the telpochcalli. The
children of the two lowest social classes, the proleta­
riat and the slaves, whose members were numerically far
below that of the common clansmen, apparently received no
schooling, except that offered by their parents. But

Mendoza, op. cit., fol. 57-59.

1?
Monz6n, 0£. cit., p. 754.
 39
since the children of the slaves were free,^^ it seems
quite possible that they could have been sent to the tel­
pochcalli, for it was desirable to train as many men in
the use of armsjnowever, this point is not referred to
directly in the chronicles*

III. THE TELPOCHCALLI

In Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) there were at least

twenty schools— one for each clan— for the education of
the common people with clan affiliation. Each school was
attached to the main temple of the c l a n ^ ^ } An elaborate
ceremony was held to "enroll" the boy in the telpochcalli,
as these schools were c a l l e d O n e or several teachers
were invited to a banquet by the parents who intended to
16
send their son to this Institution. Sahagun related in
great detail the exhortation made by the father, asking

Murdock, 0£. cit., p. 379*

Mena and Arriaga, 0£. cit., p. 17 (quoting from
Sahagun). Bandelier, 0£. cit., p. 616.
15
Telpochcalli (Bahuatl).compounded from telpocht^
li, youth (Spanish;mancebo), and calli, house. For a dic-
TTonary of Hahuatl (Mexican) terms see
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexi-
cana (1571), (Leipzig; B.C. Teubner, TSSOT*
Sahagun, 0£. cit., bk. I, p. 288.
 40
the teacher to admit the hoy and to accept him as a son,
wishing that he should from then on live with the other
hoys in the school.
The teacher’s reply was cautious and noncommittal,
and ran about as follows:
humble and undignified servants, with little
hope, expect that your son will comply with his'
duties. Of course, we ignore the talents and charac­
teristics which he inherited. We also ignore the
auspices under which he was born and we cannot guess
them. After all, nobody receives his character and
talents in this world, since they are all innate.^7
It is interesting to note the implication of the teacher’s
answer. He apparently did not give much weight to the ho­
roscope concerning the child’s fate which, was delivered by
a priest shortly after birth.
"In concluding," the teacher continued, "we admit
your boy so that he may perform the tasks of sweeping and
18
the other low chores." Then he cautioned the parents
about expecting educational results in the following words;
cannot say with certainty what will become of
your son, whether he will become respected and exalted.

17
hoc, cit. (Translation mine).
18
Ibid.♦ p. 290. (Translation mine).
 41
or whether he will survive on this earth at all [per­
haps implying here, that he may die a warrior’s deaty*
He might grow up and he poor and little respected and
lead a penurious and toilsome life. Or he might become
a thief and adulterer$19
By this time the teacher had decided whether the
boy was of proper school age. We do not know how accurately
the age of individuals was computed. Among the Incas, as
we shall see, classification into age groups was a basis
for exacting public services, and yet no accurate count of
OQ
chronological age was kept# It may have been that the
Aztecs, with their superior calendar, were in a better
[position to determine the age of the individuals.
It was promised then that:
We teachers will do our duty and train [your son]
and teach him like fathers and mothers. Certainly we
will not be able to penetrate his soul and heart, nor
you, being his father, can do so. All we can do is to
implore the deity [in particular the god Yaotl, whom
the priests in their role as teachers represented] ,
with prayers and tears to induce your son to mind us.^
At the conclusion of this ceremonial banquet the boy was
taken to the school at once and given simple manual chores.
No information as to the number of children who
attended the telpochcalli schools was given in the chro-

Log, cit# (Translation mine).

20
Means, 0£. cit♦, p. 294. Also, Rowe, 0£. cit.,
p. 256.
Sahagun, op. cit♦, vol. I, p. 290 (Transi.mine).
 42
22 J
nicies, but ,\Acosta, stated that/"a large number of boys"
L—
were sent there by volition of their fathers; It seems
clear that we have here a true public school system, which
provided free education, without being compulsory. Ob­
viously, it was in the interest of parents to make use of
this opportunity. (
Life in the telpochcalli was not harsh. The novi-
ces lived there with other youths of all ages, up to the
marriagable age. They took their meals at home, but spent
the night at the school, ^hose who did not return at taps
were punished. The dormitory was a large hall, with only
OA
a roof and no walls. The older boys and the instructor
slept there, too. Repeatedly the chroniclers, with a keen
eye to detect and impede possible eases of pederasty and
sodomy among the Indians, maintained that the sleepers re-
25/^
mained separated. )They were only lightly dressed to inure
themselves to the weather,

22
Joseph de Acosta, Historia Natural y Moral de
las Indias (1590), (Madrid, 1Ô94), vol. ÏÏ, p. 221
23 &n, o£. cit., vol. I, p.
Zurita, o£. cit., p. 112.
2*5
Sahagun, loc. cit.; cf. also Tozzer, pp. cit.,
ppp 124 and 128 (footnotes)V

Zurita, loc. cit.

 43
Novices had to sweep the patios of the adjoining

temples and of the school, tend the fires and do penance

under close s u p e r v i s i o n . S w e e p i n g was considered a very

necessary occupation* It was strictly required of children

of both sexes. Not only were the temple halls swept daily,

but also the courtyards of the people’s houses were swept

OQ
very frequently.

yjQ Another important chore was the tending of the

fires. There were a great many temples in Tenochtitlan and

at night on all the temple platforms piles of wood flared

up. One of the chief duties of the priests was to see to

it that the fires were fed and the inmates of the telpoch­

calli were required to gather the great quantities of fuel

29
needed for these fires.

^ L i v i n g with the young warriors in the telpochcalli

acquainted the novices with the exercises and the prepara­

tions necessary for the frequent military expeditions.

Along with extensive physical training, the boys must have

acquired a fair knowledge of geography and civics, altho^q^

27
Florentine Codex, op. cit., p. 186.
28
L o c . cit. Commentary by the translators.
29
Eduard Seler, Codex Fejervary-Mayer; Commentary.
Transi, by A. H. Keane (London, ly02), p. 48.
the sources do not state this expressly. At the age of

eight or ten the boys were capable of carrying on their

backs a load which, according to Mendieta, a Spaniard of

30
twenty could not have carried for a long stretch# In­

struction in the use of arms was not begun before a later

age— which is not specifically given— and not after the

youngster had passed a test for battle fitness during

31
which he had to carry one or two heavy loads of wood#

At the age of fifteen, the older inmates of the

school took the youth to the woods to gather firewood for

32
the temples. Considering the large amount of firewood

that the city of Tenochtitlan consumed, not only for the

ceremonial fires, but also for the hearth in every house­

hold, it seems likely that the distance to the woods in­

creased gradually and that it must have taken considerable

time and endurance to obtain the necessary fuel. The young­

sters also were taught to work in the fields which were

33
set aside by the clan for the maintenance of the schools.

30
Mendieta, 0£. cit., p. 112.

Sahagun, op. cit.. vol. i, p. 291<

32
Loc. cit.

Monzon, 0£. cit., p. 756.

 45
Aside from teaching the yoimgsters such elementary
chores as farming, carrying loads and manipulating a boat,
which was a necessity for inhabitants of a town situated
in the middle of a lake, emphasis was placed on the teach­
ing of morals. The boys learned that it is imperative to
always tell the truth, to work, since this was unavoidable,
54
and to cooperate in community projects#
The older novices who, as Sahagun stated, "were
well brought up and knew the good customs," qualified for
election into the next higher category# As tiaohcauh,
they were what might be called group-leaders, and had to
instruct, under the supervision of the priest-in-chief,
the newly enrolled novices. The tiaohcauh sometimes fol­
lowed the older bachelor warriors who also lived in the
telpochcalli, into battle, carrying their arms and pack#
After having proved himself courageous as a
warrior’s knave he was allowed, in the company of others
of his age, to attempt to take a prisoner# In reward for

54
Loc. cit#
55 ,
Sahagun, loc. cit#

Loc* cit#
 46
his courage and success, he could become elected telpoch-
57
tlato, and have command over all novices at the school
and mete out punishment for offenses. Hot before having
caught four prisoners in battle could the youngster reach
59
the rank of tlacatecatl or quauhtlato.
The direction of these schools was assumed by the
O
telpuchtlatoca ("Speaker of the youth") and the teachcauh-
tin ("Elder Brother” ). An overseer (tepanteuhoatzin) ap­
pointed the priests who served as instructors and told
them "how they should bring up the children and train
40
them." Military instructors probably did not come from
priestly ranks. Basic training in the use of arms was
given by young warriors under the supervision of higher
officers of the army.
Since many of the teachers were priests it was
obvious that part of the training was religious 41
pupils were instructed in the service of the various dei-

57
Meaning "leader of adolescents," see Georg
lEriederici, Arnerikanistisches Woerterbuch (Hamburg, Uni*
versitaet Hamburg, 1941 ^ 601.

Sahagun, loc. cit.

Loc. cit.
Florentine Codex, op. cit., p. 195
Joice, 0£^ cit.. p. 122.
 47
ties in whose honor feasts were celebrated periodically#
Punishments were cruel and severe. Piercing of the
flesh with the sharp points of the century plant and ex­
posure to the smoke of burning chile peppers were custom­
ary. Those who were considered incorrigible were ostra­
cized, regardless of their social rank, and they usually
'-V

42 I
became slaves. Ilf a youngster was found intoxicated or

in the company of intoxicated people and sang oui aloud,

he was clubbed to death. Sometimes this was done in the
45
presence of other youths.^
In the evening, the inmates of the telpochcalli
had a gay time. They went to the cuicacalli, the house of
chants, which was a community gathering place for the ba­
chelors, where they played games with dice, sang and
danced. The novices also danced with the older boys.^^
Those who wanted to leave the telpochcalli pr'e-
sented the teachers with ten or twenty large mantles

Zurita, 0£. cit., p. 111.

43 Sahagun, opl cit., vol. I, p. 293.

Ibid., p. 291. For a discussion of the cui-

cacalco see end of this chapter.
 48
(quachtli) if they were wealthy, in order to gain permis­
sion to get married.^^
Together with the children of the common clansmen,
a number of children whose fathers were high officials or
noblemen attended the telpochcalli. Possibly the sons of
the latter did not qualify for admission into the calmecac,,
the school for the nobility, since only families of cer­
tain clans had the right to attend the calmecac. Another
possibility might have been that the life in the calmecac
was arduous and the discipline was very strict, while the
telpochcalli offered generous privileges for its elite.
Meals were sent to the boys from their homes. Obviously
the diet did not consist of one or two tortillas at each
meal, as was the case in the calmecac. Also, better super­
vision was made possible for individual care of the boys.
Tutors (Acosta calls them "old men") were continuously
watching the boys, admonishing them to be virtuous and to
live chastely.

45
Acosta, 0£. cit., p. 222,

Ibid.. p. 221.

Loc. cit.
 49
Those who distinguished themselves in the telpoch­
calli, after leaving school could become officials in the
administration of the clan and^perhaps, of the next lar-
ger unit, the p h r a t r i e The majority of the graduates
emerged as full members of the clan with their respective
rights and responsibilities. They had what we would con­
sider a well rounded education, a strong sense of respon­
sibility and an understanding for the need for cooperation
toward common goals of the community. As a rule, boys fol­
lowed the profession of their fathers, particularly if
they belonged to one of the specialized trade guilds, some
of which were very distinguished, as for instance the
stone cutters’, goldsmiths’, and featherworkers’ guilds.
Ho mention was made about instruction of what, at
the time, could have constituted the three R ’s* Knowledge
of writing and reading was part of the course of study of
the calmecac, the school for the nobles. Bandelier’s
statement, that "it was the duty of the kin to educate

A O
Monzon, loc. cit.
4.Q
Ibid., p. 758.
 50
or train its members to every branch of public life"^^
would imply— if taken literally— that the clan members had.
a certain knowledge in using and interpreting hieroglyphs
and pictographs, if they assumed certain public offices*
Tax collectors, for instance, kept records of revenue but
it is likely that these officials graduated from the cal-
mecac.^^ Arithmetic was probably taught in the telpoch­
calli for counting in the vigesimal system, but elaborate
computatios in calendrics were done by the scholars of the
calmecac. In general, the priesthood guarded the knowledge
CO
of writing and calculus as their exclusive domain.
Besides the twenty or more telpochcalli which
functioned in Tenochtitlan other cities must have had simi­
lar institutions4^^^ttie, if any, information about these
schools is preserved# Pomar, however, stated that a tel­
pochcalli existed in Tezcoco, one of the city-states on

Bandelier, 0 £. cit., p. 616.

51
cf. Codex Mendoza , list of tributes.
52
Mozon, o£. cit., p. 760.
 51
the eastern shore of the lake of the same name, which was
under Aztec coercion. Pomar related briefly the methods of
training of the youth of Tezcoco, especially the punish­
ments imposed, and his information is in agreement with
that given by Sahagun for Tenochtitlan.^^

IV. THE GAMEGAC

f The education of the sons of the nobility was pro-

vided for in an institution called calme cac .j Monzon be-
lieved that about only fifty pupils attended this school,
however, he did not document this a s s u m p t i o n . H e also
stated that we only know one of the requirements for eli­
gibility to be educated in the calmecac, which was mem-
yO
bership of one of six pre-determined clans.
This school, partly military and partly religious
in character, prepared its members for the more important
positions in the social hierarchy. The priests-in-chief,
the higher military commanders and the ranking officials
in the civil administration were required to be graduates.

Juan Bautista Pomar, Relacion de Tezcoco (1582)

(Mexico: Editorial Salv. Chavez Èayhoe, l9Tl), pp. 26 ff.

