The name Aztec most commonly refers to a group of people who dominated the Valley of Mexico, and indeed much of central and southern Mexico, in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. These people, who called themselves Mexica, settled their city of Tenochtitlan (today Mexico City) in the mid‐1300s, in the midst of a large number of already‐settled cities. The Mexica, as hunter and gatherer immigrants from the northern deserts, were latecomers to the Valley of Mexico and combined their nomadic‐style culture with the ways of life of long‐settled villagers and urban dwellers. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries numerous different ethnic groups coexisted in the Valley of Mexico; these groups were politically organized in city–states and exhibited emblems of their specific cultural identities (such as patron gods, clothing styles, and distinctive dialects). Three of these groups, the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, the Acolhua of Texcoco, and the Tepaneca of Tlacopan, joined in a...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aveni, Anthony. Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980.
Caso, Alfonso. Calendrical Systems of Central Mexico. Handbook of Middle American Indians. Vol. 10. Ed. Robert Wauchope. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971. 333–48.
Hernández, Francisco. Historia Natural de Nueva Espana. 2 vols. Mexico: Universidad Nacional de Mexico, 1959. (orig. written 1571–1577)
Ortiz de Montellano, Bernard R. Aztec Medicine, Health, and Nutrition. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990.
Sahagún, Bernardino de. Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain. 12 vols. Trans. and Ed. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1950–1982 Trans. and (originally written 1570s).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Berdan, F.F. (2008). Aztec Science. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_8466
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_8466
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-4559-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4425-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law