Fun Facts
Logan Earnest & Natalie Kersey
Mayan vs the Aztec
Fun facts about the mayan and aztecs society. Different sections include: Sports and game, women and children, beliefs, education, occupation, hygiene, and other.
Los deportes y el juego
Aztecs:
- They played a game called Tlachti was a combination of present day soccer and basketball. They had to shoot a basket with their feet
Las mujeres y Los niños
Aztecs:
- Girls started learning chores, spinning at 4 years old and cooking at 12
- Girls educated was basically training for marriage
- punishment of children was painful. One form of punishment had the parent holding their child over a chili pepper fire and forcing them to inhale the chili pepper smoke.
Mayan:
- Children were named after the day they were born. Each day had a name, and mayans followed the ritual of naming their child whatever the day was called.
- Women and girls wore their hair long and took care that it was always combed and arranged attractively.
- Different hairstyles signaled the marital status of women.
- Women wore bones as jewelry
- They stayed inside and made clothes and art while the men worked in the field.
La Creencía
Aztecs:
- The priest would eat the flesh of the sacrifice and drink some of the blood
- They believed strongly in omens
- Wolf equalled misfortune
- Owl or rabbit entering home equalled misfortune for the members of the household
- Captured children of neighboring people to sacrifice
Mayan:
- Had sophisticated intelligence and calendar dating very far forwards
- Many different Gods ruling over every part of their lives
Educacón
Aztecs:
- Hand painted books called codices
- Paper made from plant fibers or animal skins
- Subjects included poetry, stories, astronomy, religion, history, and law
Mayan:
- They used bark from a fig tree as paper
Ocupación
Aztecs:
- They grew their subsistence crops on floating platforms, called floating gardens, on the lake
Mayan:
- Extremely advanced doctors
- They were called Shamans
- They Mayas sutured wounds with human hair, healed fractures and were even skilled dental surgeons.
- They would fill teeth with iron pyrite
Higiene
Aztecs:
- Bathed twice a day compared to Europeans who went days in the same clothing
Mayan:
- They used saunas (hygeine)
- They were called zumpul-ché, or sweat baths
- They were walls built up and water would go into it, landing on the rocks, and the sun would evaporate the water and create steam in the walls.
- They believed it had healing powers in the sweating for the sick.
Otra
Aztecs:
- Chocolate was prized by the Aztecs (money or sacrifice)
- One of their Kings, Talcaelel, rewrote their history erasing bad times they had
- feathers of birds were a popular accesory
- If you were arrested for being intoxicated your punishment for second offence was death
- If you were a commoner found wearing cotton clothes your punishment was death
Mayan:
- They had a desire for an unnatural beauty.
- Included pressing boards on baby’s foreheads to make a smooth flat surface.
- Crossed baby’s eyes by dangling objects in front of their faces until their eyes were permanently crossed.