Basis of survival

• Food

  • Common people

    • Main staples consisted of beans, rice, maize-cakes, pimentos, tomatoes
    • Rarely was there meat or poultry
    • Water was usually the only drink

  • Nobility

    • Ate well and often
    • Most of the food prepared was exquisite
    • All sorts of meats and vegetables were eaten

  • Four main food plants

    • Maize
      • Revered as the bringer of life
    • Sage
    • Amaranth
    • Bean
    • Alcohol
      • Alcoholism non-existent until after fall of empire
      • Severe penalties for the over consumption of alcohol
      • Alcohol did have religious significance in certain rituals
      • Those whose active lives were basically over were allowed to drink, however young and middle aged men were impaired by strict social barriers against drinking

• Shelters

  • Homes

    • Made of sun-dried bricks
    • Number of rooms increase with wealth of family

    • Furniture

      • Slept on woven mats
      • Not many chairs, tables, or desks
      • Hearths in center of home symbolized the fire god

    • Gardens

      • The Aztecs were great admirers of flowers
      • Had gardens surrounding the house for aesthetic purposes

• Vanity

  • Daily wear

    • Men wore loin cloths, sandals and cloaks

    • Women were fashion conscious
      • Staining of the teeth red or black was popular
      • Tattoos were used to improve the look of the lower class
      • Noble women used cleanliness for attraction
      • It was also desirable to have yellow skin, so women used the resin of the axin tree to change their color

    • Women wore clothes
    • Most of the working class went barefoot
    • Women wore earrings, necklaces and bracelets on their arms and ankles

    • The men also had pierced their septum and placed gold hoops or metal jewels as well as piercing their lips and ornamenting it likewise

    • Cotton and other textiles obtained from the surrounding fauna was used to acquire clothing materials

    • Jewels were used as a sort of caste marker
      • Some jewels could be used to raise a person almost to a state of godliness
      • Coupled with feathers, the jewels were highly important in the Aztec social structure