MonzSn, loc. cit.

not of the telpochcalli, hut of the calmeeac#^^^
A literal translation of the term calmecac is not
preserved. Robelo translated the word as meaning "long and
narrow corridors of a building such as the corridors and
cloisters in a convent.
**56 To be sure, the calmecac was
a structure of rather complicated pattern consisting of
many small rooms that served as living quarters for priests
and students.^*^ Sahagun^® mentioned twenty-seven parts of
edifices all within the large square commonly called the
Great Temple of Mexico. Seven of these buildings bear the
name calmecac in connection with another name such as:
Tlillan Calmecac - "here dwelt the priests of (the
god) Ciuacoatl"
Mexico Calmecac - "here dwelt the priests who offered
incense at the summit of the (py­
ramid) temple of Tlalocan; this
they did daily."59
Bandelier deduced that these places also were the
abodes of those who underwent the severe trials prelimi­
nary to the investiture with the rank of chief (t e c u h t l i^

Movelo, o p . c i t . , p* 21.
56
As quoted by I. Marquina, Arquitectura Prehis-
Ipanica, (Mexico; Instituto H a d . de Antropologia. 1951 )*
p. 55ÏÏ. „
' Marquina, loc . cit.
As quoted in Bandelier, cit., p. 618.
59 Florentine Codex, op. ciîT, bk.Ill, p. 168.
Bandelier, p£. cit., p. 619.
 53
But he added, "in no case was that building a school for
a privileged class of children." With this statement Ban*^
delier, who in his monographs on Aztec social organization
attempted to disprove the existence of a Mexican aristo­
cracy,^^ is in disagreement not only with the opinion of
all modern writers but with the early chronicles as well.
About forty miles to the southwest of Mexico City,
situated in the Valley of Toluca at the site of Calixtla-
huaca, are various large pyramids and buildings. One group
of structures has been given the name calme cac by the Me­
xican archaeologist José Garcfa Payon who systematically
excavated it. From the inscriptions on a carved stone
altar, now in the Museo Hacional de Arqueologfa in Mexico
City, (the so-called stone of Tizoc), we know that Calixt-
lahuaca was conquered by the Aztec king Ahuizotl in 1476.
Subsequently it was under Aztec domination. The group of
structures is composed of a rectangular patio surrounded
by elevated platforms. On one of these is the calmecac
proper, consisting of a series of rooms, corridors on dif­
ferent levels, and small temples, forming, altogether, a

copplicated pattern.^ The site is one of the main attrac-

Waterman, 0£. cit. , p. 249,

Marquina, op,, cit., p. 231,

 54
tions for tourists visiting Toluca and the buildings of
the calmecac are pointed out with reference to the ancient
educational institution. Unfortunately, Payon’s manus­
cript report on the site was never published,^^nd it is
not known on what evidence he chose to name structure 17
the calmecac, other perhaps, than a superficial resemblance
with what might have been a calmecac.
So far, according to the evidence, no structure at
any site has been identified clearly— either through in­
scriptions or other evidence— as a calmecac or as a tel­
pochcalli. The Great Temple of Mexico with its numerous
adjacent structures still lies buried under the pavement
and buildings of modern Mexico City. Only a glimpse at a
few places is possible where excavations have been con­
ducted and where the remaining stone walls and stucco lay­
ers were consolidated. The chances are, however, that the
many calmecacs mentioned by Sahagun will remain buried for
times to come. An institution similar to the calmecac

63
Personal information given to the writer by
Lie. Roque Ceballos Novelo of the National Museum of Ar­
chaeology, on his visit to Mexico City, July, 1952.

Between 1959-1948 the writer was closely asso­

ciated with the Instituto Hacional de Antropologia, Mexico,
iD.F.
 55
existed among the Mixteos at Achiutla, in a region about
65
200 miles to the southeast of Mexico City.
The high priest in charge of the training of the
young priests in the calmecac had the title Mexicatl Teo-
huatzin. His coadjutor was called Huitznauac Teohuatzin#
Another coadjutor, Tepan Teohuatzin, was in charge of edu­
cation in all the provinces.
Tbe age at which the sons of the nobles entered
the calmecac is given differently by various chroniclers.
67
Zurita claimed that the boys were taken to the temple
(calmecac) at the age of five to serve there. They re­
mained, he continued, until they married or were old
enough to participate in warfare. (
"Registration" in the calmecac was as ceremonious
as in the telpochcalli, save that perhaps the presents and
the banquet given to the priests might have been more
sumptuous •
After the formal request by the father for admis-

65
Joice, pp. cit., p. 94.

Sahagun, pp. cit., vol. I, p. 237,

67
Zurita, pp. cit., p. 108.
 56
sion of his son was heard by the priest, the reply was
given with much dignity, according to Sahagun’s transcrip­
tions. To be sure, the priests, dealing with noblemen did
not express any doubts as to the talents sind good charac­
ter traits the child might have. The reply was much humb­
ler than the one given to the commoner father. Emphasizing
that they acted merely as representatives of the patron
god of the calmecac, Quetzalcoatl, they continued;
We, unworthy serfs, with doubtful expectancy can
only hope for things to come. We cannot foretell with
certainty what shall and what shall not happen to thy
son. But we trust in our almighty god [ Quetzalcoatl]
that he will help thy son.bS
In quoting Sahagun*s Spanish text, one cannot possibly
overlook the Christian background of the faithful mission­
ary, when he put such words in the mouth of a pagan priest.
Following the exchange of speeches, the boy was
taken to the school where he remained until he reached
marriagable age. The parents accompanied him and made of­
ferings of gold, precious feathers, mantles, or ornate
CQ
loin cloths to the god Quetzalcoatl.
Sahagdn gave quite a detailed picture of the life

Sahagun, opSi cit., p. 295*,(Translation mine).

Loc. cit.
 57
of a boy who belonged to the upper class and stated that
the mother or a woman in charge of the household reared
the boy for six or seven years. Then one or two, or some­
times three, pages were attached to him to serve as play­
mates. It is likely that these pages could have been the
sons of the slaves or serfs of the lord. The pages were
70
admonished to conduct themselves properly.
At ten or twelve years, Sahagun continued, the boy
was placed either in the calmecac or in the House of
Chants. By this he meant the cuicacalco which- has been
discussed at the end of this chapter. At fifteen military
instruction began. At twenty the boys participated in war­
fare. But before they marched off, the parents invited the
captains and older soldiers and gave them presents so that
they woj;LLd keep the youngster under their protection.
7 The curriculum was more elaborate than that of the
telpochcalli and included much that was not taught to the
sons of the common clansmen. To hegin with, the novice
|?yas instructed to sweep the courtyards of the temples. The
laying of fires and watching them was a major task. The
youngsters were taught the order in which to set certain
(fires. "Everywhere in the courtyard fires burned, some-

Ibid., vol. II, p. 328.

 58
71
times ten rows of them burned," stated Sahagun. Carry­
ing wood to keep the fires burning was a task assigned to
72
the "very young priests, those who were not yet prudent."
Watch during the night was a duty of those who
were trustworthy. The inexperienced ones were sent out to
cut thorns for the sacrificial blood letting. Gathering
of fir branches was assigned to those already experienced.
The branches were likely to be used for brooms.^
At certain hours, especially before midnight, the
young priests were in charge of blowing the shell trumpets
to call all the priests for prayer. Also at night, the
same students had to dissolve black coloring which was
used at the moment of dawn by everyone in the calmecac to
annoint himself. Wearing black stain on face and body was
a mark of distinction and characterized the inmates of the
calmecac. For a young child, whose parents wished to have
him later educated in the school for nobles, this ceremony
was performed at the school by the priests. After that the
ears were pierced and the blood that appeared was offered
to the god Quetzalcoatl, patron of the calmecac* Then the

71
Florentine Codex, op. cit., bk. II, p. 204.
72
Loc.' cit.
 59
boy was returned to his home until he grew up to be old
73 74
enough to be fully admitted. Mena and Arriaga men­
tioned that the students of the telpochcalli painted only
their bodies black, not having the privilege of staining
the face. The authors gave the codices as reference for
this detail but without stating which of the numerous co-
dices. Examination of available material did not confirm
or refute this statement.
Another mark of distinction for the students of
the calmecac was the way in which they wore their hair.
Sahagun said that small boys had their heads shorn. From
the pictures in the Codex Mendoza it seems that the hair
was worn about an inch long. At the age of ten a strand
of hair was grown on the occiput (mocuexpaltia is the name
for this hair arrangement). By the time they were fifteen
this tuft became rather long (cuexpalchicacpol) and
jmarked the bearer as one who had not yet distinguished
himself at all in warfare. With the capture of his first
prisoner, the young warrior was freed of part of this de­
grading lock so that it hung over the right ear only. A

73 ,
Sahagun, o£. cit., vol. II, p. 295#

Mena and Arriaga, p£,. cit., p. 16.

youngster who had participated in two or more military ex­
peditions without having taken a prisoner was infamously
called cuexpalchicacpol# which meant, "a warrior who wears
the lock of the occiput and who was good for nothing while
75
he went to war."
Besides the menial tasks general emphasis was made
on teaching the boys to show reverence and deference to­
ward others, which included the proper kind of salutation
V

to be given to the different members of the various social

classes. Likewise, instruction in rhetoric was highly im­
portant to prepare the youngster for public office.
The academic part of the curriculum included know­
ledge of mathematics necessary for correct computation of
time elapsed, l^n passing, it might be noted that the Aztec
and the Maya calendar in use up to the time of the conquest
was superior in accuracy to the Julian calendar. By 1582
the latter had accumulated an error of thirtean days when
it was corrected on the initiative of Pope Gregory, 7 ^
use of numbers was likewise important to the Aztecs for

Sahagun, op. cit., vol. II, p. 331,

Ibid.. p. 298.

^ Morley, o£. cit.. p. 305.

 61
keeping an accurate check on the annual quotas of tribute
which poured into the capital from the many conquered, pro-
Y±nces*Ji copy of the original list of tributes was in­
cluded. in the Codex Mendoza.
It has been pointed out that the numerical system
was vigesimal. The number twenty was symbolized by a flag)
this sign was used for quantities up to four hundred. A
symbol like a fir tree, meaning numerous as hairs, indi­
cated four hundred (20 x 20). The next unit was eight
thousand (20 % 20 x 20) and was indicated by a bag suggest­
ing the almost innumerable contents of a sack of cacao
beans. (See plate 2).
^ I n struction in astrology was necessary for the
future priests who kept a monopoly over this knowledge.
Astronomy, likewise, must have been important for the
future military commanders for the purpose of orientation.
To give instruction in writing and reading was a
priestly duty in the calmecac. The Aztec writing was pic-
tographic and was arriving at the stage of syllabic pho­
netics, which is an important part of the hieroglyphic
writing of Egypt, according to V a i l l a n t . Without using

78
Codex Mendoza, op. cit♦, part III.
Vaillant, pp. cit., pp. 207-8, pi. 62 and 64.
80 Ibid., p. 206.___________________________
 62

2o8 A zte cs o f M e x ic o

F i g . 2 . AZTEC NUMBERS AND .METHODS OF ENUMERATION

a. one, a d o t o r fin g e r h. tw e n ty , a fla g c. f o u r h u n d re d , a sig n d e ­
n o tin g h airs d . e ig h t th o u s a n d , a bag e. te n masks o f p re c io u s stone
f. tw e n ty bags o f c o c liin e a l d \ e g. one h u n d re d bags o f cacao h. f o u r
lu in d r e d bales o f c o tto n i. f o u r h u n d re d jars o f h o n e y o f tu n a j. e ig h t
th o u sa n d le a f-b u n d le s o f c o p a l g u m k. tw e n ty baskets each c o n ta in in g
one th o u sa n d siv h u n d re d g ro u n d cacao n ib s 1. f o u r h u n d r e d and tw o
c o tto n b la n k e ts o f th is t \ p c

PLATE II
 63

III
P . M .

A/n (. \\Rn i\(;

\ iK n ii tlu ' I riliu rc R o ll ot M o iu c v u iiia ( a fte r S p iiu lc n , iiy iS ). I h i

ti i h u t a i \ te w Us a i l- m th e l o h m m s a t h o t t o m a iul I'lg fir, d i's ig n a tia i h \ lu m ih c rs .

I 111 LMMuis 11 i m p i i s i - i l : (a I t w o s trin g s o f |a ili h ea ds; ( h i :n tro u rd d ishe s ot

UI ' I d d u s t, (I a n i\ a I h e a d d less, ( i l l Soc h u n c h e s o t t eat hers, ( e ) 40 hatts o t

11II h u l l a! d \ e , (t g> 2 w a r r io r s ' e o s tu n ie s ; ( h i 402 e o tto n lila n k e ts o t th is

I'.itte in . ( I 4 1 H ' b la n k e ts ; ( p 404 h ia n k e ts , ( k i 401, h k in k e ts , ( !) 400 h la n k e ts .

\ o t i th e use of fin g e rs t o r units, tki<ts f o r t w e n tii s a n d tre e lik e si<rns t o r t o u r

h u u ih id s . I hi- sign t o r i-iL'hr rlio u s a n d in,i\ he f o u n d o n P la te A : {h(^ttoui 1

m th e t('i> I l 11 h a n d ia um 1, d esnunatinir th e n u n ih e r of e o n ta in e rs o f h o n e \ .
 64
an alphabet, a picture of a thing or an animal could be
combined with the picture of another thing to give a third
meaning in terms of its second value. Color, position, puns,
and abbreviations all contributed to recording sounds by
this means. The majority of the symbols used were conven­
tionalized designs. It was not possible by this system to
express abstract ideas or general statements. But these
ideographic records were useful to record historical
events and in this way aid the memory of those who passed
on the oral traditions possibly in the form of a chant
81
or saga#
It is beyond the scope of this thesis to discuss
the component parts, and their arrangement, of pictorial
records of Aztecs and Mayas. At least five decades of
systematic research, contained in almost innumerable works,
have brought to light the meaning of Aztec manuscripts and,
according to the leading authorities, over thirty per cent
of the Imya hieroglyphs.®^
The paper used for writing was made of the inner

Loc. cit.
go
Morley, pp. cit.,pp.260-61.
 65
bark of t r e e s , M e n a and Arriaga®^ calculated that the

annual tribute delivered to the ancient capital of the A z ­

tecs amounted to 480,000 sheets. They also stated that

this paper was used almost exclusively for administrative

purposes, such as to record historical events, to copy the

ritualistic calendar, and to make lists of tributes and

maps. However, literature was not abundant, they asserted,

because of the lack of a phonetic alphabet. It is evident

that the writers overlooked another important aspect of

the use of paper. Large quantities were used for decora­

tion of the temples, idols, and dancers at their monthly

religious celebrations, according to Seler’s studies of

the codices.®^ It seems sound, therefore, to assume that

by far the greater part of the paper production went for

that purpose rather than for writing material#

83
For a detailed study on the manufacture of
paper see Victor W. von Hagen, The Aztec and Maya Paper-
makers (Hew Y o r k ; J.J. Augustin, Pub1., 1943)•
84
Mena and Arriaga, 0£. c i t ., p. 14

®^ For a bibliography of part of Seler’s works see

Vaillant, op. cit., p. 296.
 66

Some of the codices which are preserved are writ-

ten not on paper hut on deerskin.

