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Farmers formed the foundation of Aztec society. These everyday men, women, and children worked the land and lived their lives far from the grand temples and opulent residences of central Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital city.
Here on the outskirts of the city—balanced between the creative and destructive forces of nature—Aztec farm families produced the bounty of food that fed an empire.
Farming Families
Field, home, and hearth formed the nucleus of the farming family. Everyone pitched in to do their share of the work:
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Women wove cloth and made clothing, prepared food, raised turkeys, and tapped drought-resistant maguey, a member of the agave family.
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Men worked in the fields growing maize, beans, maguey, squash, and chilies. And when not tending their fields, men labored on state building projects and served as foot soldiers in the army.
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Children helped their parents, aunts, and uncles to carry firewood, spin thread, and offer tortillas and incense to the gods at the family altar.
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 But life for Aztec farmers was not all work and no play. Throughout the year, farm families celebrated various "feast days" and sacred holidays—as did people from all levels of Aztec society. On these special days, farm families played music, sang, danced, and shared their bounty with others.
Feeding the Empire
Supplying food for an empire of ten million people was no easy task. To maximize their yield, farmers first had to tame the landscape. The Aztecs had farming down to a science, transforming low-lying wetlands and dry mountain hillsides into productive farmland.
Continue through Farmers: Science of Aztec Farming. >>
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