Origins and Migration Patterns of the Nahua.

In 1519, the Spanish conquest began in Mexico, when they arrived they realized that what they had come upon was beyond description. Often, many historians lose track of the origins of one of the largest indigenous groups within Mexico because of what ensued from the Spanish conquest. The origins are inferred upon through the language, “In the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs the word Aztlan is made up of two words -- "aztatl" and "tlan(tli)," meaning "heron" and "place of," respectively.”(Keyser) It is inferred, through the language and myth, that the Nahua began their lives on an island. Origin myths also say that this indigenous group emerged from the core of the Earth and settled in Aztlan. From there, they began to move south looking for a divine sign of where they should permanently stay. From there, they found their capital, Tenochtitlan. These origin myths coincide with the known history and patterns of the Nahua. Before the miraculous arrival onto Tenochtitlan, the Nahua settled into many different areas for vast periods of time.

In the 12th and 13th century, the Nahua were lead through the valley of Mexico. The valley consisted of several city-states that also spoke the language, Nahuatl, including the Cholula, Xochimilco and the Chalco. The original inhabitants considered the Nahua to be uncultured and barbarious, therefore, not welcome there. They continued to search for their permanent settlement, they arrived in Chapultepec near Lake Texococo but were forced to migrate to Culhuacanwhere they were granted permission to settle in the barrens of Tizapan. From there they began to form relations with those apart of the Culhuacan tribe and through this they gained notoriety and were able to form their own empire.

The reason the origins of this indigenous tribe is difficult to pinpoint, is because after the Spanish conquest, those in power deliberately destroyed any records to avoid being further exploited. Migration patterns after the conquest are much more clear and easier to follow. After the conquest the Aztecs were no longer a close group but instead were many smaller tribes on the outskirts of Tenochtitlan. The tribes furthest south departed from a place in the north called Chicomostoc. This was due to poor irrigation that made it impossible to create new canals to better the situation. Due to some unkown force, these tribes were made to move down even further south, some say it may have been a drought around the area. Other tribes stayed in the areas around Tenochtitlan and some moved farther north.

John D. Keyser. The Great Migration of The Aztecs. n.d. Hope of Israel Ministries. Retrieved 2015 from: http://www.hope-of-israel.org/aztec.htm

Gustav. Aztec Migration Basic History. March 4th 2015. Retrieved 2015 from: http://www.infobarrel.com/Aztec_Migration_Basic_Information_

Relations of Nahua Society

In the early sixth centuries, after Technotitlan, the capital of Atzec is fall to Spain (1996), the local census is taken by Spanish. However, real situations of family cannot be reflected from these exotic way they were using. There are many young children are engaged in marriage too, but their number was underestimated at that time. It was Pedro Carrasco that leads the scholar to focus on this problem (Robert McCaa, 1997). It was also him recognized that the most important character is joint family (cemithualtin), which means that every members in one family is quite related with complex relationships. Because of high mortality and childlessness, the compound of Nahua family is common. You can see a family more than triad (husband, wife, and children). A family can be dyad, like a family lack father or children. It can be not only connected with conjugal relation, but also parents—in—law and their children. These children has their own family. Sometimes, therefore, a family with over ten people living in the same residence or household (calli)(Robert McCaa, 1999). Joint family were referred to as a unit of combination of people who were affinally or consanguineously related. Thus, generally, any combination can be contained here. But a senior head is always necessary, which is often a male in the household, to control and protect the whole. These family structure is quite general at that time. The mixed—up conjugal families include both patrilineal and matrilineal nuclear small families, which means both husband and wife’s sibling’s family and parents can live together in the same house. Everyone is an equal part of the joint family. They product together, they eat what they produced together, members of the family were fed as a unit. In the modern Nahua, things are different. There is more likely to be a nuclear family. When a man got married, he can live with his parent, and he get a land from his parents, until he has his own home, while girl has to leave home to live with her parents—in—law. Unless, the girl is the sole child the patents has. She live in her patents house with her husband. These can cause a temporary extended family (Nahua of the State of Mexico). Talking about the distribution of heritage, quite like the past, male usually benefit more and enjoys the priority than female. When there is a land from parent, the son, instead of daughter in siblings, will own it preferentially. The only possible source for daughter to get land is her husband, given by his parents. When lands are deficient, the eldest descendent, no matter a son or a daughter, gets the precedence. (Nahua of the Huasteca—Marriage and Family)What’s more, the youngest son has an opportunity to inherit the house with his provision for parents. In ancient time, after being invaded by Spain, a country whose a great amount of people are Christian, the relation of two genders are affected seriously by the view on this issue in Christianity. However the effect of colonial culture was not so deep that the local ideas on gender relation disappeared entirely.

In ancient time, after being invaded by Spain, a country whose a great amount of people are Christian, the relation of two genders are affected seriously by the view on this issue in Christianity. However the effect of colonial culture was not so deep that the local ideas on gender relation disappeared entirely.

