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Tēlpochcalli (,
Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...
: ''house of the young men''), were centers where Aztec youth were educated, from age 15, to serve their community and for war. These youth schools were located in each district or ''
calpulli In pre-Columbian Aztec society, calpulli (from Classical Nahuatl '' calpōlli'', , meaning "large houses", singular calpul) were units of commoner housing that had been split into kin-based or other land holding groups within Nahua city-states or ...
''.


Life in the telpochcalli

Life in the ''telpochcalli'' was tough. From early morning strenuous activities began. The day began with a cold bath, followed by a controlled and extremely frugal meal. They had to memorize the songs which they offered as praises of their gods and practiced in the use of weapons such as the sling, and the ''
macuahuitl A macuahuitl () is a weapon, a wooden sword with several embedded obsidian blades. The name is derived from the Nahuatl language and means "hand-wood". Its sides are embedded with prismatic blades traditionally made from obsidian, which is c ...
''. Students had other obligations, such as carrying the necessary materials to repair the temples (''teocalli''), and collectively working the fields for their livelihood. The Aztec world was characterized by the care the rulers put into the education system. Tenochtitlan schools were of two types, generally depending on the boys' social background: the sons of nobles attended the ''
calmecac The calmecac (, from ''calmecatl'' meaning "line/grouping of houses/buildings" and by extension a scholarly campus) was a school for the sons of Aztec nobility ('' pīpiltin'' ) in the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerican history, where they ...
'', an institution that was located within the ceremonial precinct, while the commoners known generically as ''
macehualtin The mācēhualtin ( IPA: , singular ''mācēhualli'' ) were the commoner social class in Aztec society. The Aztec social class of the ''mācēhualtin'' were rural farmers, forming the majority of the commoners in the Aztec Empire. The ''mācēhu ...
'', and a few noble boys, attended the school for youths at the ''telpochcalli'' which were located in each neighborhood (''calpulli'').


Informal training

Each family in
Tenochtitlan , also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear, but the date 13 March 1325 was chosen in 1925 to celebrate the 600th annivers ...
regarded their children as a gift from the gods; children would continue the lineage, collaborate in the activities of the family and learn to respect their elders and venerate The Gods. Someday the family would celebrate their marriage, thus forming a new pillar in the social organization of the calpulli. It was very important that within the family that children learn in the generation of the universe, carried out by the supreme gods, the male and female energies had been joined to enforce the creation of life. Women therefore educated their daughters, while men instructed their sons; that way through the process of informal education which had been imparted in the family, children learned the appropriate behaviors and different etiquettes for each sex. From the age of three or four years, infants were to perform simple tasks with great restraint and obedience; as the years passed the work became more complex and with heavier tasks; that is how sons learned the crafts of their fathers, while girls learned the duties of their mothers, like cleaning the house, preparing food, spinning clothing for the family, etc. Initially, children who rebelled were threatened with spanking, which became effective when they showed further disobedience; later, if young boys displayed negative attitudes, parents applied painful punctures with maguey thorns, or they would semi-asphyxyate them with the smoke from burning
chillies Chili peppers, also spelled chile or chilli ( ), are varieties of fruit#Berries, berry-fruit plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for their pungency. They are used as a spice to ...
(preparing them incidentally, for future practices of self-sacrifice). On the other hand, young ladies who showed negative attitudes, such as flirting and taste for gossip, were forced to sweep at night out of the house, which was seen as worse than a beating.


See also

*
Calmecac The calmecac (, from ''calmecatl'' meaning "line/grouping of houses/buildings" and by extension a scholarly campus) was a school for the sons of Aztec nobility ('' pīpiltin'' ) in the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerican history, where they ...
*
Aztec society Aztec society was a highly complex and stratified society that developed among the Aztecs of central Mexico in the centuries prior to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and which was built on the cultural foundations of the larger region ...
*
Aztec warfare Aztec warfare concerns the aspects associated with the military conventions, forces, weaponry and strategic expansions conducted by the Mesoamerican chronology, Late Postclassic Aztec civilizations of Mesoamerica, including particularly the milit ...


References


Literature

*Calnek, Edward. "The Calmecac and Telpochcalli in Pre-Conquest Tenochtitlan" in ''The Work of Bernardino de Sahagún: Pioneer Ethnographer of Sixteenth-Century Aztec Mexico'', J. Jorge Klor de Alva et al., eds. Albany: SUNY Albany Institute for Mesoamerican Studies 1988, pp. 169–177. * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Telpochcalli Aztec society History of education in North America Nahuatl words and phrases