Is there a symbol that means family in Aztec culture?

Great question (and thanks for your kind words). The short answer is ‘Not that we know of...’ This is difficult to answer because for many things there just are not simple equivalents. Dr. John Schwaller, a professor at the University at Albany, State University of New York - and member of our Panel of Experts - has sent us the following insightful commentary:-
’Our understanding of the world is so culturally defined that most of the time it is hard to envision a world which does not share our same notions regarding basic concepts. Family falls into this category. For those of us from a western culture it is so deeply ingrained that it is difficult for us to even imagine alternative organizational structures. Certainly there is a whole school of anthropologists who focus on families and the terminology used to describe family members. Some cultures use the same term for a father’s brother that they do for the father himself. There are many different conventions. Thus, what we find is that the Mexica family system did not envision the family the way we do as Westerners. We tend to think of the nuclear family generally including parents and children. Some places in the West might also include grandparents. Quite simply there is no single word in Nahuatl for this concept. There are less than a handful of words that approximate the notion of family.

‘A family of deities’ - ceramic figures, Museum of Anthropology, Xalapa, Mexico