86 To be used for ivriting

the paper or skin had to be covered with a layer of stucco

to provide a smooth surface which must have made it as

precious as genuine parchment was during the Middle Ages.

Also, as in the case of parchment, paper was used over

again. ^

/Those youngsters who prepared to become priests

were taught "all verses of the songs" and techniques for

87
the interpretation of dreams, and of the supernatural.

Those who prepared to become military commanders received

instruction in the art of warfare, such as the principles

of offensive and defensive, and how to capture a prisoner.

It seems proper to point out that the objective of war

was twofold, namely, to add new provinces to the realm

and to obtain as many prisoners of war as possible, for the

sacrificial rites that followed upon the return of the

army to the capital. Ruthless destruction and complete

annihilation of the defeated army was avoided by the Aztecs

88 I
if their own security permitted them to do so.

86
Morley, 0£. c i t ., p. 296.
87
Sahagun, p£. cit., vol. II, p. 298.

®® Vaillant, pp,. cit., pp. 222 ff.

 67
Thus the calmecac in reality offered two courses of

study, one for those who would enter the priesthood and

one for those who would become civil or military chiefs.

During the first school years the curriculum was the same

for all. In the course of time the instructors, who were

either priests or military chiefs decided, after giving

the boys severe tests, the career for which they were best

equipped, physically and mentally. ITo mention is made of

whether the parents had anything to do with the decision,

but it seems likely that the students themselves had op­

portunity to choose their careers on the basis of achieve­

ment.®^

Pomar gave a brief description of the frugal life

that the inmates led at the calmecac at Tezcoco. The only

beverage was plain water. Meals were taken only twice a

day, consisting of one tortilla, or two, if the priest

felt that the boy needed that much. These were tossed them,

without seasoning or other dish, "as one throv/s food at a

90
dog." This report coincides with the diet listed in the

Codex Mendoza. T h e students of the calmecac were strictly

89
Acosta, pp. c i t ., p. 222.
90 ---
Pomar, pp. cit., p. 28.
91 — ^ ---
Codex Mendoza, op. cit., fols. 57-59.
 66
internes and were not allowed to take their meals at home,

as was the case at the telpochcalli. Those who ate secretly

were severely punished, even if their parents had sent them

that food.^^

Small breaches of discipline were punished by ex­

tra performance of the penitencial rite, by pricking with

aloe spines, or by midnight offerings of incense upon a

mountain. The more serious offenses were punished by

beating, or even by death.

/
< In general,the education in the calmecac was su­

perior to that of the telpochcalli^ Pomar summarized the

instructional program as follows:

They spent the day in teaching them to use correct

language, to govern well, to hear justice, to fight
with sword, shield and spear, and to be virtuous,
honest, and well-mannered.94

Through constant admonition "that they might lead

good lives, that they might not waste time nor live lazi­

ly," did the instructors accomplish their educational

goal.Likewise, the parents continued to remind their

92
Pomar, loc. cit.
93
Joice, op. cit., p. 93.
94.
Pomar, p£. cit. , p. 27#
95
Florentine Codex, op. cit., bk.Ill, p. 204.
 X ' 69
children of their duties. The following passage from Saha­

gun is an example of a homilie that a father of noble rank

once preached to his son;

My son, I have already told you many things which
are important for thy instruction and upbringing, so
that thou shallst live in this world like a nobleman
and as a person descendent from illustrious and mag­
nanimous parents.
But I still have to tell thee some other things
which are important for thee to know, and which we
have received from our forefathers, and it would be
an injustice to them not to pass them on to thee:

(1) Be very careful to wake up on time and when

keeping watch at night. Do not sleep all night long.
[Reference is made here to the custom of blowing the
shell trumpets shortly before midnight for prayer!.

(2) Do not haste nor go too slowly when walking

in the street or on the road.

(3) It is advisable that thou speakest with calm­

ness and that thou should not raise thy voice.

(4) If thou hearest or seest bad things, let it

pass and be silent.

(5) Do not listen to things that are no concern of

thine•

(6) If summoned, answer at once, do not let it

happen twice.

(7) Be moderate and honest in dress and ornament.

Do not seek out strange or highly elaborate garments,
nor wear your dress in disrepair. CBy law, a person
had to dress according to his rank and social class.
The use of gold ornaments, for instance, was reserved
for highest officials o n l y ^

(8) In the morning and in the evening do not eat

excessively. It is advisable that thou should have
breakfast before beginning work. Eat slowly and with
 TO
tranquility. Wash thy hands and mouth before thy meals
After thou hast finished, pick up from the floor what
has been dropped and sweep the place clean; then wash
thy hands.

(9) In all things keep the middle road.^^

V. PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Games and sports were given much importance.

Besides war games, there were few, if any, organized team

games in the modern sense. An exception was a ball game,

tlachtli, which was played in especially constructed stone

buildings and is described by Vaillant as follows:

...the court was shaped like the capital letter I.

Walls extended on either side of the stem of the I,
and in the middle of each a stone or wooden ring was
set vertically, in contrast to the horizontal position
of a basketball hoop. The players tried to pass
through this ring a hard rubber ball, which they could
only strike with their elbows, hips or legs. There
must have been some other method of scoring than by
goals alone, since these, very naturally, were of rare
occurrence— so much so that, in the event of one, play­
ers and backers had the right to snatch the wearing
apparel of their adversaries. The game was played far
and wide, courts having been found from the Republic
of Honduras to southeastern Arizona.^'

Pomar stated that the rubber ball weighed about

Sahagun, 0£. cit., vol. II, p. 14-6 (Translation

m i n e )•
97
Vaillant, 0£. cit., p. 203.
 71

PLATE IV.
PICTOGRAPH OF A BALL COURT, CODEX MAGLIABECCHIANO
 72

\
PLATE V.
 73

four p o u n d s . H e also wrote, that the tlachtli was a very

active game requiring muscular effort, coordination and

flexibility, and for this reason it was allowed by the

99
kings.

Other aspects of physical education were implied

in the various chores and exercises practiced regularly at

the telpochcalli and calmecac. "Most of the sons of the no­

bility and of the wealthy practiced these exercises, each

according to his age and ability," stated Pomar.

VI. EDUCATION IN MUSIC, DANCING AND POETRY

In the evening the members of the telpochcalli

went to the "House of Chants" to have a gay time singing

and dancing. Garcia Icazbalceta, who eulogized the educa­

tional work done after the time of the Conquest, but who

did not feel inclined to give much credit to pre-Columbian

accomplishments i n the field of education, bluntly stated

that the House of Chants was in reality a house of prosti-

QQ
Pomar, l o c . cit,

Ibid.. p. 28.

Loc. clt.
 74
tution.^^^ To be sure, the young unmarried warriors of the

telpochcalli were allowed in the evening to frequent cer-

102
tain places where they associated with women. It seems,

however, that the historian did not do justice to the real

function of this establishment.

Tezozomoc^^^ referred to the cuicoyan as the house

of music and dance, stating also that the teachers went

there at night and drank.

Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta, "Education in the

City of Mexico During the Sixteenth Century," transi, by
Walter J. O ’Donnell, C.S.C. (Preliminary Studies of the
Texas Catholic Historical Society, vol. I , n o . ,7
reprinty, p. 3.
1 OP
Murdock, 0£. cit. , p. 384.

Tezozomoc, 0£. cit. , p. 71.

Cf. Molina, op. cit. He did not list the

term cuicoyan in his Vocab ula r i o de la Lengua Mexicana.
Cuicatl is ITahua for song (Molina), the ending -van
usually indicates location (cf. Pedro Barra y Valenzuela,
Rafces Etimologicas del Idioma liahuatl (Ediciones Educa-
cion, Mexico, 1944), p. $2. Cuicoyan is. therefore a com­
pound noun meaning "place of songs".

Cuicacalli is likewise a compound noun derived

from cuicatl, song, and calli, house (Molina).
 75
Pomar, speaking of the calmecac in T e z coco, men­

tioned that "other boys went to the House of Chants and

105
Dance to learn how to sing and dance."

/ There is no doubt that special schools for teach­

ing songs existed, inasmuch as songs had had an important

function in religious ceremonies

Tlapiscatzin was the title of the "caretaker who

took charge of the songs of the devils, of indeed all the

sacred songs that none might do ill with them," stated

Sahagun. He continued to say that this official was great­

ly concerned with the proper instruction in singing, and

"he cried the summons that the singers be gathered, or the

107
chiefs, that they might be taught the songs." Every

town, every ruler and every person of importance maintain­

ed a company of singers and dancers- At festivals the

chief determined the text and time of the songs to be per­

formed.

Pomar, cit., p. 27.

106 ^ Sahagun’s information Supra, p. 57.

Florentine Codex, o p . cit., bk. Ill, p. 195

lOfi
Daniel G. Brinton. Ancient Nahuatl Poetry
(Philadelphia: D.G. Brinton, 1887), p. lO.
 76
Tezozomoc related that there were special schools

where both sexes were taught to sing popular songs and to

109
dance to the sound of the drums#

Brinton commented that:

In the public ceremonies it was no uncommon oc­

currence for the audience to join in the song and
dance until sometimes many thousands would thus be
seized with the contagion of the rhythmical motion
and pass hours intoxicated (to use a favorite ex­
pression of the Nahuatl poets) v/ith the cadence and
the movement•"110

From Sahagun v/e know that the more important

songs, that is, those considered sacred, historical or

legendary, were written down by the Hahuas in books and

taught to the youth in the schools. The compositions of

the ordinary poets were disseminated by oral teaching.

Training of the singers and dancers was begun at an early

age.^^^
Songs were not only important in religious and re­

creational activities. We have in Sahagun a passage con-

£££• clt., quoting Tezozomoc.

Loc. cit.

Ibid.. p. 51.
112
Ibid.. p. 10
 77
cerning the psychological effect of music during manual

activities. Nowadays, in many industrial and commercial

establishments music is piped through a public address

system to help overcome monotony in the execution of cer­

tain jobs. Among the Aztecs it was the Epcoaquacuilli

tepictoton who was concerned with the songs. V/hen anyone

planned to model clay figurines to be used in the worship

of the mountain gods, he consulted with this official that

he might provide the singers and "make them sound well"

when they went to sing in the home where the clay work

was done. Likewise, this official passed judgment upon the

115
songs. A qualification of the "worthy singer" was to

have a clear mind and a strong memory.

7/ords of twenty sacred songs are preserved in the

Florentine Codex, including one that is entitled the "Song

115
chanted every eight years when water tamales were eaten." ^

A reference on dancing, which was chiefly engaged

in by adults, tells generally that the children were ta-

Sahagun, 0£. cit., vol. Ill, p. 198.

Brinton, cit., p. 13 (quoting Sahagun).

115
Florentine Codex, op. cit., bk. Ill, p. 212.
 78
ken to the temple and they all danced. "Then they made

them d r u n k . T h e occasion for such an unusual excess--

intoxication was severely punished— must have been a very

important religious ceremony.

VII. EDUCATION FOR GIRLS

Girls were brought up to assume responsibilities

117
within the household. Zurita stated that they were

reared under strict discipline and with great care by

their mothers, nurses, and older brothers and sisters. At

the age of four they were expected to be very honest in

speech and behavior. Many of the girls never left their

homes until they married. Seldom were they taken to the

temples. 7/hen going out they did not raise their eyes and
118
they were strictly chaperoned by elder women.

Behind the principal temples a hall was reserved

for w o m e n . T h e s e quarters were probably set aside for

those women who served as priestesses. A portion of the

Florentine Codex, o p . cit., bk. Ill, p. 190,

117
Zurita, p£_. cit., p. 109#

L o c . cit.

Motolinfa, ££. cit., p. 127.

 79
calmecac likewise was reserved for girls dedicated by

their parents to the service of the gods. They were under

the charge of elderly unmarried women and assisted in the

sweeping of the temples and in tending the fires. Like­

wise, they prepared food and participated in the manu­

facture of garments and of decorations for idols. They

were required to live in strict chastity. Their service

was not necessarily life long, however. They might leave

at marriagable age by giving presents to the priests.

Joice commented that many girls entered the service of

religion in the hope that their devotion to the gods might

120
be rewarded with a good husband. On entering the cal-
121
m e c a c , their hair was immediately cropped.

Garcfa Icazbalceta, a caustic critic of Aztec

educational achievements, thought that "though sound

moral principles were impressed upon the young women, no­

thing was taught them that furthered the development of

122
their intelligence." Any nation that neglects the edu-

120
Joice, o£. cit. , p. 94.
121
Motolinfa, 0£. cit., p. 128.
122 y
Garcia Icazbalceta, o^# c i t ., p. 3.
 80
cation of its women would be considered backward or pri­

mitive from the vie^^point of our twentieth century. Itis

to be remembered, however, that under the Aztec empire the

role of women was subordinated. They did not enter public

life, with the exception of religion. Hence it was not

imperative to develop their intelligence since they were

123
relegated to caring for the households. Incidentally,

only a few months ago were women in Mexico given the right

to vote.

VIII. CHILD CARE AND TRAINING OF THE YOUTH

ACCORDING TO THE CODEX flENDOZA

The foregoing pages contain a discussion of the

formal educational institutions as we know them from the

reports of the Spanish chroniclers. The survey, however,

would not be complete without considering the pictorial

documents contained in the collection known as the Codex

Mendoza.^^^

1P3
Murdock, 0£. cit. , pp. 382 ff.

CodGx Mendoza, the Mexican Manuscript known

as the Collection of Mendoza and Preserved in the Bod-
^ i a n Library, Oxford, edited and translateU^by Jame s
Cooper Clark (London: Waterlow & Sons, Ltd., 1938) 3 vols
 81
Don Antonio de Mendoza, first Spanish viceroy of

Mexico from 1535 to 1550, commissioned a group of intel­

ligent Indians to prepare a record of the history of the

Aztecs, their traditions, customs and their tributary

system. It was intended to send this record to the Council

of the Indies in Seville. The Indian scribes, after end­

less deliberations, produced a series of documents writ­

ten in pictographs and hieroglyphics. This collection is

now known as the Codex Mendoza, the original of which is

1?5
preserved at the Bodleian Library at Oxford, England.

