Similarities Between Mesoamerica And Aztecs

Mesoamerica across the Millenia: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs

Paul Kirchoff, a preeminent Mesoamerican anthropologist, defines Mesoamerica as a cultural area, based on its “geographic limits, ethnic composition, and cultural characteristics at the time of the conquest” (Kirchoff 1943). However, for the purposes of this essay, I will use the conceptual definition of Mesoamerica that we have used in class. This definition is analogous to the idea of "Western civilization" in its allusion to various kinds of historical connections among interacting societies that led to shared values, practices, and institutions. An important aspect of this conceptual definition is that these connections exist across millenia, despite variation in language, political

Although the types of hegemony utilized to develop centers of power were slightly different, with the Aztec displaying a much greater bloodlust than the Olmec or other previous civilizations, there were many similar social and cultural characteristics between these centers. These similarities include the use of subsistence agricultural production, evidence of long distance exchange (whether by trade or tribute), and the prevalence of cosmology and ritual in everyday life, particularly with respect to art, archeology, and social hierarchy. Indeed, the Aztecs look back in time to acknowledge the significance of their predecessors, both at Teotihuacan and among the Olmecs. Robb writes that, “planners and inhabitants [of Tenochtitlan] self-consciously understood themselves as heirs to Teotihuacan’s urban paradigm” (Robb 2017). Not only was Teotihuacan a source of inspiration for the Aztecs, but it was also a “mystical place of cosmogenesis” as the supposed location for the sun god’s original sacrifice, which led to the ultimate creation of the terrrestrial Earth. Furthermore, despite existing more than two millennia after the civilization, there was a noted significance of the Olmec to Aztecs. The Olmec were described as “rubber people” to Bernardino de Sahagun, a member of the Spanish conquest, by Aztec informants, and until recently, the dominant indigenous language in Olmec territories (i.e. the tropical lowlands of modern-day Veracru and Tabasco) was Nahua (Coe 2008). Despite the many changes that occurred, and with a hesitancy to ascribe more value to characteristic similarities than is due, I conclude that the concept of Mesoamerica did not change significantly over the nearly three thousand year span ranged by the Olmec and Aztec civilizations, and that this concept is aptly encapsulated by the city of