{{Short description|School for the sons of Aztec nobility}} [[File:Calmecac glyph (Codex Mendoza 61r).jpg|thumb|Nahuatl glyph of a calmecac (''codex Mendoza'', recto of the folio 61).]]
The '''calmecac''' ({{IPA|nah|kaɬˈmekak||}}, from ''calmecatl'' meaning "line/grouping of houses/buildings" and by extension a scholarly campus) was a school for the sons of Aztec nobility (''pīpiltin'' {{IPA|nah|piːˈpiɬtin||}}) in the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerican history, where they would receive rigorous training in history, calendars, astronomy, religion, economy, law, ethics and warfare. The two main primary sources for information on the ''calmecac'' and ''telpochcalli'' are in Bernardino de Sahagún's Florentine Codex of the ''General History of the Things of New Spain'' (Books III, VI, and VIII) and part 3 of the Codex Mendoza.<ref>Edward Calneck, "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, p. 170.</ref>
== Telpcatli ''Calmecac'' == The ''calmecac'' of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, was located in the ceremonial centre of the city and was dedicated to Quetzalcoatl.<ref name="dupref">Hassig (1988), p. 34.</ref> It was situated conveniently close to the Templo Mayor, where ''calmecac'' graduates destined for priesthood would perform the rituals they had been trained in. The main shrine was judged to be 150 feet tall and was a larger structure than the Templo Mayor.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Atwood |first=Roger |date=2014 |title=Under Mexico City |journal=Archaeology |volume=67 |issue=4 |pages=26–33 }}</ref> The ''calmecac's'' courtyard roof featured prominently visible motifs in the shape of spirals, each of which reached eight feet in height.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Maffie |first=James |title=Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World in Motion |publisher=University Press of Colorado |year=2013 |location=Boulder |pages=162, 277, 377–378}}</ref> Aztec rulers built their own individual versions of the ''calmecac'' upon the preceding one. These seven buildings were discovered in the mid 2000s when a team of archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) began working on the site as part of History's Urban Archaeology Program (PAU) after the 1985 earthquake damaged the area.<ref name=":1"/>
=== Attendance === The ''calmecac'' was typically reserved for sons of Aztec noblemen, while the young commoner men, ''macehualtin,'' received military training in the ''Tēlpochcalli'' ({{IPA|nah|teːɬpot͡ʃˈkalːi||}} "house of youth").<ref>Calnek, "Calmecac and Telpochcalli", p. 169.</ref> The placement of noble youth in the ''telpochcalli'' might have been by lesser wives' or concubines' sons or younger sons, perhaps of commoner status so that the boys did not have to compete with noble youths in the ''calmecac''.<ref>Calnek, "Calmecac and Telpochcalli", p. 176.</ref> However, although the ''calmecac'' has been characterized as for elites only, Sahagun's account says that at times, ''macehualtin'' were assigned to the ''calmecac'' as well and trained for the priesthood.<ref>Edward Calneck, "The Calmecac and Telpochcalli" p. 169.</ref><ref name="dupref"/> Codex Mendoza's account of the ''calmecac'' emphasizes the possibilities of upward mobility for ''macehualtin'' educated in the ''telpochcalli''. Promising sons of nobles would be trained especially by the military orders of the Jaguar warriors (''ōcēlōmeh'' {{IPA|nah|oːseːˈloːmeʔ||}}) or Eagle warriors (''cuāuhtin'' {{IPA|nah|ˈkʷaːʍtin||}}) in their quarters, the ''cuāuhcalli'' ({{IPA|nah|kʷaːʍˈkalːi||}}).<ref>Hassig (1988), p. 36.</ref> Codex Mendoza's account largely ignores class distinctions between the ''calmecac'' and the ''telpochcalli''.<ref>Calnek, "Calmecac and Telpochcalli", p. 177.</ref> Emperor Moctezuma II was educated at and graduated from Tenochtitlan's ''calmecac''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Atwood |first=Roger |date=2014 |title=Under Mexico City |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43825230 |access-date=2022-10-01 |journal=Archaeology|volume=67 |issue=4 |pages=26–33 |jstor=43825230 }}</ref><gallery> File:Centro cultural España.jpg|In the 2000s the remains of Tenochtitlan's calmecac were located beneath the Spanish Cultural Center in downtown Mexico City. File:Museo de Sitio del Centro Cultural de España en México 13.JPG|Basement museum with the partially excavated ruins of Tenochtitlan's calmecac. </gallery>
== Student life, education, and training == Students as young as five to seven years of age would enter the ''calmecac,'' which would be their home for the duration of their training. The parents brought their children to the ''calmecac'' to partake in a dedication ceremony in the presence of the ''calmecac'' and ''telpochcalli'' authorities.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Joyce |first=Rosemary A. |date=2000 |title=Girling the Girl and Boying the Boy: The Production of Adulthood in Ancient Mesoamerica |journal=World Archaeology |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=473–483 |doi=10.1080/00438240009696933 |pmid=16475297 |s2cid=10658152 }}</ref> In a series of rituals that lasted hours, the new students were bathed, named, and marked upon the hip and chest to "designate their adult role."<ref name=":2"/> After the children's ears had been pierced and the ceremony was concluded, the Aztec temple held a celebratory feast.<ref name=":2"/>