A Spanish priest who was well versed in the Na­

huatl language but whose identity is not known exactly,

since he signed himself very modestly with only the ini­

tial "J," undertook to insert in Spanish an interpretation

of the pictographs, along with a running commentary, in­

scribed on the reverse sides of the folio pages. He added

a personal note too, complaining that the deliberations of

the Indians had taken so much time that he had only ten

days left to finish his task before his ship was due to

sail. Therefore, he apologized, the sentences are not as

well written as they should be, but he had no time to copy

I b ^ . , vol. I, p. xi.
 82

them all over again. He added, however, that the text is

a true description and interpretation. On its way to Em­

peror Charles V, ?/ho first received and then distributed

to the proper authorities the valuables that arrived from

the New World, the Codex became the loot of pirates.

Through a strange coincidence it came to the attention of

the famous English geographer Hakluyt (1552-1616) who

bought it. Afterward it came in the possession of John

Selden, the jurist, (1584-1654), who also was interested

126
in antiquities and who finally bequeathed it to Oxford.

Clark, in 1938, was the first to publish a scholar­

ly commentary on the Codex, with a translation and a fac-

127
simile reproduction in color. In the preface of this

Ibid., p. x i i . , Cf. also Moreno in his preface

to Clavijero, 0£. cit., pp. 34-5.
127
See footnote 124, Supra, p. 80. The only pre­
vious edition, as stated by Clark (o£. c i t ., vol.II, p.68)
is by Manuel Orozco y Berra, Codice Mendx)zino (Anales Mus.
N a d . , Mexico, 1877-82, vols, i-iii). Clark observed that
"the Spanish text is given together with sixteen colored
plates, reduced, of the first [historical]part. Vol.Ill
[of the Anales]contains a short commentary up to plate iv.
Paul Radin in "The Sources and Authenticity of the
History of the Ancient Mexicans," (XJnjv. of Calif. P ubl.
in Amer. Archaeol. and Ethnol. , iCVII, Berkeley, Ï920),
pp. 50-56, ~tlran slated the commentary accompanying the pain­
tings for plates 1-18 only. He stated that"the Codex is
utterly unreliable and misleading. It is rather remarkable
that the other parts of the Codex [meaning. narts_^ II and III]
should he so far superior to the hrstorica3.lfi.rstpart]
section."
 83
edition, T . A. Joice, archaeologist of the British Museum,

pronounced this manuscript an invaluable historical docu-

ment.^^®
Part Three of the Codex gives an account of the

life of infants and adolescents under the care of their

parents. The Indian scribe picked what might be called

an average case and recorded one characteristic phase of

the educational process for each chronological a g e . This

account remained necessarily sketchy but nevertheless im­

portant since it fills some of the gaps left by other

manuscripts dealing with this subject. Although it is not

specifically stated, it seems that the family depicted be­

longed to the middle class, enjoying clan membership with­

out necessarily belonging to the privileged nobility.

Folio 57 begins with a description of an infant

four days old. (See plate 6). The commentary is trans­

lated as follows:

At the end of twenty days the parents took their

child to the temple called calmecac (large hall

128 Codex Mendoza, op. cit. , Vol. I, p. xi.

 84
where priests lived) and, with offerings of mantles,
maxtles (loincloths) and food presented him to the
priests.129

The use of the term calmecac here does not necessarily

imply that the child’s parents belonged to the nobility

or the wealthy. Rather, as was pointed out earlier in the

study, all children were taken to the temple after birth

for the performance of sacrificial rites and to pay hom­

mage to the gods. At this ceremony the future of the child

was predicted.

The pictographs (folio 57) shov/ the infant in his

cradle, accompanied by his father, mother, the chief

priest and a teacher. The next page (folio 58) is divided

into four parts, showing in each section a father v/ith his

son on the left side, and a mother with her daughter on

the right side.

Section I shows the boy or girl at the age of

three, which isindicated by three blue circles. Both in­

fants wear their hair cropped and are scantily clad. The

father sits on a strav/ mat, his hands tucked under his

mantle, which is v/orn similar to a Roman toga. The act

of speaking is indicated by a simple speech scroll in

Ibid.. p. 89.
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{'^■Çso^crr} i^lS
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plate VI.

CODEX MENDOZA, FOLIO 57

j
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<rrrrOf '86
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PLATE VII.
CODEX MENDOZA, FOLIO 58
 87

front of the lips of both adults. "By quiet words parents

teach their children to be obedient," commented the Span­
ish priest who inserted the explanations, "and they give
them one half tortilla (cake) at each meal."^^^ The
mother is on her knees, wearing a long skirt and an em­
broidered shirt (huipil).
Age four is indicated in Section II. The boy,
carrying a bowl,is sent to fetch water. The girl is taught
131
the names of the things contained in the workbasket.
A spindle whorl and a little dish used for supporting the
spindle are clearly depicted. One tortilla at each meal is
allowed at that age,
Section III shows the children at the age of five.
The boy is instructed to carry light loads of wood or
grass for making brooms. For greater ease he disposes of
his mantle and uses it for carrying purposes. The girl is
shown howv to use a spindle. Their ration is still one tor­
tilla.
liThen he is six (Section IV) the boy is sent to
market to pick up odds and ends that the merchants may
have dropped. The girl is taught how to spin. Emphasis is

Ibid.. p. 90.
loc. cit.
 88
given to the importance of learning to assist their
parents and not wasting time in idleness. The children
132
may have one and one-half tortillas.
Folio 59, Section I, shows the father teaching
his seven year old son the use of a fishing net, while the
mother continues to give instruction in spinning. The diet
is still one and one-half tortillas, and is not increased
before the age of thirteen.
The following sections reflect the current Aztec
ideas in child psychology. In case of disobedience at the
age of eight (Section II)parents threaten their children
with maguey spikes so that they weep for fear.
Section III shows the punishment carried out at
the age of nine. The father ties the boy’s hands and feet
and thrusts maguey spikes in his shoulders and body. The
mother pricks her daughter’s wrist with spikes.
At ten the disobedient child who does not want to
work is beaten with a stick. For further punishment their
diet consists of the same amount of tortillas as given at
the age of five.

Ibid.. p. 91
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PLATE VIII. CODEX MEIIDOZA, FOLIO 59

 90
A cruel torment is shown on Folio 60, Section I.
The eleven year old child who disregards verbal reproofs
is compelled to inhale axi smoke(Capsium Axi Veil), to
make him or her give up idleness and to employ his time
usefully instead. Only one and one-half tortillas are
133
given to teach them not to be greedy.
If the twelve year old child would not listen, the
father would lay the boy naked and bound on damp ground
and leave him there all day long. The mother made her
daughter rise before dawn and sweep house and street. They
were still rationed.
At thirteen (Section III) the boy goes out in his
canoe and the girl learns to grind corn and to cook. Two
tortillas are allowed.
At fourteen (Section IV) the boy goes fishing and
the girl is taught to weave.
Folio 6l sho?/s two temple structures, the calmecac
and the cuicacalli (House of Chants). The son, at fifteen,
is handed over for instruction according as the lad was
inclined, either to the master of youths or to the chief
priest who are seated before their respective quarters. 134

133
Loc. cit.
Loc. cit.
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PLATE IX.CODEX IffiNDOZA, FOLIO 60

 IS

o oo :
to 0 0 ^
.ô O 0 0 ’
XO O O -
\ GO
:
4

<\

f.
i
t-
PLATE X . CODEX ACEDDOZA, FOLIO 61 (UPPER SECTION)
 We know from Sahagxin, as pointed out earlier, that
military instruction began at the age of fifteen. He also
stated that the sons of noblemen entered the Calmecac or
the cuicacalco at the age of ten or twelve. The scene in
the Codex Mendoza shows the youth as a rather tall indivi­
dual and perhaps, the Indian scribe chose the scene to
mark the end of child training within the family and the
beginning of public instruction. It was also pointed out
that there is no agreement among the various chroniclers
on the exact age at which the sons of noblemen entered
the calmecac. Disagreement on this detail, important as it
may be, however, should not bear upon passing judgment on
the veracity or accuracy in general of one or the other
chronicler. Discrepancies in detail are frequently found
in the primary sources and are due to misunderstandings or
faulty memory.
Folio 61 depicts some of the duties of the young
priests, such as sweeping, carrying firewood, as well as
some of the punishments which were inflicted upon the
neophytes who did wrong or who were careless. In the last
section on this folio we see how a father entrusts his son
to a valiant warrior (yaotequia. captain) for training in
the art of war.
 94
The following pictures show details concerned
with the social organization but are not related to the
topic under study#
 95

CHAPTER IV

EDUCATION IN THE MAYA AREA

For the Maya Area the early chronicles give a

rather elaborate acconnt of general historical events
but little only on education of the Maya youth* The social
organization showed a different pattern from that of the
Aztecs*

I. SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AMONG THE MAYAS

A summary of Maya history would give but a frag­

mentary picture of the magnificent achievements of one of
the greatest pre-Columbian cultures, and would reguire
more space than could be justified by the scope of this
thesis*
It must suffice for the present purpose to outline
the three main epochs of Maya history: (1) the pre-Maya
period, extendng from about 300 B*C* to 317 A.D., (2) the
Maya Old Empire from 317 to 987, and (3) the Maya New
Empire from 987 to 1697* Each of these epochs may again
be divided into three subdivisions*^

^ Morley, cit*, p. 38
 96
Bishop Landa described the various calamities that
affected Yucatan between the middle of the fifteenth cen­
tury and the final conquest of the country by theSSpan-
iards in 1527-1546. An internal warfare, a plague, a
terrific hurricane, the ‘’pestilence of the swelling,“
famine and destruction tore at the social structure of the
Maya city states. This period can justly be called the
period of disintegration. Exhausted by civil war, be­
trayed by a number of their own leading native houses,
the people of the New Empire were in no condition to re­
sist the better-armed Spaniards and finally succumbed
2
to their superior might.
At the head of the state stood the halach-uinic
for "True Man”), or territorial ruler. This posi­
tion was hereditary in a single family in each city state,
descending from father to oldest son. The powers of these
officials were very broad. One of the most important
duties was the examination of candidates for the chief­
tainships of the various towns and villages. This took
place at the beginning of each katun (twenty year cycle)
and was in effect a kind of civil service examination for

^ Ibid.., pp. 94-7

 97
the purpose of weeding out those who applied for the po­
sitions under false pretense. The ”interrogation of the
chiefs” proved, among other things, the possession of
certain esoteric knowledge, supposed to have been handed
down from father to son in those families which were re-
?
garded as eligible to chieftainship*
Below the halach-uinic— who also was the priest-
in-chief— stood the batabs or lesser chiefs, who admin­
istered the local affairs. They and the lesser officials
constituted the nobility. The ruling house and nobility
took great pride in preserving their family histories,
genealogical trees, and the records of their descent.
The priests must have been of equal, if not
greater, importance than the lords and lesser chiefs*
Landa said that both classes were hered’itary and were
derived from the nobility;
They taught the sons of the other priests and the
second sons of the lords who were brought them from
their infancy, if they saw that they had an incli­
nation for this profession;...and his (the high-
priest’s) sons or his nearest relatives succeeded
him in office*4

^ Ibid., pp. 151-2.

^ Ibid*. p. 170 (quoting Landa)*

 98
Various classes of priests made up the priesthood,

the titles of which have been carefully recorded by L a n d a .

and Herrera.

The great mass of the people were the humble corn

farmers, whose toil supported not only themselves but

also their supreme ruler (the halach u i n i c ). their local

lords and the priesthood. Their lands were held as com­

munity property and tilled in common.

It was this social class, by far the largest in

the state, who, directed by the nobility but inspired by
the priesthood, raised the great cities of stone that
5
abound throughout the Yucatan peninsula.

At the bottom of the social scale were the slaves.

The condition in each case would seem to havearisen in
one of five different ways, according to Morley^: (1) by
having been born a slave; (2) by having been made a slave
in punishment for stealing; (3) by having been made a
prisoner of war; (4) by having become an orphan; and (5)
by having been acquired by purchase or trade. Although
children born into slavery were uncommon, the condition

^ Ibid.. p. 174

® Ibid.. p. 176.
 99
existed, but in such cases provision was made by law and
custom for the possible redemption of such slave children.
7

Orphans were acquired for sacrifice either by

purchase or in some cases a special business of kidnapping
children for this purpose was carried on. The price of a
small boy varied from five to ten stone beads. Two fathoms
of thick beads were paid in one ease for each of two boys,
who were to be sacrificed. Frequently orphans, who had
been brought up by rich lords, were sacrificed, especially
when they were the children of slave women, or when their
8
fathers were already dead.
From the cradle to the grave, the life of the
common people was dominated by their religious beliefs as
interpreted by the priesthood.
The ancient Maya loved their children deeply, just
as do their descendants today. Children were greatly de­
sired and the women even "asked them of the idols with
-s

9
gifts and prayers.”"^ As soon as the child was born, it
was washed and four or five days later the headboards,
which were to flatten artificially the forehead, were

Ibid.. p. 177.
® loo, cit.
^ Ibid.. p. 181.
bound to its head. These boards were left in place for
several days, and, after they were removed, the head re­
mained flattened for the rest of the child’s life. De­
pressed foreheads were considered a mark of beauty among
the ancient Maya, as was the condition of being cross­
eyed. This distinction was achieved deliberately by hanging
little balls of resin to the hairs falling between the
children’s eyes. The ears, lips, and septum of the nose
were pierced to hold ornaments of gold, copper, jade, or
wood.^^
In ancient times, while the child was still very
young, it was carried to a priest, who forecast its horos­
cope, as was the case among the Aztecs. Even the profess­
ion the child was to follow in later life was determined.
Finally, the priest gave the child the name it was to
bear during childhood.
Until about the age of three or four years, the
children were brought up by their mothers, occasionally
being kept at the breast until the end of that period. At
the age of four or five, a small white bead was fastened
to the hair on the top of the boy’s head, and a string
was tied around the waist of the girl with a red shell

Ibid.. pp. 181-2.

