PREHISPANIC EDUCATION IN MEXICO: ARIDOAMERICA AND MESOAMERICA - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The prehispanic Mexico education had an order very well represented by the greatest civilizations of the time, especially the Mayan and Aztec Mesoamerica. Although the structure of the educational system barely resembled that of today, there was an organized system where the good performance of the students was rewarded.

The systems of each civilization were different. For example, the Mayans generally only formally educated the nobility, and the Aztecs gave formal education to all members of their societies. Mesoamerican civilizations were the least nomadic of the time, due to the amount of natural resources that were in the jungles they inhabited.

In Aridoamerica

Aridoamérica is a region that spans from the north to the southwestern United States. As the name implies, it is a fairly warm region. Therefore, the tribes that inhabited these areas in pre-Hispanic times were nomads.

This means that they were not kept in the same place for long, which made it difficult to obtain records of their education.

However, it is believed that education was given at home, through parental guardianship. The organizational level that the Aztec and Mayan empires had was never reached.

This is mainly due to the lack of structures in which children could be educated; being nomads, the tribes did not build complex structures.

In Mesoamerica

Mesoamerican pre-Hispanic education is the one with the most records in history. The main exponents of the educational system in this region were the Aztecs and the Mayans. In fact, these two civilizations (along with the Incas) were the most advanced in the educational field on the entire continent, prior to their encounter with Europe.

However, the Aztec education system was the broadest and had a unique organization for the state of the continent at that time.

Aztec education

The Aztecs divided the training of each student according to the social stratum to which they belonged. The schools for the common people were separated from those of royalty and the methods of each were also different.

Nobles and royalty were trained from a young age to be political and military leaders. The teachers severely punished anyone who broke the rules. In some instances, they were attacked with arrows or burned after committing an offense.

The corrective methods applied by the Aztecs were not very delicate. They might be considered brutal today, but for them it was a way to prepare future generations to deal with the pressure of combat and political life.

The pain that the punished had to suffer helped them not only to correct their attitudes, but to deal with the pain of wounds in wars.

Training as education in the Aztecs

For the first 14 years of their lives, the boys and girls were educated at home by their parents. After reaching the age of 15, they joined the formal education system.

Young Aztecs (mainly males) were taught to use weapons and capture their enemies when they were around 15 years old. These civilizations were constantly at war with other tribes and, in a pinch, the young should be prepared to fight.

Young men also did hard work, to strengthen their bodies and develop better endurance that would serve them in battle.

On the other hand, the girls were taught to work corn and to be useful in their homes. Women were not educated on a par with men, except in one particular aspect: both boys and girls visited singing houses, where they were taught songs to praise the gods and respect their ancestors.

Aztec educational institutions and their role

The Aztecs divided their educational system into two types of institutions: the calmecac and the telpochcalli. The former was an institute for the sons of nobles, while the latter was the school for people without connections to royalty. Aztec education was not optional, and all the inhabitants of the Empire had to be formally instructed.

Calmecac

In this institution advanced knowledge was imparted to students. As it was exclusively for the sons of nobles, leadership, advanced military arts, and astronomy were taught. Here future teachers, healers, priests or writers were trained (the writing was not alphabetic, but hieroglyphic).

Telpochcalli

Here ordinary people were educated. The knowledge was not as advanced as that imparted in the calmecac, but all individuals were prepared to be part of society. History, religion and agriculture were taught.

Unlike the school for nobles, in the telpochcalli young people were educated in military field art and not tactical, as they were prepared to be warriors. Agriculture, metalworking, and crafts were also taught.

Mayan education

The Mayans focused their educational system on the noble class of the Empire. The children of the most important people were taught to read hieroglyphs or were taught astronomy knowledge, such as the movement of the stars. This was done under the supervision of the shamans or priests of the time.

Homeschooling was very similar to that of the Aztecs. Boys were taught to work with their fathers from an early age, while girls learned from their mothers everything necessary to know to run a home for themselves. This prepared future women for marriage.

The Mayans had houses where the future warriors of the village lived together, and it is thought that these residences were important sources of learning, especially for those who were not the son of royalty.

References

1. Pre – Columbian Education, Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, 2008. Taken from encyclopedia.com
2. Aztec Empire: Education at Home and School, History on the Net, (nd). Taken from historyonthenet.com
3. History of Education in Mexico: Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Times, Carlos Navarro, (nd). Taken from the institutional educational profile on scribd.com
4. Education in Pre-Hispanic Mexico, Mónica del Villar, March 16, 2016. Taken from masdemx.com
5. History of education in Mexico, Wikipedia in Spanish, March 22, 2018. Taken from Wikipedia.org