The mode of family today is not like what it used to be, the production and consumption is often in a nuclear family scale. In the daily works, women and men cooperate together to contribute in different aspects. Two genders work together when they make handicrafts and when selling these products out, men will work on it and women stay at home. Generally, men works on agricultural staffs, collection, and go out for sales. For women, they prefer to work on housework, taking care of babies, and also cultivations and harvesting as long as they still basically do not leave their house (Nahua of the State of the Mexico). Women work either as domestic servant or agricultural labor. 

Citation:

David K. Jordan. Aztec Chronology. 1996. University of Chicago. Retrieved 2015 from: http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/arch/aztecchron.html

Nahua of the Huasteca--marriage and Family. (n.d.). Retrieved 2015 From: http://www.everyculture.com/Middle-America-Caribbean/Nahua-of-the-Huasteca-Marriage-and-Family.html

Nahua of the state of Mexico. (n.d.). Retrieved 2015 from: http://www.everyculture.com/Middle-America-Caribbean/Nahua-of-the-State-of-Mexico-Kinship-Marriage-and-Family.html

Robert McCaa. Child Marriage and Complex among the Ancient Aztec. 1997. Colonial History Workshop. University of Minnesota. Retrieved 2015 from: http://www.hist.umn.edu/~rmccaa/NAHUAEN3/nacolhst.htm

Rober McCaa. The Nahua Calli of Ancient Aztec: Household, Family, and Gender. 1999. Retrieved 2015 from: http://www.hist.umn.edu/~rmccaa/calli/calli.htm

The Language of the Nahuatl

The Nahuatl, in Mexico, are one of the biggest indigenous populations in that country. Its culture has survived throughout the decades in spite of the colonization of Mexico by Spain that began with the arrival of Hernan Cortez and the modernization that the country has been through in the past decades. The Nahuatl language was one of the largest speaking languages when the Spanish arrived because it was the language spoken by the Aztecs, which during those times was the largest and most powerful empire in this region which today is Mexico (Medina Lima). Missionaries who traveled to the new world had the purpose to convert many of the indigenous peoples to Catholicism, and because they could not communicate with the Aztecs or any other indigenous group by speaking Spanish they relied on the Nahuatl language to convey their religious message (Medina Lima). Instead of trying to eliminate the language they embraced it to accomplish their purpose which was the conversion of the indigenous to the Catholic religion. Another reason why they embraced to teaching their ways in the Nahua language was because they believed the "Indios", or Indians, were so inferior that they had the inability to learn the Spanish language because it was far to complicated for them (Medina Lima).

Language is one of the most important aspects in any culture because it provides a mean of communication and it is what makes us unique. The Nahuatl, apart from being the largest indigenous population in Mexico, also has the most widely spoken indigenous language as well. There are approximately about 1.4 million people living in Mexico that speak the Nahuatl language, that is the second largest spoken language in Mexico apart from Spanish (Mexican Languages). Among the states with the largest amount of the Nahua speaking population include, Puebla with a 28.9%, Veracruz with a 23.2%, Hidalgo 15.8%, Guerrero 9.8%, San Luis Potosi 9.6%, Mexico 3.3%, Distrito Federal 2.2%, Tlaxcala 1.5%, and Morelos with a 1.2% (El Universal, 2008).

The culture of the Nahua has had to endure a number of changes in their culture because of the Europeanization of the Spanish when they got there in the colonization periods, but their language has been conserved throughout the years. In Mexico there has been a strong emphasis on the conservation of indigenous cultures and that has been possible with a number of legislations that pushed for the protection of these indigenous cultures including the Nahuatl. For example, the constitution that was drafted in 1917, "...had a strong focus on the preserving the languages of Mexico and the country’s multicultural identity" (Mexican Languages). This protected the language of not only the Nahuatl but also of all the other indigenous languages in Mexico. Another most recent of the legislations called, The Law of Linguistic Rights which was passed in 2002, which was created to, "protect the native Mexican languages, and encourage bilingual and intercultural education"(Mexican Languages). This which is important not only because it protects the rights of a minority population but also emphasizes the importance of the education of these languages to people not in the indigenous population.

The teaching of the Nahuatl language has become very popular in Mexico especially at the college level, students are offered the opportunity to learn Nahuatl like any other foreign language. One of the most important and prestigious universities in Mexico is the National Autonomous University of Mexico or UNAM has in their curriculum of foreign languages, the Nahua language, which emphasizes the importance to learn one the largest languages in Mexico and includes the teaching of their literature, music, history, myths and their culture overall. The website of the UNAM also states that since 2009, which is when the university began to offer these studies the amount of people enrolling in the program has increased (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico). The further education of the Nahuatl language and its increased popularity ensures the survival of the language in Mexico.

Ciation: 

Medina Lima, Constantino. n.d. “La Persistencia Del Nahuatl En Mexico: Ejemplos De Cuauhtinchan y De La Region Poblana.” Diccionario Tematico CIESAS. Retrieved 2015 (http://www.ciesas.edu.mx/publicaciones/diccionario/diccionario ciesas/temas pdf/medina 74b.pdf).