 101
attached to indicate virginity. To remove either of these
before the puberty rite was considered dishonorable*^^
Formerly, according to Landa as quoted by Morley,
the Maya:
...married when they were twenty years old but t

that in his[Landa* s] time they married when they were

twelve or fourteen. In the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries Maya boys of Yucatan married at
about seventeen or eighteen and girls about four­
teen and fifteen. Today in the Indian villages of the
northern peninsula the average age of the boys at
marriage is twenty-one years,and the girl’s nearly
seventeen.I2

II. EDUCATION OF MAYA BOYS

While the Aztecs were deeply concerned with an

education of their young that would prepare them to carry
on the objectives of an imperialistic theocracy, the Maya
who— as their history shows— were less interested in con­
stant territorial expansion, educated their youth chiefly
in the "sciences” and religion#
Children were taught from an early age to respect
their elders. The young people "asked their advice and so
they boasted of being o l d . V e n e r a t i o n for old age and

Ibid.. p. 184.
Ibid.. p. 188.
15
Tozzer, p£. cit., p. 124*

Cattle**!
 102
the ooneonanittant conclusion that experience and wisdom
accumulate and increase with progressing age is a basic
moral premise of many primitive societies# The young
people of Yucatan, however, felt that the superiority of
their elders was rather oppressive, and they avoided deal­
ing with them except in case of absolute necessity# Boys
and adolescents for this reason kept to themselves and
gathered in a special building for their recreational ac­
tivities such as ball matches and other games#^^
The institution of the Men’s House is knovm among
various societies, especially among those with rigid so­
cial control. The young people "were accustomed to have
in each town a large house, whitened with lime and open
on all sides, where the young men came together for their
a m u s e m e n t s . T h u s it is understandable that boys of
marriagable age did not associate to an appreciable ex­
tent with the married people#^^
The men’s house served also as a dormitory, since
17
”they slept there together always until they married.”

landa, 0£. cit., p. 55

15
Tozzer, loc. cit.
loc. G i t .
17 Landa, loc. cit#
 103

And again the chronicler’s concern with standards of mo­

rality is evident when he commended the Mayas for absence
18
of sodomy. Tozzer even noted that the Mayas
as seem to have
been singularly free from erotic practices# 19
It was the priesthood which bore the responsibi­
lity for the education of the youth and for transmitting
the vast store of scientific knowledge. The priests edu­
cated candidates for admission to their order, in a simi­
lar way to that of the. Aztecs. No special education, as
far as is known, was provided for the great masses of the
20
people, except that given by the family and the elders#
It was customary for a boy to follow the father’s
occupation. The sons of priests and lords, however, were
not arbitrarily assigned to their professional duties and
entered the priesthood only if they had the desire to be-
21
come a priest# Schools existed only for the education of
the nobility and of the priesthood. The priests employed

18
Tozzer, p£. cit#, p. 124, footnote 576.
Ibid#t p. 128, footnote 594.
on
Joice, opI cit.t pp. 260 and 284.
PI
Theodore A. Willard, The Lost-Empires of the
Itzaes and Mayas (Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Company,
1933 ), p. 158.
 104
themselves in the duties of the temples and in "teaching
22
their sciences as well as in writing books about them."
The curriculum was quite academic and included the
25
following subjects :
Reading and Writing
Use and understanding of hieroglyphic writing
which included phonetic, pictographic, and ideo­
graphic symbols.
Knowledge of the preparation of the writing mate­
rials (paper, brushes, tints).
Arithmetic and Calendrics
Computation by ^means of an ingenious system of
numeration by position, involving the concep­
tion ahdsuse of the mathematical quantity of
zero.
Computation of years, months and days.
Knowledge of the Sacred year of 260 days.
Knowledge of the calendar year of 365 days.
Understanding of calendrical corrections.
Position and length of festivals and ceremonies.
Fatal and unlucky days and the season in which
these occurred.
History
Ancient history of the country and their people.
Genealogy.
Medicine
Remedies for diseases and medicinal qualities of
all plants, vegetables and other cures for ill­
ness.

22
Tozzer, op. cit., p. 27.
25
Loc. cit., and Willard, op. cit.$ p. 158.
 105
Divination
Methods of divination and presenting prophecies.
Religion
Administration of the [pagai^ sacraments.
Ceremonial procedures.
The duties of the young priests, as summarized by
W i l l a r d , c o n s i s t e d of supervising temple services and
sacrifice, dispensing advice to the people, teaching such
members of the upper classes as desired instruction, and
writing books and scripts for their rulers and other
people of importance.
Before assigning a priest to a town or province,
he had to pass a rigid examination in the knowledge of
sciences, history, and religious ceremonies. The high
priest was in charge of administering these examinations.
When these young men took up their charges, they were
provided with books and from time to time were sent ad­
ditional literature, perhaps current news and astronomi-
26
eal discoveries.
An example of what could be labeled adult educa-

24
Loc. cit.
25
Tozzer, p£. cit., p. 27*
26
Willard, pp. cit., p. 158.
 106
tion was the interest fo some of the principal lords in
learning about the sciences from mere curiosity. On ac­
count of this knowledge they were highly thought of, al-
2T
though they never made use of it publicly.

III. THE SCIENCES

Knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was a possession

only of the priests, sons of priests, some principal lords
and the younger sons of the lords who were inclined for
28
this profession. This statement of Landa’s was quali­
fied later by the remark that not all priests knew how to
write. Consequently, the priesthood, through holding a
monopoly on the knowledge of written communication, were
29
considered very important and powerful persons.
Maya writing represents one of the earliest forms
of a formal graphic system that has come down to us. It^
is almost entirely ideographic and verges on the develop-
50
ment of phonetic characters.

27
Tozzer, pp. cit., p. 29.
28
Loc. cit., footnote 158.
29
Ibid., p. 28, footnote 154.
50
Morley, op. cit., pp. 260-1,
 107
A large body of inscriptions carved in stone and
wood, treating primarily of chronology, astronomy and re­
ligious matters, has been assembled by students of Maya
archaeology. In Morley*s words:
...it is now possible to read about one third of
the hieroglyphs, sufficient to permit comprehension
of the general tenor of these ancient stone records."
The earliest object engraved in Maya hieroglyphic
writing dates from 320 A.D. and no great changes took
place in the way of writing after that t i m e A n Indian
known by the name of Itzamna or Kinich Ahau is credited
55
with the invention of writing.
Because of the fanaticism of the early Spanish
priests, as pointed out before, only three pre-Columbian
Maya codices have survived. Landa, in speaking of the
hieroglyphic manuscripts, said;
These people also made use of certain characters
or letters with which they wrote in their books their
ancient affairs and their sciences, and with these
and drawings and with certain signs in these drawings,
they understood their affairs and made others under­
stand them and taught them.

Ibid.. p. 262.
Ibid.. table XI.
55
Collection of Unedited Documents Relating to
the Discovery and Conquest and Organization of the Ancient
Spanish Possessions Beyond the Seas. Publ. by the Academy
of History,Madrid, 1898; typewritten translation at the
Southwest Museum Library, Los Angeles, vol. II, p. 57.
 108
We found a great number of books in these charac­
ters, and as they contained nothing in which there
was not to be seen superstition and lies of the devil,
we burned them all, which they regretted to an amazing
degree and caused them affliction.54
These books were written on a large sheet doubled
infolds, which wasenclosed entirely between two boards.
The writing was arranged in columns, covering both sides
of the p a p e r T h i s information was not available for the
general public.
The codices,or books, were made of the bark of a
tree. Ficus cotonifolia, pounded into a pulp and held to­
gether with some sort of natural gum as a bonding sub­
stance. The individual leaves of the extant codices are
almost the same size, measuring about nine inches high by
five inches wide. A coating of fine lime was applied to
both sides providing a smooth glossy surface for writing.
These books were held in great esteem and in the
monthof Up the priests anointed the boards which covered
the paper, with verdigris dissolved in water, which was

Morley, op. cit., p. 295.

Tozzer, pp. pit., p. 28.

Morley, pp. pip., pp. 295-6,

 109
37
brought from the forest by a virgin to purify them.
The ancient Maya had. developed their own system of
positional mathematics based upon twenty as its unit of
progression instead of ten, that is, vigesimal instead of
decimal,
...at least a thousand years earlier than its
invention in the Old World by the Hindus and nearly
two thousand years before positional mathematics came
into general use among our own ancestors of western
Europe.
To illustrate the functioning of this number sys­
tem, Morley states:
unit of the Maya calendar was the day or kin.
The second order of units, consisting of 20 kins was
called the uinal (month). In a perfect vigesimal sys­
tem of numeration, the third term should be 400, that
is, 20 X 20 X 1, but at this point, in counting time
only, the Maya introduced a single variation, in order
to make the period of their third order agree in
length with their calendar year as nearly as possible.
The third order of the Maya vigesimal system, the tun,
therefore, was composed of 18 (instead of 20) uinals.
or 360 (instead of 400) kins ; 360 days or kins being
a much closer approximation to the length of the 365-
day calendar year than 400 days.
Above the third order, hov/ever, the unit of pro­
gression used to form all the higher numbers is uni­
formly 20, as will be seen below, where the names and
numerical values of the nine known different orders
of time periods are given:

Tozzer, ibid.. p. 153.

Morley, ibid., p. 275.

 110
20 kins - 1 uinal or 20 days
18 uinals - 1 tun or 360 days
20 tuns - 1 katun or 7,200 days
20 katuns - 1 baktun or 144,000 days
20 baktuns - 1 pictun or 2,880,000 days
20 pictuns - 1 calabtun or 57,600,000 days
20 calabtuns - 1 kinehiXiun or 1,152,000,000 days
20 kinchiXtuhs - 1 alautun or 23,040,000,000 days 59
In discussing the solar year, Morley noted that :
Eminent astronomical authorities have said that
the ancient Maya possessed a more accurate knowledge
of astronomy than did the ancient Egyptians down to
the Ptolemaic Period of Egyptian History (325 B.C. -
30 B . C . ) . ..40

The Maya year had only 365 days hut the priests
devised an ingenious system of intercalation which correc­
ted a calendar year in such a way that it was more accu­
rate than contemporaneous European reckonings, as the
following tabulation, presented by Morley, will show:
Length of the year according to
modern astronomy . . . 365*2422 days
Length of our old, uncorrected year . 365*2500 days
Length of our present, corrected, Gre­
gorian year . . . . . . . . 365*2425 days
Length of the year according to
ancient Maya astronomy . . . . . . 365*2420 days
It is evident, Morley continued, that Pope Gregory’s
correction is 3/10,000 of a day too long, while the an-

^^Ihid.. pp. 275-6.

Ibid.. p. 304.
 Ill
/

oient Maya correction was only 2/10,000 of a day too

s h o r t A n d yet, the Mayas achieved such a high degree
df astronomical accuracy without telescopes or other in­
struments upon which modern astronomers depend*
This digression from the main topic was intended
for a better appreciation of the subject matter in the
curriculum that a Maya student was required to cover*

IV. PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Very little is known on the subject of physical

education. Landa mentioned ballgames, without further
explanations. In general, "boys played much and never
abandoned their bows and arrows." According to this
chronicler boys played a kind of dice game and "many
4P
other games."
Prominent was the ball game played in a special
45
court, described on pages 70-73*

Ibid.. p. 305.
42 .
Landa, pp. cit., pp. 35-6.
43
Marquina, pp. cit., discussed ball courts at
the following Maya sites: Balakbal, Calakmul, Coba, Copan,
Chichen-Itza, Edzna, Kaminaljuyu, Naachtun, Palenque,
Piedras Hegras, Uxmal, Yaxchilan and Zayil.,See p. 940*
 112

V. EDUCATION FOR GIRLS

Unfortunately, little information is available

regarding the education of girls. The mothers educated
their daughters by teaching them what they themselves
knew and by making them work. Wrongdoing was punished by
pricking ears and arms. If the girls raised their eyes,
they were scolded and anointed with peppers which must
have been rather painful. Unchastity was punished by
beating and by rubbing with peppers.
It was a great reproach and a severe reprimand
to say to badly trained girls that they resembled women
who had been brought up without a mother

44
Landa, pp. cit., p. 58.
45
Tozzer, op. cit., ji. 127.
 113

CHAPTER V

EDUCATION IN THE INGA EMPIRE

During the last phase of pre-Columbian history of

the Andean area the Inca Empire achieved remarkable pro­
minence. Education became the object of personal concern
of the Inca rulers. Before discussing the educational as­
pects of this culture, an analysis of the social organi­
zation seems indicated#

I. SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE INCA EMPIRE

Approximately ten million Indians, occupying a

territory 2500 miles in length and 300 miles in average
breadth, comprising the modern republics of Ecuador and
Peru, northern Chile, western Bolivia, and northwestern
Argentina, had been welded into a political and cultural
unit under the Inca dynasty.^
From earliest times, life in Peru centered in the
ayllu or clan, a kin group acknowledging the authority of
a chief and joint responsibilities for the acts of its

1
Murdock, pp. cit.. p. 403*
 114
members* The eighth ruler of the dynasty successfully
transformed the poorly organized feudal state which he
inherited into a symmetrical hierarchy of groups and of­
ficials pyramided strictly according to the decimal system.
He thereby initiated a regulated system of production,
distribution, and consumption, which resembled what We
have come to know as state socialism, according to Mur-
dock.'"^
At the apex of the pyramid stood the divine ruler
or Sapa Inca* Beneath him ranked the provincial nobility
who held most of the official positions in the military
and administrative branches* A sharp line of distinction
separated nobles and commoners whose activities were
mainly agricultural and pastoral. As members of the clans
they were responsible to the heads of household*^
Furthermore, two special classes, though never
very large, filled an important place in the Inca economy*
The first, the yanacuna♦ consisted of men levied as youths
for the personal service of the emperor* They were em­
ployed as palace attendants and served in the temples*

