Social Complexity in the Aztec Countryside

AZTEC SOCIETY AT THE TIME of the Spanish conquest was highly complex. Inequahty was pronounced, with commoner and noble classes each dvided into a number of ranks. Occupational specialization was common, and goods were exchanged through a variety of channels, including markets, professional merchants, and tribute. The political system was based upon a multilevel hierarchy of power and authority, and religion was also highly differentiated, both conceptually and organizationally. The Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, one of the largest cities in the world in A.D. 1500, was entirely representative of this complexity in all of its forms. This co-occurrence of urbanism and social complexity, coupled with a traditional archaeological dichotomy between urban and rural, has led scholars to an implicit assumption that the inhabitants of nonurban or rural areas in ancient central Mexico were simple and homogeneous peasants. This chapter suggests that this characterization is not only oversimplified but also highly inaccurate. In fact, the Aztec countryside was a setting for small, rural communities with socially complex populations. Results of archaeological excavations of Late Postclassic (Aztec period) sites in a rural area in Morelos, Mexico, reveal the presence of both horizontal and vertical social complexity. These findings have important implications for our understanding of Aztec society and economy. in relation to physical, biological, and social systems (Simon 1962; Pattee 1973). Although most authors have avoided formal definitions of complexity or complex systems, the general sense of the concept is given by Herbert Simon: