HUM 2461 Humanities of Latin America SFC Fall 2013 Week 4

Today’s Agenda Day 7 Attendance CANVAS & HUM2461.wordpress.com Mesoamerican Civilizations: The Aztec 1 st Assignment due today Pop Quiz

Architecture in Teotihuacan Cultural periods 100BCE-750CE

Teotihuacan I & II Cuicuilco (origins / volcano Xitlé) Teotihuacan I: Classic style (?) 3 Pyramids (Sun, Moon, Quetzalcóatl [ciudadela]) Street of the Dead 250,000 pop.

Teotihuacan Avenue of Dead Moon Pyramid Sun Pyramid Feathered Serpent Pyramid

Classic Style  Sober adornment  Elegant / clear decoration  Optimism  No fear of open spaces  Preoccupation with organized civilization  Simple, harmonious style

Teotihuacan Teotihuacan II: Street of the Dead 300,000 pop. Baroque style (?) Ferocity

Baroque Style  Strong adornment  Extreme decoration  Pessimism  horror vacui  Preoccupation with death  Extravagant rhetoric and metaphors

Baroque Classical (mostly) opposite style and content of …

TIMELINE IN MESOAMERICA

Architecture in Toltecs Cultural periods CE

Toltecs CE Tula (North of Teotihuacan) 968: Topiltzin Quetzalcóatl Atlantes (knight warriors)

968Quetzalcóatl to Tula defeated by war priest-god 1000Quetzalcóatl from Tula to Chichén Itzá Kukulkán (in Maya language) did same for Mayan capital defeated by war priest-god 1025Quetzalcóatl from Chichén Itzá on boat sailed east promised to return similar in Popol Vuh Tezcatlipoca Topiltzin Quetzacóatl (968 – 1025)

Architecture & the Aztecs Cultural periods CE (1521)

Aztecs (1) A)Aztecs / Mexica / Tenochca (1100??? Aztlán???) Náhuatl (Uto-Aztecan language) Tenochtitlán (1325 – 1521) is 31 miles southwest Teotihuacán. 200,000 residents Huitzilopochtli (war god) B) Aztec art.

The prophecy: eagle serpent cactus

Tenochtitlán ( 1325 CE) Huitzilopochtli (war god)

B.i) Aztec Art (1)Realism to abstraction (2)Proportion in arts and crafts (3) Non-secular themes and images (4) Natural elements + religious concepts (no European individualism) (5) Synthesis and appropriation from conquered peoples

B.ii) Aztec Art The Aztecs were also excellent sculptors who were known for awe-inspiring, frightening, forbidding, and monumental works. Their dances were more advanced than either their music or literature; and Their oratory was renowned and effective. In the area of the fine arts, the Aztecs accomplished finely wrought drawings on codices. Unfortunately, most of the Aztecs codices were destroyed by the first Spanish conquistadors and priests.

Artistic features rather unique to the Aztecs are:  obsidian knives,  rock-crystal skulls (for rituals and for art), and  jade statues.

Aztecs (2) C) Aztec Cosmology D) Religion: state + religion; polytheistic  cosmos: double axis  sacrifice: good of cosmos and society  gods: Quetzalcóatl, Huitzilopochtli, Tláloc, Tezcatlipoca, Coatlicue  52-year cycle  Fifth Sun = Tonátiuh (Interrupted “Sun”)

C) Aztec Cosmology Lower World: Hell Upper World: Heaven E S W N ( CE) Double axis

D) Religion: Coatlicue/Tonantzin (Goddess) Huitzilopochtli (feather birth / eagle-sun) 400 Southerners (sons) (Gods of the starts) Coyolxauhqui (daughter / moon) killed: Coatepec hill Coyolxauhqui was killed by Huitzilopochtli at the Coatepec hill

Coatlicue/ Tonantzin

Aztecs (3) 1325 Tenochtitlán was built : 9 emperors. Moctezuma II ( ) Cuauhtémoc ( ) = Hero of native and mestizo peoples 1.Tenochtitlán (1325 – 1521) 2.Tlatelolco (1325 – 1521) Cuathemoc fought for the place when Hernán Cortéz invaded it. 3.Tepeyac (pyramid north of the city)

Tenochtitlan City Tlatelolco City

Aztecs (4) 1. Tenochtitlán (Mexico City now) Templo Mayor (1); Templo Mayor (2): Twin temples. Main Gods: Huitzilopochtli & Tláloc Templo Mayor 2. Tlatelolco Market place. Cuauhtémoc. 3. Tepeyac the worship site for the Goddess mother Tonantzin

TENOCHTITLAN

Chinampas

Chronicles of the Conquest of New Spain “When we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land we were amazed and said that it was like the enchantments (...) on account of the great towers and cues and buildings rising from the water, and all built of masonry. And some of our soldiers even asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream? (...) I do not know how to describe it, seeing things as we did that had never been heard of or seen before, not even dreamed about. ” Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New SpainBernal Díaz del Castillo

Ancient Civilization Timeline 1516 AD Medieval Spain

1 st Assigment  Week 4: HW#1 (1-12) & HW#3 (1-13) due today. Points off if HW is not typed

POP QUIZ: Toltecs at Tula 1.What priest/ruler/god/demi-god fought against Topiltzin- Quetzalcóatl? 2.Who won? 3.What did/does the winner of this battle represent? (What is he, the god of?) Tezcatlipoca 3. He is god of the night sky, the night winds, hurricanes, the north, the earth, obsidian, enmity, discord, rulership, divination, temptation, jaguars, sorcery, beauty, war and strife.

1.What is this a model of? 2.Where is this? 3.What god(s) were worshipped there?

1.Twin temples of the major Aztec pyramid 2.Tenochtitlán (i.e., Mexico City now) 3.Huitzilopochtli & Tláloc

Español = templo mayor