^ Ibid.. p. 410.
^ Ibid.. p. 415.
^ Ibid., p. 418.
 115
Sometimes they were presented to officials as domestic
servants, assigned to minor administrative duties, or
trained in specialized handicrafts. Though without clan
c
rights, their status was scarcely that of slaves*"^
The second of the special classes were the aclla-
cuna, sometimes called the "Virgins of the Sun," or "Cho­
sen Women." Selected at an early age from overpopulated
areas, they lived in convents under the supervision of
matrons. Some, at the age of fourteen, took vows of chas­
tity and became priestesses. The majority, however, at the
will of the emperor, became imperial concubines, married
yanacuna. or were bestowed upon favored nobles as secon-
dary wives#
Parents greatly desired children for the economic
assistance they could render. To toughen a baby its mother
gave it a cold bath every morning but did not otherwise
remove it from the cradle. Like the Maya mother, she bound
the baby’s head between boards to flatten it in conformity
with prevailing standards of beauty.^
At the age of two a child was weaned and the rela-

5
Ibid.. p. 426. Cf. also Means, p£. cit., p. 297*
^ Murdock, p£. cit.. p. 428. Cf. also Means, pp.
cit.. pp. 408-15. See part V, Infra.
7
Murdock, opl cit., p. 434.
tives assembled for a feast lasting several days. The
child’s hair and nails were clipped with a stone knife
for the first time, and he received a name and was shower­
ed with gifts.^
Formal education was reserved for youths of the
Inca and aristocratic classes. Its purpose was to train
for public life# Boys at fifteen underwent rather elabo-
9
rate puberty rites and were given a permanent name.
Marriage was obligatory at the age fixed by law— eighteen
to twenty for girls, twenty-four to twenty-five for men#
Those who were recalcitrant were wedded against their will
by official edict#^^
The priests who served the various cults some­
times inherited their position but were usually appointed
by their superiors in the ecclesiastical hierarchy#
Appointments were oftentimes made because of some personal
peculiarity of the candidate, such as epilepsy, birth
during a thunderstorm, or recovery after being struck by
11
lightning# The higher priests were supported from the

® Ibid.. p. 435.
9
Loc. cit#

Ibid., p. 436.
Ibid.. p. 441.
 117

produce of lands set aside for the maintenance of the

church. The lower clergy, however, served only for brief
terms in rotation and otherwise lived the life of ordi­
nary citizens# The priests of the imperial cult were or­
ganized according to a decimal system under a sort of
pontifex maximus who was a near relative of the Sapa
12
Inca#-^*^
A fundamental principle of the Incaic system was
that every man must serve the state in one way or another
according to his age or capacity# 13
Although the household (chunca), not the indivi­
dual, was the unit of society, the state, as a means of
producing the greatest amount possible, took a special
cognizance of the individual. A series of age categories
of persons were drawn up, based upon their capacity for
work. The series was dfawn up in the following manners
1. Mosoc-caparic - Babe newly born and still in arms
2. Saya-huamrac - Child able to stand, about one
year old
3. Maeta-puric - Child between one and six years
4. Ttanta-raquizic Bread receiver, a child six to
eight years old
5. Pucllac-huamrac Boy playing about, eight 3 )to
sixteen years old

12
Loc. cit#
13
Means, op# cit#, p. 294#
 118
6. Cuea-pallae - Coca picker, doing light manual
labor, sixteen to twenty years
7* Ima-huayna - A youth, aiding his elders in t
their tasks, twenty- to twenty-
five years old
8# Puric - The able bodied man, head of a
household and payer of tribute,
between twenty-five and fifty
years
9# Ghaupi-rucu - Half old, doing light work, bet­
ween fifty and sixty
10# Puhuc-rucu - Old mansleeping, sixty and up­
wards 14
The exact number of age grade divisions is given
differently by various authors. Rowe^^ stated that there
were twelve altogether. In any case, it is noteworthy
that the Incas are the only people among the American
Indians who placed emphasis on a detailed division of
individuals based mainly on chronological age. The tran­
sition from one age grade to the next came not at a cer­
tain period, for the Indians kept no exact reckoning of
their age but with obvious changes in physical condition
16
and usefulness#

loc. cit.
15
Rowe, o£. cit., p. 256#

Loc. olt.
 119

II. THE COLLEGE AT CUZCO

Most children, as mentioned before, learned only

by helping their parents, which they %egan to do almost
as soon as they could walk. Formal instruction was re-
17
served for the nobility and the "Chosen Women."
The greatness of the Inca nobility arose not
merely from place and political power, but also from
18
superior education# When the inca Roea founded the
College at Cuzco he enunciated a great social principle,
which Means, translated as follows:
...that the children of the common people should
not learn the sciences, which should be known only
by the nobles, lest the lower classes should become
proud and endanger the common wealth.!^
In the time of the Inca Pachacutec (circa 1400-1448)
that college was greatly enlarged and improved, remain­
ing however, true to the ideal of its founder#'

Ibid.. p. 282.

Means, 0£. cit., p. 305#

19
Loc. cit# (Means quoting Father Bias Valera,
cited by Garcilaso, Pt. I, Bk. IV, Ch. XIX. Garcilaso in­
corporated in his writings much information gathered by
Father Bias whose writings are not preserved).
Ibid., p. 306.
Garcilaso wrote that :
••♦in the Indian language [Quechu^ the schools
were called yacha-huasi, which means house of teach­
ing. Here lived the wise men and masters of that
commonwealth, called amautas or philosophers, and
the haravecs or poets. They were much esteemed by
the Incas and by all the people. Many disciples
lived with them, chiefly of the blood royal.
The amauta-cuna and the haravec-cuna constituted
together an extremely important section of the nobility.
In their hands was concentrated all the wisdom and all
22
the intellectual amenities of life under the Inca regime.
It was Inca policy to have the heirs of provin­
cial chiefs reside and be educated in Cuzco, where, be­
sides being hostages for the good behavior of their
parents, they could be deeply imbued with the Incaic
idea and so come to be important agents for the disse­
mination of pro-Incaic propaganda.^^ Krickeberg point­
ed out that the education in the schools for nobles was
compulsory for all the sons of the clan leaders. This
insured the rearing of the youngsters in the customs,
traditions, and ideology of the Incas.

21
Iioc. cit. (Means quoting Garcilaso, Pt. I.,
Bk. VII, Ch. X, Vol. II, as transi, by Markham,pp.247-8)
ItId., p. 305.
23
Ibid., p. 306 (Means quoting Garcilaso)
Krickeberg, op. cit., p. 437.
 121
Morua, in discussing the four year course of in­
struction at the College in Cuzco, says;
During their first year those lads who had come
from provinces where Quechua[the official languagej
was not spoken were taught that language.
In their second year students took up the study
of theology, ritual and related matters.
In their third year they learned how to interpret
the quipu (knotted string record).
In the fou rth year they went further into that
study, learning also about history and "many other -
things" from the knot-records.25
Garcilaso, citing Father Bias Valera, stated that
the sons had to serve their fathers up to the age of twenty-
five, and from then on they had to occupy themselves in the
service of the state. Their college education had to pre­
pare them to become devoted and well qualified citizens. T
The educational objectives were listed by Valera as follows;
To achieve mastery in the art of governing.
To become well-adjusted citizens.
To become good soldiers.
To understand the calendar and the meanihgof the
quipu.
To use good language.
To know how to rear their children.
To keep order in their own h o m e s .26

25
Means, 0£. cit.. p. 306 (quoting Morua, op.
cit., Bk. Ill, Ch. 10).
26
Garcilaso, op. cit. (edition of 1943), p. 214,
(quoting Father Bias Valera).
 122
The amautas who constituted the faculty, were
sometimes called philosophers, and at other times teachers.
Specifically, they were not allowed to heat the students
at the college more than once a day, and that punishment
27
was restricted to ten blows on the soles of the feet#
The amauta school, or college, at Cuzco can be
compared, in a way, with our modern teacher training insti­
tutions, insofar as it prepared young teachers with the
object in view to send them to all towns and villages that
were conquered and incorporated in the empire. Their pri­
mary duty was to teach the official language (Quechua),
since it was Inca policy to impose systematically this
language on all provinces. It is obvious that the teachers,
Ls exponents of Incaic ideology, were important agents for
I PQ
propagation of Inca policy#

27
Rowe, op. cit#, p. 283 (quoting Garcilaso,
cit#, Bk. IV, Ch. Ï 9 , and Morua, cit., Bk. Ill,
m. TTT
Ibid.. p. 263.
 123

III. SCIENCES: THE QUIPU AND MATHEMATICS

Writing in our sense of the word was unknown.

Incas had to depend upon the quipu for the preservation of
their records. Means stated that:
Although various chroniclers lead us to suppose
that the quipu or knot record had a narrative charac­
ter, at any rate in some instances, it has been demon­
strated fairly conclusively by modern writers that the
majority quipu-ouna now extant have only mnemonic and
mathematical character.29
The quipu, consisting of long ropes of knotted
cords, gives the impression of being a very primitive de­
vice. However, in Means* opinion:
...the quipu was a really efficient mathematical
and statistical instrument, fully on a par with the
abacus and, in well-trained hands, almost equal to the
modern slide-ruler.30

By means of the quipu, the quipu-camayve, or knot record

keeper, could enumerate and calculate in the decimal system,
[In this respect, according to Means:
...the Incas were far ahead of the Romans, with
their clumsy system of figures, and even of the modern
British, with their absurd £.s.l.3l

29
Means, 0£. cit., p. 326,
Ibid.. p. 327.
Ibid.. p. 326.
 124
Cobo and Sarmiento mentioned the existence of
pictorial records on wooden slabs showing scenic represen-
tations of historical events. These were kept in a
temple near Cuzco. Pachacutee, the great patron of the
sciences, is credited for the establishment of this "libra­
ry". Unfortunately no specimens are preserved. Krickeberg
thought that these records served as mnemotechnical aid
to the amautas and that they resembled the delicate re­
presentations on textiles found in the tombs of Pachaca-
mao. 33

I¥. PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Besides the college, there existed in the Inca

capital a large palace called Cassana (Freezing with Won­
der), which was an assembly place of some kind. It appears
on a plan of ancient Cuzco, by Markham, and is said by
Garcilaso to have been the palace of the Inca Pachacutec

Father Bernabé Gobo (born 1582, in America

1599-1657). Cited By Krickeberg, 0£. cit., p. 447.
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (from 1532 until after
1589), History of the Incas, transi, and ed. by Sir Cle­
ments Markham (London: Hakluyt Society, 1907), cited by
Krickeberg, loc. cit.
33
Krickeberg, loc. cit.
34.
Means, cit., p. 320 and fig. 157#
 125
Means thought that more probably this structure was an
exercise hall or gymnasium for the youths of the Inca ,
caste.
Physical education for the training of the youth
was probably under the direction of the military leaders.
Physical fitness was tes/ted particularly at the age of
fourteen, when a boy was given the breachclout and a new
name in a ceremony which was in a sense a puberty rite*^
The rite included among other tests of valor a
race from the top of a hill to the bottom, probably about
2000 feet and could well have taken an hour or so. Falls
were frequent and the runners were sometimes seriously
hurt.^*^
Inca children were so busy helping their parents
in the daily tasks of farming, herding and keeping house
that they had time for few elaborate games# They played
with balls (papa awki, potato chief) and also played a
kind of pig-pile.^® Puma (poma, mountainilion) is the

Ibid.. p. 321,

^ Rowe, 0 £. cit.. p. 283,

37
Ibid., p. 284. Cf. also Means, cit., pp.378-
82,
38
Rowe, 01^0 cit., p. 288.
 126

name of another game, hut we are not told how it was

p l a y e d . F o o t r a c e s , holas-throwing contests and mock
battles were cited hy Goho.^^

VI EDUCATION FOR GIRLS

The Inca government controlled its women subjects

as arbitrarily as its men. An imperial . official called
apopanaca, visited yearly each village and classified all
girls at about the age of ten, according to Rowe.^^ Means
stated that the girls were selected between eight and
AO
fifteen years of age.^
Girls selected for outstanding beauty and physical
perfection (acllacxma. Chosen Women), were educated by the
government. Those rejected remained in the villages to
marry the sons of the taxpayers

39
Loc. cit. (quoting from Father Diego Gonzalez
iHolgufn, Vocabulario de la Lengtm ^ General de Todo el Perd
lllamada.. I 'T C I W - S ) . ^ ' -----------------------------------------------

ii2£* 2Ü.* (citing Father Bernabé Cobo, 1582- ?,

edition of T8?0-5, Bk. XIII, Ghs. 25 and 26: Bk. XII,
Ch. 25).
Ibid.. p. 269.
42
Means, 0 £. cit., p. 409.
43
Rowe, loc. cit.
 127
The "Chosen Women" were taught religion, spinning,
weaving, cooking, and chieha making (the everyday Indian
beverage), in vast conventual establishments close to, but
distinct from, the Temple of the Sun. These convents, the
aclla-huasi-cuna, were numerous throughout the provinces.
for it was deeerned a great honor if the Inca established
one in a newly conquered province. The greatest aclla-
huasi was that in Cuzco. According to Means:
It stood some five hundred feet from Coricancha,
between the...Holy Terrace and the Temple. This se­
paration, which Garcilaso emphasizes because of his
annoyance at the innuendos which certain writers had
indulged in at the aclla*s expense, was made, so he
says, because..."it was the intention of the Kings
Incas that no man should enter the house of the vir­
gins, and that no woman should enter the temple of
the Sun."44
All the inmates had to be virgins, of course, and
those acllas who were sheltered in the Cuzco convent all
had to be of the blood royal. Garcilaso stated their num­
ber at fifteen hundred, which Means believed to be exces-
4.5
sive. They were divided into groups, each of which was
supervised by an older woman who had herself been an

44
Means, 0£. cit., pp. 408-9-

Ibid.. p. 409.
 128
aella, and who, in her matronly capacity, became one of
the mama-cuna, or mothers, of the secluded girls. The
cloistered women were very well supported by the state.
A considerable part of the aclla-huasi (convent)
is still standing in Cuzco. Means described it as a huge
building of fine masonry. A passage ran the length of the
building, beginning at a vestibule just inside the door­
way. There a group of porters waited, whose duty was to
keep out intruders»^"^
When they reached marriagable age, four or five
acllas were selected as brides of the Sun; other maidens
of like age were taken either by the Inca or the Chief of
the Province, the rest being distributed among the greater
A Q
vassals or other nobles whom the emperor wished to honor.

Loc. cit.

Loc. cit.

