AZTEC CIVILIZATION, PICTOGRAPHS, AND LACK OF AN ACCEPTED WRITING SYSTEM Renee Coppola
OUTLINE Aztec society and civilization Why Aztec did not have accepted writing system by some scholar s standards d Language and pictographs of the Aztec Empire Function and logistics of these things Why Aztec writing system may not have been fully developed
MY VIEW/THESIS A writing system was in the making in the Aztec Empire, but was not needed or practical because of the way the Aztec saw history and excluded regular Mexica people from it.
ORIGIN OF THE AZTEC EMPIRE Came from the North (opposite direction of Mayans) Brought own culture Fought with local tribes Settled Tenochtitlan in 1325
TENOCHTITLAN
TENOCHTITLAN Described as greater than European cities by Cortés Larger population Extensive road and aqueduct system Exquisite causeways Beautiful garden plots Two story homes Giant pyramids and temples
POLITICAL/SOCIETAL STRUCTURE Monarchy, most famous king- Moctezuma Tenochtitlan- center of everything Warrior Society Greatly feared Conquered many lands to expand empire Tribute system Foreigners cannot be Aztec Aztec better than all Mexica peoples Very strict caste/gender system Everyone has their place in Aztec society
LANGUAGE Spoke Nahuatl Part of the Uto-Aztecan branch of languages Roots in northwestern Mexico, spread from American West (Idaho, California), to lower Central America
WHY AZTECS NOT CONSIDERED TO HAVE A WRITING SYSTEM Under Stephen H. Houston s definition of writing, writing represents speech At Aztec writing does to an extent, t but not fully formed, most up for interpretation
WRITING IN AZTEC SOCIETY Most pictographic or ideographic, considered proto-writing Also sometimes called emblematic script Much interpretation allowed Used some syllabic signs and phonetic spelling in place names and personal names only and under pictographs, never alone Rebus principle- one sign can stand for two morphemes (phonetic) Going toward a monosyllabic system, like Sumerian, or Egyptian
Focused heavily on time like Mayans All used to recount the past The elite s past not the Mexica people Local histories, no such thing as Aztec history Different kinds of samples: Codices- large books of pictographs Annals- pictographic and numeral elements in chronological, time like form Cartographic- maps used to tell a story (usually migration)
CODICES Most famous Aztec Codex- Codex Borgia Read as a story, with relative order because of separation and meaning Time and place said first, then story Represents dialogue, but is not speech
ANNALS Marks everything due to time it occurred Written on paper Usually long narrow script, like a time line Used to illustrate birth and death of rulers, succession, the beginning i and end of their 52 year cycles, conquest, and natural disaster Usually year may have codified d symbol
CARTOGRAPHIC HISTORIES Due to the Aztecs focus on migration, they often wrote on a map to show movement or conquest Usually marks the origin i story, migration of Aztec to Tenochtitlan (namely the Map Sigüenza) Also record journeys of important people Mountains, rivers, and people are represented Also marks chorological l order
REASONS WHY AZTECS DID NOT ADOPT MAYAN WRITING Did not speak same language Lived in different areas, Aztecs from north, Mayans from southeast t
REASONS WHY AZTECS MAY NOT HAVE WANTED TRADITIONAL WRITING SYSTEM Would make classes and groups more equal Would equate all Nahuatl speakers Too much transparency in system- may limit i fear Too many languages and cultures to transcend- not practical Pictographs were a piece of the story as a whole, hard to separate, Aztec visual thinkers, could read without words Oh Giver of Life!... Later you will destroy eagles and tigers, we live only in your painting, here, on earth. Painting represents their existence in a way
WHY AZTEC WRITING WAS NOT FULLY DEVELOPED Aztec civilization only 200 years old at the time to adopt/ invent writing while Classic Mayan civilization had 1000 years to develop writing
GENERAL CONCLUSION The Aztecs Empire was extremely advanced but relatively new at the time of its takeover by the Spanish. They were unique from other surrounding tribes because of their heritage and used this difference to mark them as the best people in Mexico, at the time. The Aztec were an elite group and it was practically impossible to become a part of it. Writing was not centralized, and many scholars agree, not present, while others think that they had protowriting. Codices, annals, and cartographic histories were e their form of writing, which exhibits that they are visual thinkers who interpret their works differently. But the rebus principle and phonetic complements were present, marking that the Aztecs were on their way towards a writing system.
WORKS CONSULTED Boone, Elizabeth Hill. Stories in Red and Black: Pictorial Histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs. Austin: University of Texas, 2000. Print. Clendinnen, Inga. Aztecs: an Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1991. Print. Fedorova, Liudmilla L. "The Emblematic Script of the Aztec Codices as a Particular Semiotic Type of Writing System." Written Language and Literacy 2 (2009): 258-75. CSA Illumina. Web. 4 Nov. 2010. Leoń, Portilla Miguel. The Aztec Image of Self and Society: an Introduction to Nahua Culture. Salt Lake City: University of Utah, 1992. Print. "Traditions of Mexico - Indigenous Languages." Houston Institute for Culture. Web. 04 Nov. 2010. <http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/aztec.ht ml>
PICTURE/PHOTO COURTESY Boone, Elizabeth Hill. Stories in Red and Black: Pictorial i Histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs. Austin: University of Texas, 2000. Print. Loubat. "Codex Borgia." Chart. Universitätsbibliothek Rostock. 1898. FAMSI. Web. 4 Nov. 2010. <http://www.famsi.org/research/loubat/borgia/thumbs0.ht ml>. "Mapa De Sigüenza." Map. Maps: Finding Our Place in the World. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2007. What Is a Map? Web. 4 Nov. 2010. <http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/akerman/>. Mladjow, Ian. "The Aztec Empire in 1518." Map. Department of History: University of Michigan. Web. 31 Oct. 2010. <http://sitemaker.umich.edu/mladjov/maps&>. Painting. Tenochtitlan. Web. 31 Oct. 2010. <http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/aztecs1.htm>. Photograph. History of Aztec Indians. Web. 31 Oct. 2010. <http://www aztec-history net/aztec pyramids>