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Aztec manners

Listening to the Aztecs at home would have surprised anyone expecting talk of blood. A lot of it was about manners. Nobles urged their daughters not to spend too much time dressing up.

The girls were told to talk and to walk calmly, looking at everyone happily, neither looking down nor gazing over people’s heads. ‘The good noblewoman is like a pillar’, said the Aztecs... ‘a bad mother encourages rule-breaking’.

‘Walk with dignity’, a nobleman would tell his son, ‘so that people do not criticize you: show your upbringing’. ‘Speak calmly and quietly, or people will call you a yokel. Don’t stare at people; and don’t gossip – just listen. Don’t be like those boys who go around jeering, being rude and clumsy, with their sandals flopping about the feet and the straps trailing along the ground’.

‘Do not eat and drink in a hurry ... nor take too much, nor break your tortillas up’; ‘Do not put a lot into your mouth ... do not swallow your food before chewing it’; ‘Do not gulp like a dog ... or let yourself choke’; ‘Don’t make a spectacle of yourself’; ‘eat and drink slowly, calmly, quietly’.

Aztec children were told to wash after eating; and to clear up any messy scraps left over. Again, it was all about not sounding gross or looking untidy. ‘Don’t let snot hang from your nose’ - advice repeated several times! Here’s a boy cleaning his teeth...