1. The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex, created about twenty years after the
Spanish conquest of Mexico with the intent that it be seen by Charles V, the
Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. It contains a history of the Aztec
rulers and their conquests, a list of the tribute paid by the conquered, and a
description of daily Aztec life, in traditional Aztec pictograms with Spanish
explanations and commentary.
The codex is named after Antonio de Mendoza, then the viceroy of New Spain,
who may have commissioned it. It is also known as the Codex Mendocino and
La coleccion Mendoza, and has been held at the Bodleian Library at Oxford
University since 1659.
Disciplining Children
Aztec children were valued creations. Language used in rituals compared infants to
precious stones and feathers, flakes of stone, ornaments, or sprouts of plants. The
duty of parents and society, however was not to indulge but to socialize the child, so
that they would not become "fruitless trees," as an Aztec proverb stated. According to

2. sources written shortly after the Spanish conquest, such as the Codex Mendoza,
society placed a high value on conformity, obedience, and decorum.
The section of the Codex Mendoza that depicts daily life shows gender-specific
punishments used in raising children. The image seems to show a sequence of
punishments, first threatening the boy and the girl with three maguey thorns, the
spike of the agave plant. In the second image, the woman is administering punishment
to the girl by piercing her arm with the maguey thorn; the boy is pierced more severely
in the neck, flank, and hip, and he is bound at the wrists and ankles. In the third
image, the punishment of striking the child with a stick or rod is being carried out. In
each case the image shows the children weeping profusely as the threat or the
punishment is administered.
Gender Roles among the Nahua (Aztecs)

3. From the time of birth, children in Aztec, or Nahua, society were socialized into gender
roles. In the birth ritual introducing the infant to society, symbolic objects clearly
differentiated. Boys were to be warriors and craftsmen, and girls were to tend to
domestic chores. Articles of clothing—loincloth and cape for the boy, shift and skirt for
the girl—were given to the child. The umbilical cord of the boy was buried in a field to
associate him with the battlefield; the girl’s cord was buried in a corner of the house,
each space signifying the sites of social productivity.
The image from the Codex Mendoza depicts ways in which childhood socialization
patterns differed for boys and girls, systematically divided into panels on the left and
right sides of the page, each vignette separated from the other by a line. In each scene,
male and female adults preside over raising boys and girls, respectively. From infant to
adult, children were classed into age-cohorts, each with its expectations. A ritual
called izcalli took place every four years and involved a purification ceremony for
children of that cohort in a fire with the acrid smoke from chili peppers. The image
shows a small boy being held over the fire, the girl in front of it. Children were also
held up by the head or neck to make them grow tall; their ears were pierced with
maguey thorns for later ornaments. Other scarification rituals took place at various
stages of maturity. After the age of four, children became responsible for gender-
specific chores, and began to wear adult-like garments. They were socialized into
patterns of speaking, showing respect, and sitting in gender-specific postures.
Boys learned endurance, sleeping bound on the cold, wet ground; girls perfected
sweeping rituals for purification of the house. The boy is taught to carry firewood,
while the girl learns to grind maize and make tortillas. The image on the bottom shows
an older boy learning to fish, and the girl weaving spun thread on a back-strap loom—
both tasks that would require a child to reach a certain size and strength. These
measures in early childhood may reflect brief life expectancies in which every member
of the family had to contribute to the prosperity of the society.
Annotations written by Susan Douglass
From: Children and Youth in History (http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/)