Document P1-1: Meal Of Maize and Beans, the Sixth Month of the Aztec Solar Calendar (c. 1585)

The Aztec God Tlaloc with Maize

Meal of Maize and Beans, the Sixth Month of the Aztec Solar Calendar (c. 1585)

Much of what we know about the native peoples of the Americas comes filtered through European eyes. Such is the case with this source, a sixteenth-century image from a Jesuit codex (or book) that describes the history and culture of the Aztecs. In this image, Tlaloc, an Aztec god, is shown holding a stalk of corn (or maize), an important indigenous American crop previously unknown to Europeans. This commodity became part of the cross-Atlantic “Columbian Exchange” of foods, goods, and ideas.

image
Source: Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.

READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. Question

    iwFP3QIyC29B1PE7yP7yHyscuQKfkJHTmh+5N2QpcJfkblyzzPXMgqzD94WJmn46l306cfqIJxVqy1vsaG6i6YbHxfY/h+6iyAuI3KV6SIsc0BT3OEQ16q4ypadqTrZdPqJ3hSEYqbQZGOJrTaVMYF24l5HV24+gd/E/yf6BOjscOPPxuPaBJ/ChWOHX4vw8g9D76SRB7wtEVqjcbYgcpCnv4ivSVZIHwKk86v+MGy7ttxnVC1lBosVcY1FHM4hW

  2. Question

    JWkE2cHWgPeBOo7Z4KRO84d23BLtlfgWxFOSlFqaW+7P0w+CHSTI4WMjF6B1Knao+2iqIjGAAfF/juo4dpcTohgfOTAeRc7bunSsuZ93s8waWSZzUaAIxb/XVm3mAqyFsRFEsx0b4rhZQ954z95iVFaOxmTTP5vhvW3HR2hXWDhSLamC

  3. Question

    DSHfJQEySBpX9StDfYLya2z4UyTq0h9axFC8Ry37L7Uhe2gIn/wch3WXRlwZlP0coUTF5fB+8wLtPNAjAGOEluuO/PNTRxyUal1QK3QViaLaKcsTMhL+8EGLTluKAgESTQ/5Mh42B5be4M7VSBR49NVgxnymYMg7EYjGNCWqmFF4XY6FRwOh02CQaKzwf5VYaD2GV3FJDpg=