The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-18

OF the Aztecs and their plan OF life the Span
ish narratives are pronounced nearly worth
less, because their authors knew nothing
Of any Of these things. We are therefore
in DIR. Morgan's opinion at full liberty TO
reject those chronicles in these respects
and to mmence anew. using at the same
time any facts those chronicles may con-
tain which harmonic with what is now
known OF Indian society.
What. then. in our authors judgment
was the stage OF civilization which the
Aztecs. whom Cortez found in the valley
Of Mexico. had reached? The Aztecs and
their confederate tribes we're ignorant Of
iron. and consequently without iron tools.
They had no money, and traded by barter
Of commodities. On the other hand. they
worked the native metals. cultivated the
soil by irrigation. manufactured coarse
fabrics OF cotton, constructed joint tene-
ment houses Of adobe bricks and of stone
and made esrthenware Of excellent quality.
They had. therefore attained TO the middle
status Of barbarian. They still held their
snds in common and dwelt in large houses
composed Of a number OF related families.
Moreover our author has found strong
reasons for believing that they practised
communism in living in Inc household.
IL is pronounced tolerably certain that they
had but one prepared meal each day. a
dinner: they ate separately. the men first
and by themselves. the women and children
afterwsrd. Having neither tables nor
chairs for dinner service. they had not
learned to eat their single daily meal In the
mi Of civilized peoples. These features
Of their social condition bear witness to their
relative stage Of advancement.
DR.. Morgan goes on to say that in con-
nection with the Village Indians Of other
parts OF what we now call Mexico, Of
Central America and Of Peru the Aztecs
afforded the best exempliication OF this
condition OF ancient society then existing
on the earth. They represented one OF
the great stages OF rogress toward civiii-
zation. in which the institutions derived
from a previous cultural period are seen
in process Of higher advancement. and
were to be transmitted in the course OF
human experience 10 a cultural condition
still higher AND 70 undergo still further
development before civilization should
be possible. The Village Indisns Of the
New World. however. were not destined to
attain the upper status Of barbarism exem-
pliied by the Homeric Greeks.
Inc Auuidu DucUNOb, Nlcu, CHRONOLOGICAL
by the Spanish conquerors in the Valley
Of Mexico revealed to Europeans a lost
condition OF ancient society so remark
able and peculiar that il aroused az the
time an Unsuitable curiosity Our author
points out that more volumes have been
written. in the proportion Of ten 10 one.
upon the Mexican abort gines and the Span
ish conquests than upon any other people
- ,ka .aaa ,Iyan,aa,t - a,lA..a ~.
upon any event Of like importance. He
insists, however, that there is no people
concerning whose institutions and plan
OF life so little is accurately known. The
phenomenal spectacle which was presented
so infamed the Imagination that romance
swept the field and has held il almost to
the present hour. n resultant failure
TO ascertain the structure Of Aztec society
seems to our author a serious loss to the
history OF mankind.
The Kingdom OF Mexico" OF which
we read in the early chronicles, and the
Empire OF Mexico" the term preferred
by later historians, are both ~fictions OF
the imagination. Al the time Of the con-
quest there was a seeming foundation
for describing the government as a mon
archy. in the absence OF a correct knowl-
1 tukc VI III hdttNC btbituilOtlEs III III
Morgan's opinion. the mistake car no
longer be defended. As a matter Of truth.
what the Spaniards found was simply a
~confederacy of three indian tribes whereof
the counterpart existed in all parts Of the
New World. and they had no warrant for
advancing in their description a step be-
yond this single fact. The government
was administered by a council Of chiefs.
it'll tha cN1NarafiaN ~ vanarl ao,o-
mander of the military bands. II was a
government Of two powers. the civil power
being represented by the council. the mill
tary by a principal war chief. Since the
internal institutions Of the confederate
tribes we're essentially democratic, our au-
thor holds that their government may be
called a military democracy, "a a deeigna-
ton more special then confederacy.
Three tribes. the Aztecs, or Mexicans,
the Tezcucans and the Tlaoopans. were
united in the Aztec Confederacy, which
thus exhibits the two upper members Of the
organic social series define in the earlier
chapters Of the book before us. Whether
or not the human beings thus organized
retained the gems M the phratry does
not appear definitely in n Of the Span
ish writings. They have described vaguely,
L WbNCi tl
our authors judgment can only be under
stood by assuming the existence Of the
two last mentioned members Of the social
series. The phrstry, as we ave seen, is
not essential, but IL is otherwise with the
gems, because il is the unit upon which the
social system rested.
The Aztecs were one Of seven kindred
tribes that had migrated successfully from
the north and settled in or near the valley
Of Mexico. All the seven we're among the
tribes OF that country still existing at the
historical epoch OF the Spanish conquest.
In their traditions they called themselves
collectively the Nahuatlacs.
VI.
The tradition handed down by Acosta,
Herrera and Clavigero embodies a significant
fact Of a kind that could not rave been
invented, namely, that the seven tribes
were OF common origin, the fact being
confirmed by their kindred dialects; and