Ibid.. p. 411.
 129

CHAPTER VI

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

In reviewing the educational aspects among Aztecs,

Mayas, and Incas the findings may he summarized as
follows*
I. SUMMARY

Our knowledge of Aztec education stems to a large

degree from the writings of a first-rate sixteenth
century ethnographer— Sahagun-— whose data were partly
corroborated and supplemented by various other chroni­
clers. The Codex Mendoza informs about the kind of in­
formal training that the youth received from their parents
Formal education was imparted in three institutions#
The telpochcalli, one of which existed in every district,
provided for the instruction of the sons of the clansmen.
Moral aspects were stressed, particularly obedience to,
and reverence for, older persons. Vocational interests,
such as farming, handling a boat, and carrying of loads,
were likewise emphasized. Physical education.and, at a
later age, military instruction, were part of the curri­
culum.
The sons of the Aztec nobles were enrolled in the
 130
calmeeac which offered a curriculum for those who were in­
clined to become priests. A different curriculum was im­
plemented for those who were to become the military
leaders. All students were internes and under a very stri
strict discipline.
Specialized education in dancing, music and poetry
was imparted at the euicaealco, which at the same time
served as a gathering place for the recreation of the in­
mates of the telpochcalli and calmecac.
Because of the culturally determined position of
women in Aztec society, girls were not educated by exist­
ing institutions with the exception of those maidens who
devoted themselves to a religious life. An identical
situation prevailed among the Mayas and Incas.
Those who did not attend the formal schools were
given instruction by their parents. The father taught his
son the skills necessary for a farmer or lake dweller;
the mother instructed her daughter in home-making chores.
Learning, according to the educational psychology
of the Aztecs, depended upon three principles, (1) imi­
tation, (2) reward and punishment, and (3) instruction.
Landa supplied the major part of information con­
cerning the education of the Mayas. As among the Aztecs,
Maya children were taught to respect their elders. No
 131
formal education was provided for the great masses of the
people, except that given by the members of the family.
Schools existed only for the education of the sons of the
nobility and of the priests. The curriculum emphasized
the various branches of what then were considered the
sciences. Mathematics, in particular, reached a high level
of sophistication. In general, data on Maya education are
scanty because of the little attention given to this topic
by the chroniclers.
The same is true for the Incas; only two early
sources reported on Inca education. Formal instruction
was imparted only upon the sons of the nobles and a select
group of girls. For the sons of the clan leaders— which
constituted a class within the nobility— education was
compulsory. A four year course of study was offered at
the College at Cuzco covering religious training and the
sciences. Relatively little is known about the physical
education.
Among the Incas, of all pre-Columbian people, a
clearly stated philosophy of education and well defined
objectives prevailed. The welfare of the state was para­
mount. Education was considered a means to train leaders
necessary to perpetuate the imperialistic trend begun by
the Inca dynasty. The common people must remain unedu-
 132

Gated so that they remained docile, hut those who were

destined to rule had to be highly qualified.
Summarizing the findings it may be stated that:
(1) Boys were entitled to receive vocational as well
as military and religious education in formal
schools according to their fathers* status.
(2) Girls, with few exceptions, remained uneducated.
(3) Children not attending schools usually followed
their fathers* occupation; a boy was trained by
his father, a girl by her mother.
(4) Bothethe political hierarchy and the priesthood
exerted their influence over all education to
promote ultimate goals.
(5) The entire educational systems were an outgrowth
of the indigenous cultures.

II. CONCLUSIONS

In examining extant records of pre-Columbian edu­

cation it became evident that considerably more informa­
tion has been preserved about the Aztecs than about the
Mayas or Incas. It appears, therefore, that the Aztecs
had a more elaborate system of education than the other
two peoples.
It must be assumed, however, that a good deal of
information that once was available to the chroniclers
was never put on paper and is perhaps lost forever.
In surveying the social organization it can be con-
 135
eluded that among the Aztecs, Mayas and Incas a social
structure existed that differed in detail from one culture
to the other, hut which showed in general a fairly similar
pattern, very much in contrast to that of our times.
The Aztecs were the only people who, in their
capital at least, provided for public, if not compulsory,
education for the majority of the people. A better edu­
cation was imparted to the privileged classes, with
greater opportunities for gaining higher official posi­
tions.
The sciences were under the jurisdiction of the
priests but were developed to a lesser degree than among
Incas and Mayas.
Aztec education served two purposes, (1) to pro­
mote military imperialism, stressing physical fitness of
the individual, and (2) the training for the priesthood.
The immediate goals of the educational processes were to
create obedient, vigorous, and well disciplined citizens
with a strong sense for cooperative enterprise. How suc­
cessful was Aztec education in terms of its objectives?
Judged by the political developments during the two cen­
turies prior to the Spanish Conquest, education doubt­
lessly contributed much to the political power, the terri­
torial expansion, and the consolidation of the gains made.
 134

That the Aztec empire finally succumbed to the onslaught

of the Spanish conquerors was perhaps not because the
Aztecs failed in educating their young in the obligation
to serve the state, but rather to the technological
superiority of the invaders and to political developments
that foreshadowed a decline#
The scantiness of data on Maya education is per­
haps not so much the fault of the chroniclers, but due to
political circumstances of the Maya area. The Aztec and
Inca capitals were political and, at the same time, intel­
lectual centers. During the Maya Period of Disintegration
there existed no such center comparable with Tenochtitlan
or Cuzco. Interest only in the local affairs rather than
in statewide objectives limited the political range of the
Maya chieftains. As a result, it can be concluded that the
educational development stagnated under this provin­
cialism. In general, educational practices show resem­
blance to Aztec methods.
Turning now to the Incas, it can be concluded that
the educational aim in training well qualified leaders,
while the great mass of the people remained ignorant, was
fully achieved insofar as it enabled the state to function
with great efficiency. The college injected a strong sense
of loyalty to country and ruler; at the same time, em-
 135

phasis was placed on developing an xmderstanding for the

need of cooperation.
The ultimate collapse was perhaps not because the
educational institutions failed in producing competent
leaders, but because the empire had absorbed too many-
heterogeneous elements and had expanded beyond the possi­
bilities of being held together under unified command.
The Inca empire was ripe for defeat when the Spaniards
came, assisted by their technological advantages.
It is now generally agreed that the indigenous
pre-Columbian cultures developed autochtonously, that is,
without appreciable influence from outside of the conti­
nent. It follows that the development in education was
likewise an aboriginal achievement. This development took
place among the Aztecs and Maya with some cultural ex­
change, the Maya probably receiving more than giving^
The Incas, however, developed their system by efforts of
their own.
It can finally be concluded that the trend of the
educational systems evolved from a stage of training
within the kin group toward a pattern that is quite
similar to contemporaneous western institutionalized
education.
 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Acosta, Joseph de, Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias
(1590). Madrid, 1894• É vols.
Acosta spent many years in Mexico and South America.
Bandolier, A., "On the Social Organization and Mode of
Government of the Ancient Mexicans," Twelfth Annual
Report, Vol. II, No. 5, Cambridge: Harvard University,
Peabody Museum, 1880. Pp. 557-699.
Bandolier’s point of view was strongly influenced by
the famous anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan and his
conclusions are to be taken with caution.
Barra y Valenzuela,. Pedro, Ralces Etimologicas del Idioma
Nahuatl. Mexico: Ediciones Ëducaci6n, 1944. 93 pp.
A valuable dictionary of Nahuatl (Mexican) root words.
Blom, Frans, La Vida de los Mayas. Biblioteca Enciclope-
dica Popular, No. 25# Mexico: Seeretarfa de Edueacién
Publics, 1944. 90 pp.
A very readable account on the life and the customs
of the ancient Mayas, written for the general public.
[Brinton, Daniel G., Ancient Nahuatl Poetry. Brinton’s
Library of Aboriginal American literature, No. VII.
Philadelphia: D.G. Brinton, 1887. 177 pp.
The author discussed the importance of poetry and its
musical accompaniment in pre-Columbian Mexico.
Clavijero, Francisco J., Historia Antigua de Mexico (1770)
Transi. from Italian into Spanish by José Joaquin
de Mora. Vol. I: Mexico: Editorial Delfin, 1944.
545 pp. Vol. II: London, 1826. 449 pp.
Many of the seventeenth century historians used the
earlier sources without discrimination. Clavijero,
however, was the first to apply a modern method in
digesting the material of earlier times.
 137

Codex Magilabecchiamo XIII.3 . Manuscript Mexicain Post-

Columbien de la Bibliothèque Nationale de iT^rence♦
Reproduit au Frais du Duc de Loubat. Rome, l904.
Codex Mendoza, the Mexican Manuscript ^ o w n as the Collec­
tion of Mendoza and Preserved in the B^dTelan Library.
ô x f o r ^ fed, and transi, by James dooper Clark. London;
Waterlow and Sons, Ltd,, 1938. 3 vols.
A pictographic manuscript by order of the viceroy
Mendoza. Part I contains historical information on the
founding of the Aztec capital, the dynasty, and the
military expansion. Part II lists the villages that
were subjugated, and the tribute Imposed upon them,
by the Aztecs. Part III deals with Aztec customs, law^
and education.
Collection of Unedited Docmnents Relating to the Discovery
and Conquest and Organisation W e Ancient Spanish
Possessions Beyondthe Seas.Second Series, published
by the Royal Academy of History, Madrid, 1898, Vol. I.
Typewritten anonymous translation at the Library of
the Southwest Museum, Los Angeles.
A reply to a questionnaire sent in 1580 by Charles V
of Spain to all the provinces of Yucatan.
Florentine Codex, General History of the Things of New
Spain by Bernardino de S ^ a g u n . Translated from the
Aztec Into English by A .J .o7 Anderson and Chas. E.
Dibble. Monographs of the School of American Research,
No. 14, Part II (1950) and Part III (1951). Santa Fe:
Published by the School of American Research and the
University of Utah, 1950*^51.
The Florentine Codex is one of three well known manus­
cripts by Sahagun, describing the civilization of the
Aztecs, and is now in the Laurentian Library, Florence,
It Italy.
Part II (The Gods) corresponds to Sahagun, Hobredo
edition, vol. I., Bk. I.
Part III (The Ceremonies) corresponds to Sahagun,
edition, vol. I, bk. II.
 158
Part I is in press*
Friederici, Georg, Amerjkanistisehes Woerterbuch* Hamburg:
Gram, de Gruyter & Co., 194Ÿ* 7^2 pp.
An etymological dictionary of anthropological terms,
in German, Spanish, and English, with copious referen­
ces. This book is an indispensable aid to the Ameri­
canist .
Gann, Thomas, and J. Eric Thompson, The History of the
Maya* New York: Charles Seribner^s Sons, 1957T 26Î pp.
A brief account of pre-Columbian Maya history for the
student who intends to gain a general overview of the
field.
Garcfa, Gregorio Fray, Origen de los Indios de El Nuevo
Mundo £ Indias Occidentales. îfeuârid, ÏŸ29T
Garcfa was a Dominican who spent many years in America.
He is considered a writer of high authority and im­
portance. In book V he treats the various tribes of
Mexico and Peru.
Garcfa Icazbalceta, Joaquin, "Education in the City of
Mexico During the Sixteenth Century," transi, by
Walter J. O ’Donnell. Preliminary Studies of the Texas
Catholic Historical Society, vol. Ï, nol 77 AprilT "
T93T.-'%%prfnt")'73^' ppl----
This work is a series of lectures delivered by Garcfa
Icazbalceta before the Mexican Academy and later pub­
lished in book form. The author discusses here the
educational work done by the Franciscans, the Augus-
tinians, and the Jesuits, among the Indians of Mexico
City! The introduction contains a scathing criticism
of pre-Columbian education.
Garcilaso de la Vega, el Inca, Comentarios Reales...de
los Incas... (1609 and 1617). buenos Aires; Emec3"^
Editores, S.A., 1943. 2 vols.
Garcilaso is the greatest of all chroniclers of the
Andean area. He was the son of a noble Spanish soldier
by a princess of the imperial house of the Incas. The
Royal Commentaries, published as to its first part at
Lisbon, 1609, and as to its second part at Cordoba
in 1617, is the greatest, best written and most in­
 139
formative single work among the chroniclers, according
to Means. It contains various errors, largely due to
that it was written in Spain several decades after its
author had left his maternal land forever.
Gonzalez Holguin, Diego, Vocabulario de la Lengua General
de Todo el Peru Llamada Lengua QquicEua♦ £ del Inca.
ETma: Fco. del Ganio, 1607-8• 2 vblsi
A dictionary of the Quechua language.
Herrera, Antonio de, Historia General de los Hechos de los
Castellanos en las Islas i Tierra Firme del fer Gceano.
SeconTeH: T7ÏÏ6-3ÏÏ; T v o I s Z -------------
Herrera was court chronicler for the Indies. The
History begins in 1492. His information on Mexico is
copied to a large extent from Acosta and Gémara.
Jacobsen, Jerome V., Educational Foundations of the Jesuits
in the Sixteenth Century New Spain. Berkely: Univ. oï
Calif ornia Pre ss , 193 Ô . 292 pp.
This work is devoted to activities of the Jesuits in
Spanish North America between 1572, when they first
arrived in Mexico City, and 1767 when they were ex­
pelled from all Spanish dominions.'
Johnson, Frederick, "The Linguistic Map of Mexico and Cen­
tral America," The Maya and Their Neighbors. New York:
D. Appleton Century Company, 1940• Pp7 10Ÿ-114•
The most recent study of the geographical distribution
of Indian languages in the sixteenth century.
Joice, Thomas A., Mexican Archaeology. New York; Putnam’s
Sons, 1914. 58Tpp:
Joice was the first writer to assemble a comprehensive
treatise in the English language, covering the diffe­
rent cultures of pre-Columbian Mexico.
Written in 1914, some of the conclusions and the cul­
ture sequences are partly outdated. The book still is
valuable as a source book, particularly due to the
illustrations which depict mainly specimens in the
British Museum. The sections on education seem to be
drawn entirely from Sahagun.
Krickeberg, Walter, Etnologfa de America. Transi, from the
German by Pedro Mendrichs. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura
Economica, 1946. 498 pp.
A handbook on the ethnology of the American continent.
Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas are thoroughly covered.
Landa, Diego de, Relacién de las Posas de Yucatan. Merida:
E.G. Triay e M j o s , Imps.7~T938. 297“pp•
See Tozzer, A.M., Landa’s Relacion.
Markham, Sir Clements, The Incas of Peru. London: John
Murray, 1912. 443 pp.
A general history of Inca culture as it was.known to
be up to the time of publication.
Marquina, Ignacio, Arguitectura Preshispanlca (Mexico:
Institute Nacional de Antropologia e Hist^oria, Seer I
de Educacion Publica, 1951), 970 pp.
A treatise on pre-Columbian architecture. ^
leans, Philip Ainsworth, Ancient Civilizations of the An­
des (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1942T) 566 pp.
A comprehensive treatise on the ethnology and archaeo­
logy of the Andean area from its earliest beginnings
to the Spanish Conquest.
Mena, Ramdn and Juan Jenkins Arriaga, Educacion Intelec-
tual y Fisica entre los Nahuas y Mayas Precolombinos.
Mexico, 1930. 75 pp.
So far this study is the only monograph on education
of the pre-Columbian Aztecs and Mayas. In their choice
of source materials the authors seemed somewhat care­
less. Sahagun, a main source, is given credit only
twice and misquoted once (p. 15). Clavijero, a Jesuit
who wrote after his exile in Italy, is quoted rather
extensively. Considerable information (pp. 17-18)
seems to come from Solis (Historia de la Conquista),
a seventeenth century chronicler who sought out the
beautiful at the expense of the truthful and fre­
quently contradicted the most reliable earlier writers,
including Cortes. Much information and many citations
are disconnected and have no relation to education.
 141
Mendieta, Gerénimo de, Historia Eclesiastioa Indiana#
(finished in 1596)# Published for the first time hy
Joaquin Garcfa Icazbalceta; Mexico: Antigua Librerfa,
1870*
Mendieta is mainly a source for colonial events. He
drew much information from Motolinfa.
Molina, Alonso de, yocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana
(1571 ). Publicado de mxevo por JuXio PÏat zmann,
ediciSn facsimiliaria. Leipzig; B.G. Teubner, 1880.
The first and still the most authoritative dictionary
of the Nahuatl (Mexican) language.
Monz6n, Arturo, "La Educaeién," Mexico Prehispanico,
Emma Hurtado, ed., Mexico, 1946. Pp. V54-764.
An account of Aztec education written for the general
public. It contains no bibliographical references.
The author is an ethnologist of the Institute Nacional
de Antropologia, Mexico City.
Moreno, Wigberto Jiménez, "Mapa Lingufstico de Norte y
Centro America," Mexico: Museo Nacional, 1936.
1 map.
________ , "Noticia de los Escritores de la Historia Anti­
gua de Mexico, Preface to Clavijero, Historia Anti-
gua de Mexico, Mexico: Editorial Delfin, T944. Voï. 1,
pp:____ —