Instruction at the ''calmecac'' did not begin gradually. Four-year-olds were immediately introduced to adult ceremonies, with discipline and punishment beginning at the age of seven.<ref name=":2"/> The students received instruction in songs, rituals, reading and writing, the calendar (''tōnalpōhualli'' {{IPA|nah|toːnaɬpoːˈwalːi||}}) and all the basic training which was also taught in the ''telpochcalli''. The priests oversaw all aspects of the students' education, preparing the children for a variety of careers outside of priesthood. Elite students, in particular, could progress to multiple jobs within the Aztec government, including academic, economic, judicial, diplomatic, and administrative roles.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Classen Cheryl |first=Laura Ammon |title=Religion in sixteenth-century Mexico: a guide to Aztec and Catholic beliefs and practices |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2022 |pages=219, 234, 241, 268, 297, 340}}</ref> Students commenced formal military training around age fifteen.<ref>Hassig (1988), p. 35.</ref> While the ''calmecac'' served primarily as a center for religious and military instruction in order to swell both ranks with diligent and skilled priests and soldiers, students also "learned various manual skills."<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Hicks |first=Frederic |date=2012 |title=Governing small communities in Aztec Mexico |journal=Ancient Mesoamerica |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=47–56 |doi=10.1017/S095653611200003X |s2cid=163011554 }}</ref>
== Etymology, symbolism, and social impact == The name ''calmecac'' is a combination of the words ''calli'', meaning "house," and the word ''mecatl'', meaning "cords, ropes, whips."<ref name=":0"/> Taken together, ''calmecac'' can be read as "the house of whips or penitence."<ref name=":0" /> It has also been directly translated as the Nahuatl word for school.<ref name=":1"/> The cords were sometimes made of malinall grass and used in acts of penance. Piercing parts of the body with sharp grass or other implements was done to connect with the cosmos and preserve eternal unity. This unity was visibly symbolised by spirals, or cutaway shell motifs.<ref name=":0"/> The spirals featured on the Tenochtitlan ''calmecac'' were designed to look like snails and symbolised the unity intrinsic to the Aztec religion.<ref name=":1"/> After Spanish invaders destroyed the capital's ''calmecac'', their artwork misrepresented the spirals as much smaller. When archaeologist Raúl Barrera uncovered seven of the rooftop spirals during the PAU excavation, the ornaments became "one of the most distinctive motifs of ancient Mexico."<ref name=":1"/>
The ''calmecac'' tied together the military, political and sacred hierarchies of the community.<ref>Carrasco, Pedro. (2001). "Calmecac". In Davíd Carrasco (ed). ''[https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195108156.001.0001/acref-9780195108156 The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, vol 1].'' New York : Oxford University Press.</ref> Schools that qualified as ''calmecacs'' furthered the Aztec religion and forms of government and ensured continued stability by training the society's youth in academic, political, and military skills. In addition to the ''calmecac'' in Tenochtitlan, rural villages throughout the Aztec empire would have had ''calmecacs'' of their own, ensuring that all civilians had access to comprehensive instruction in religious practice.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baca |first=Damián |date=2009 |title=Rethinking Composition, Five Hundred Years Later |journal=JAC |volume=29 |issue=1/2 |pages=229–242 |doi=10.2199/jjsca.29.229|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":3"/>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== {{refbegin|indent=yes}}<!--BEGIN biblio format. --> * {{Cite book |author=Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel |year=2007 |title=Handbook to Life in the Aztec World |location=Oxford and New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-533083-0 |oclc=81150666}} * {{Cite book |author=Andrews, J. Richard |author-link=J. Richard Andrews |year=2003 |title=Introduction to Classical Nahuatl |edition=revised |location=Norman |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=0-8061-3452-6 |oclc=50090230}} * 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. * Carrasco, Pedro. "Calmecac". In Davíd Carrasco (ed). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, vol 1. New York : Oxford University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|9780195108156}} * {{Cite book |author=Hassig, Ross |author-link=Ross Hassig|year=1988 |title=Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control |series=Civilization of the American Indian series, no. 188 |location=Norman |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=0-8061-2121-1 |oclc=17106411}} * {{Cite book |author=León-Portilla, Miguel |author-link=Miguel León-Portilla |year=1980 |title=Native Mesoamerican Spirituality: Ancient myths, discourses, stories, doctrines, hymns, poems from the Aztec, Yucatec, Quiché-Maya and other sacred traditions |publisher=Paulist Press |location=New York |isbn=0-8091-0293-5 |oclc=6450751 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/nativemesoameric0000unse }} * {{Cite book |author=Sahagún, Bernardino de |author-link=Bernardino de Sahagún |year=1997 |orig-date=c. 1558–1561 |title=Primeros Memoriales |others=Thelma D. Sullivan (English trans. and paleography of Nahuatl text), with H.B. Nicholson, Arthur J.O. Anderson, Charles E. Dibble, Eloise Quiñones Keber, and Wayne Ruwet (completion, revisions, and ed.) |series=Civilization of the American Indians series vol. 200, part 2 |location=Norman |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-2909-9 |oclc=35848992}} * {{Cite book |author=Van Tuerenhout, Dirk R. |year=2005 |title=The Aztecs: New Perspectives |series=ABC-CLIO's understanding ancient civilizations series |location=Santa Barbara, CA |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=1-57607-921-X |oclc=57641467}}
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Category:Aztec society Category:Aztec warfare Category:History of schools Category:Education in Mexico