Family Life | mesoamerica

Mayan

Mayan families were an average of five to seven members. They would usually wake up before dawn and have hot chocolate and tortillas or tamales for breakfast.
All of the family members lived together. The men were to do farming and hunting and the women were to cook and weave. The children would help out with the chores with their mothers and would only go to school if they came from a noble family.
Couples would usually get married in their twenties, they were arranged marriages until the 1950s.
The houses were a one room hut that was built of interwoven poles covered with dried mud.
Meals they had were: corn, squash and beans, with the occasional turkey or rabbit
Most Mayan people were farmers
Main part of their diet was corn
When farming the Mayans used a technique called milpa, also known as slash and burn farming. This would clear the land by cutting down and burning all of the foliage in the spring before the summer rains hit.
Another technique they used was the “terracing” which is where they built stone walls to level out the land in mountainous areas.

Incan

The name for the family unit is called, “ayllu”
they lived in extended families which mean it is a group of clans living together
Leader of the clan was called the “Mallcu”
Mallcu was watched over by a group of council elders
Marriage was a must in Inca society because a man was not an adult until he was married
Most men are not married until they are around 20 years old
Women were able to marry when they could reproduce
Life for the Inca started around 6:00 am
two meals daily, there was no concept of money. You took what you needed, nothing more, nothing less. The women would make the meals
The primary (first one) was called Aka.
When a woman gave birth, the child would be washed in the nearest stream. On the fourth day of the baby’s birth she/he would be placed in the cradle for the first time.
Not until two years would the child be named. Until then they would be referred to “wawa”

Aztec

The men were considered the head of the home. Though the women had a great deal of power as well.
Women were to often run a business out of their homes. They had a lot of influence in the family and the raising of children.
both man and woman were allowed to be involved in working the land. Though a man was most likely to become a warrior.
Work and education were a big part of the Aztecs. The father would teach the sons and the mother the daughters.
Marriage marked the entrance into the Aztec adult life and being independent in society.
A husband could have more than one wife but it would be his first wife that would go through all of the ceremony.
Divorce was allowed on some occasions. if it was brought to from the man or the woman, the property was divided equally and both sides were free.
.The children of the first wife would be allowed to inherit things from the family and if the family was a ruler then that child was allowed to become a successor.
When a woman was pregnant they baby was a “captive” in the womb, who was struggling to be victorious