Question for August 2020

Rulers were selected by their lineage (descendants). In the Codex García Granados (shown here) one can follow the genealogical or family ‘tree’ (in fact a prickly pear tree!) of the Mexica nobility from Tlatelolco and Tenochtitlan. So power was passed down via kinship ties.

Español: Los gobernantes eran designados por linaje. En el Códice García Granados puede verse el árbol genealógico de los mexicas de Tlatelolco y Tenochtitlan. Es decir el poder era usado por genealogías.

Other Panel members add:-
• ‘All Aztec kings and queens were from the same family - a large family that supplied the rulers from sons, grandsons, nephews’ (Davíd Carrasco)
• ‘The Mexica chose their rulers, which with rare exception were males from among the members of a particular lineage, considered to be descended from divine or semi-divine forefathers, founders of particular altepetl (city-states). Usually succession passed from father to son, from brother to brother and from uncle to nephew. The procedure of succession and election was long and took the entire year including inaguration campaigns to gain captives for sacrifices’ (Anastasia Kalyuta).

The ‘genealogical prickly pear tree’ - detail from the Códice García Granados