_______ , "Prefacio? Preface to Sahagun, Historia General

de las Cosas de Nueva EspaHa. Mexico:' Pedro kobredo,
W 3W T V o T r i , — ^ T T ^ Q . ----

Moreno, ethnologist at the Institute Nacional de An-

tropologfa, Mexico City, is perhaps the outstanding
authority on early Spanish chroniclers.
Morley, Sylvanus, G., The Ancient Maya. Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1946• $20 pp.
To date, Morley *s work is the most compendious trea­
tise on Maya history and epigraphy. The author pre­
sided the research project of Carnegie Institution
of Washington at Chichen Itza, Yucatan, for over two
decades.
Motolinfa, Toribio de Benavente, Historia de los Indios de
la Hueva SspaHa (1536-41)• Mexico: Editorial S. Chavez
SayHbe," i m “.-T20
Motolinfa ranks very high among the early informants
on Mexican antiquities. He was one of the first twelve
Franciscans who arrived in Mexico in 1524. Recently,
two English translations of Motolinfa’s work appeared:
(1) Elizabeth Andros Foster, Motolinfa’s History
of the Indians of New Spain. The Cortes Socie#
Yy. Santa Pe : University of New Mexico Prin­
ting Plant, 1950* 294 pp.
(2) Francis B. Steck, Motolinfa’s History of the
Indians of New Spain. Academy bï American
Franciscan ^ociety . Washingt on : Publications
of the Academy of American Franciscan History,
Documentary Series, vol. I. Washington: Aca­
demy of Am. Franseiscan History, 1951* 358 pp.

The latter translation is profusely annotated.

Murdock, George P., Our Primitive Contemporaries. New
York: The Macmillan Company, 1948. 614 pp.
Chapter XIII discusses the Aztecs of Mexico and Chap­
ter XIV deals with the Incas of Peru#
Novels, Roque Ceballos, "LaS Instituciones Aztecas,"
Anales del Maseo Nacional de Mexico, vol. II, epoca
5a. Mexico , l537. (ReprintT~36 pp *
Under this pretentious title the author attempted a
brief survey of the Aztec social institutions in terms
of their origin, character and evolution. The empha­
sis is on judiciary aspects. The coverage seems to be
rather sketchy.
Orozco y Berra, Manuel, Historia Aatigua £ de la Conquista
de Mexico. Mexico, 1880. 4 vols.
The first scholarly presentation, in the Spanish lan­
guage, of Mexican history up to and including the
Conquest.
 143
PeÊLa, Carlos Gonzalez, Historia de la Literatmra Mexicana.
Mexico: Editorial CulturaT"S.A., 1940. 327 pp.
Chapter II discusses the chronicles.
Pomar, Juan Bautista, Relacion de Tezcoco (1382), Mexico:
Editorial Salv. Hayboe,
Pomar’s Relacion is one of the responses to the nu­
merous questionnaires sent out hy Philip II. The
original manuscript is at the University of Texas.
The 1941 edition contains also Zurita’s Breve Rela­
cion...(Infra).
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana, A Study of Classic Maya Sculp­
ture. Carnegie Institution of Waskingion, ïblieaiion
593T Washington, 1950. 209 pp.
The glossary contained valuable information for this
thesis.
Radin, Paul, "The Sources and Authenticity of the History
of the Ancient Mexicans," University of California
Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology,
voT.’TT, no. T7 E e E B l e y , n 3 m ^ . ^ ------
Radin presented a critical analysis of some of the
codices, including the Codex Mendoza.
_____ , Indians of South America. The American Museum
of Natural MisTory Science Series, vol. III. Garden
City: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1942.
324 pp.
A general, non-technical survey of the main aborigi­
nal cultures of South America. The author stresses
only the high points.
Rowe, John Howland, "Inca Culture at the Time of the
Spanish Conquest," Handbook of South American Indians,
vol. II, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American
Ethnology, Bulletin 143. Washington: U. S. Govern­
ment Printing Office, 1946. Pp. 269-J
The Handbook is a monumental reference work. Rowe can
be considered the foremost authority on Inca culture
in this country.
 144
Sahagun, Bernardino de, Historia General de las Cosas de
Nueva EspaSa. (1563-69)• Mexico: Pedro Rohredo,193o.
ë vois•
Sahagun’s work is to he regarded as a major source
hook. For an English translation of Book I (The Gods)
and Book II (Ceremonkes), see Florentine Codex (SupraX
lento de Gamboa, Pedro, History of the Incas. Transi,
and edited by Sir Clement s Markham.HEiondon : Hakluyt
Society, 1907.
Seler, Eduard, Codex Fe jervary-Mayer, an Old Mexican Pic­
ture Manuscript in the hiverpooT Free Public Museums.
Engl. edition by A.H. Keane. London: Edinburgh Uni­
versity Press, 1902.
Seler, a pioneer in Mexican archaeology, deciphered
and commented upon the pre-Columbian codices. His
writings continue to be of very great importance.
♦ Ein Kapitel aus den in Aztekischer Sprache Ge-
schrieïïinen ungedeuteten I^Terialien zu~"dem G e ~
schichtswerk des P. SahagjS. Veroeffentlichungen aus
dem koenigl. Museum fuer voelkerkunde, Band I. Berlin,
1890.
Steck, Francis B. , Motolinia’s History of the Indians of
New Spain (1356-41). Publications o T “the Academy ox
American Franciscan History. Documentary Series, vol.
I. Washington: Academy of Am. Franciscan History, 1951*
358 pp.
See also Motolinfa, Historia... (Supra).
Tezozomoc, Fernando de Alvarado, Crdnica Mexicana (1598).
Mexico: Editorial Leyenda, S .A ., 1944. 345 pp.
Tezozdmoc’s style is considered crude and his passa­
ges are often incomplete or confused. However, his
writings are valuable because of the fact that he was
a Mexican Indian who reflected the attitudes and ways
of thinking of his race.
Torquemada, Juan de, Monarchia Indiana, con el Grfgen y
Guerras, de los Indios Oceideniales.7.(l6Tl).Madrid,
IT23.'Tol— IT:----- ---------------
 145

Torguemada quoted from Olmos, Motolinfa, G6mara, Zuri^

ta, Sahaguu, and others. However, he is to he considex-
edm primary source because he utilized many codices
and Spanish manuscripts which have not been preserved.
On certain subjects Torguemada is a unique reference.
Tozzer, Alfred M.,Landa's Relaci6n de las Cosas de Yucatan.
Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology
and Ethnology, Harvard University, vol. XVIII. Cam­
bridge, 1941. 594 pp.
Paradoxically, to Bishop landa, who destroyed at Man!
all the pre-Columbian manuscripts of Yucatan he could
lay hands upon, we owe most of the information avail­
able on the early history of the Mayas. His Eelacién
was written in 1566, but the only version which has
been preserved is abbreviated and was written about
a century later. Tozzer’s translation is profusely

Vaillant, George C., Aztecs of Mexico. Garden City: Double­

day, Doran & Company, Inc., 1941. 340 pp.
A well documented and comprehensive survey not only of
the Aztecs but also of the preceding cultures of the
area.
von Hagen, Victor W., The Aztec and Maya Panermakers. Hew
York: J.J. Augustin, Publ., 1§43.
This work contains samples of bark paper made by mod­
ern Indians of Mexico and of paper figurines used in
present day witchcraft.
Waterman, T., “Bandolier’s Contribution to the Study of
Ancient Mexican Social Organization," University of
California Publications on American Archaeo1ogy a y
Ethnology, vol. XII, nu. 7, Feb., Ï917. Pp. à49-âè.
Willard, Theodore A., The Lost Empires of the Itzaes and
a s . Glendale : Tke Arthur H* ClarE^Company, 1933•
pp.
This book is intended for the general reader. It does
not contain bibliographical references*
 146

Zurita, Alonso de. Breve Lelacldn de los Se^ores de la

lue va EsnafLa# Mexico fedii oriaT”Salv\ Chavez HayHoe

A collection of sixteenth
with Mexican history.
aclla, aclla cuna the so-called "chosen women," a
class within Inca society whose
members were educated in special
schools by order of the government.
aclla huasi cuna the school for the "chosen women"
at Cuzco.
amauta, amauta ctina priests who taught at the colleges
and who were the intellectual elite
of Inca society#
apopanaca imperial official who visited
yearly the villages to select those
girls who were to become acllas,
or "chosen women." (Inca).
clan. (Inca).
batab title of a minor official. (Maya).
calmecac military and,religious school for
the education of the sons of Aztec
nobility#
calpulli clan. (Aztec).
ohlcha alcoholic beverage made principally
of fermented maize, but also of
other fruits, roots, or honey#
(Inca)#
household. (Inca)#
clan a unilateral pseudo-kinship rela­
tionship pattern or group within a
community. Clan members are such for
life, practice clan exogamy, call
fellow members siblings, if of the
same generation, parents if of an
older generation, and son or
 148
daughter if of a younger generation#
codex, pl. codices a manuscript hook.
cuexpalehicacpol name given to a hoy of fifteen
years of age who had not distinguish­
ed himself in battle and therefore
to wear his hair long. (Aztec).
cuicacalli house of chants, also a music school.
(Aztec).
synonym of cuicacalli.(Aztec).
the Inca capital in southern Peru#
epcoaguaeuilli
official who provided singers and
directed their performance during
certain manual activities, such as
the making of clay figurines.
(Aztec).
halach uinic territorial ruler of a Maya city
state and simultaneously the priest*
in-chief.
haravec, haravec
cuna poet. (Inca).
huitznauac teohuatzin coadjutor of the priest in charge
of the education of the young
priests in the calmecac. (Aztec).
pertaining to a written character
or symbol for a word#
maguey Agave americana I#
mama cuna matron in charge of the "chosen
women." (Inca).
mexicatl teohuatzin priest in charge of the education of
the young priests in the calmecac.
(Aztec).
mnemonic assisting the memory#
 149

moeuexpaltia hair arrangement worn by boy of ten

years of age, showing strand of hair
growing on the occiput. (Aztec)»
nahua, nahixatl the Indians of Mew Spain and Central
America speaking languages of the
same linguistic stock as the Aztecs.
quauhtlato young warrior who caught four
prisoners in battle.
quipu, quipu cuna knot record; also the method of the
ancient Peruvians, of preserving
numbers and facts by tying knots
in a system of multicolored strings#
guipu camayve knot record keeper. (Inca).
sapa inca title of the Inca emperor#
teachcauhtin "elder brother," in a sense a school
principal. (Aztec).
telpochcalli "house of the youth," or school for
the education of the sons of the
Aztec elan members.
telpochtlato leader of adolescents. (Aztec).
telpochtiatoca "speaker of the youth," in a sense
a school principal. (Aztec).
Tenoehtitlan the ancient capital of the Aztec
empire at the site of modern Mexico-
City#
tepanteuhoatzin overseer; in a sense a school super­
intendent . (Aztec )•
group leader in charge of instruc­
tion of the novices at the telpoeh-
calli. (Aztec).
tlacatecatl young warrior who caught four pri­
soners of war. (Aztec).
tlaehtli ball court, also name of the ball
game played by the Aztecs.
caretaker of the sacred songs;
supervisor of music instructions
(Aztec).
tortilla a pan-cake made of corn mashed, and
baked on an earthen pan. (Aztec).
yacha huasi school. (Inca).
yanacuna a class within Inca society, com­
posed of men attached to the per­
sonal service of the emperor.
Yucatan peninsula in south-eastern Mexico
and part of northern Central America.

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