“Mexican Lanugages .” Don Quijote Spanish Language Learning. Retrieved 2015 (http://www.donquijote.org/culture/mexico/languages/).

Anon. 2008. “Nahuatl, Lengua Indigena Con Mas Hablantes En Mexico: INEGI.” Retrieved 2015 (http://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/507940.html).

Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. n.d. “Cursos De Idiomas Nahuatl.” Centro de Ensenanza de Lenguas Extranjeras. Retrieved 2015 (http://cele.unam.mx/index.php?categoria=2&subcategoria=12#).

Information and Life of the Nahua

Nowadays, in a number of villages in Sierra Norte de Puebla and the State of Morelos, the women continue to dress in traditional clothing, consisting of embroidered blouses, woven belts, and black wrap skirts. Many of the indigenous groups still speak their own language - Nahuatl - and maintain a number of religious and social traditions. The Nahuas traditional system is family and village-based. Nahua Because of the challenges of poverty and the loss of land and territory, a number of Nahua groups have become heavy assimilated into mestizo culture, losing their native language which is still spoken by 23 percent of Mexico's indigenous population.In the early 1980s, exploration by Shell led to contact with the isolated Nahua tribe. Within a few years around 50% of the Nahua had died.

The modern Nahua are an agricultural people; their staple crops are corn (maize), beans, chili peppers, tomatoes, and squash. Also common are maguey (the Mexican century plant), sugarcane, rice, and coffee. The primary farming tools are the wooden plow, hoe, and digging stick. Groups of three or four men may cultivate corn, beans, and squash collectively, using slash-and-burn techniques to clear new land. Chickens and turkeys are also raised, and pigs, goats, and donkeys are often kept. Settlements consist of central villages divided into four sections (barrios) grouped around a central church; each barrio recruits compulsory labour to work village common lands in addition to private farming. Weaving of cotton and wool is the chief craft among the Nahua, whose skill is great in this respect. Both men and women weave, men usually on the European upright loom and women more often on the native belt loom. Fibres of the maguey plant are also woven to make carrying cloths and sacks. Pottery, rope making, palm-fibre weaving, and adobe brickmaking are other crafts practiced. Nahua houses are usually one-room structures of cane, wood, adobe, or stone, with thatch or tile roofs. Traditional clothing consists of a long wraparound skirt, blouse (huipil), sash (faja), short triangular cape (quechquemitl), and a shawl (rebozo) for women; short white cotton pants, cotton shirt, faja, woollen overshirt, sandals, and straw hat for men. Ready-made clothes are commonly worn by Nahua men, however, and women may wear dark skirts and white blouses made of commercial cloth. The social institution of godparenthood (compadrazgo) is widely practiced, and parents and godparents are felt to have strong ties. The Nahua are Roman Catholics, oriented toward the patron saints of their villages as well as the Virgin of Guadalupe and various “Cristos” involved in local legend. Witchcraft is commonly believed in, along with a variety of pagan or semipagan supernatural creatures. Pagan religious rituals, except as they relate to witchcraft, are no longer practiced.

Today, most Nahua children learn both their mother tongue and Spanish, although in some villages the Nahuatl language has disappeared altogether in recent generations.Today, the Nahuas are primarily farmers and tradesmen, and also do some fishing and hunting as a source of food. Largely because of population growth, environmental degradation and national policies, there are no longer enough resources to support these indigenous people. Therefore many Nahuas have left their homeland, seeking jobs in the cities and the U.S. However, daily life in the village persists with the ever present sense of the gods' effect in their lives.

Nahuas are primarily farmers and tradesmen, and also do some fishing and hunting as a source of food. Largely because of population growth, environmental degradation and national policies, there are no longer enough resources to support these indigenous people. Therefore many Nahuas have left their homeland, seeking jobs in the cities and the U.S. However, daily life in the village persists with the ever present sense of the gods' effect in their lives.

Citation :

Indigenous Peoples of the World: The Nahua. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015.

Nahua peoples. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015.

Geographic Location and Background History

GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION:
· The Nahua group is originally located in the central highlands of Mexico. They group in several outskirts of cities including; Morelos, Hidalgo, Puebla, Veracruz, and Guerrero

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

· The Nahua were a large portion of the population of Mexico pre-conquest, they were composed of the ancient Native American civilizations that included the Mayas, Olmec, Zapotec, Mextec and Toltec. They were separated into two large tribes, The Acolhuas of Texcoco and The Chichimecas. The date unknown, they soon joined to form what is know as one of the largest Mexican empires, the Aztec. During the conquest of Mexico in the 1500’s the Aztecs began to form mestizo groups but those who lived on the outskirts of the settlements were able to preserve their culture as the Nahua’s

CITATIONs

Wiley, David. 2006. "The Nahuas." Keeps The Fire Blog. Retrieved September 21, 2015 (http:/www.keepthefire.com/Nahua.html)