FMAT: Aztec Eagle and Jaguar Warrior Societies

[Clark Kent]

Aztec Eagle and Jaguar Warrior Societies
By geezer - Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:52:22 GMT
Originally Posted at: FMATalk
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I was just chewing the fat with some other escrimadores, including some Mexican American guys in our group. The subject came up of the parallels between the cultures of the Philippines and Mexico during the early part of the Spanish conquest around 1520 ...Lapu Lapu and the battle of Mactan, Cuauhtemoc and the fight for Tenochtitlan... and someone brought up just how fierce those "indio" warriors were --in both cultures. The elite Aztec Eagle and Jaguar societies were like the Spartans. Those guys were born and bread to die in battle. And they fought with flattened ironwood sticks, like big garrotes, but edged with obsidian that was sharper than steel. They must have developed some incredible fighting arts. Did it really all die out, have any techniques survived? Has anyone here looked into the ancient martial traditions of Meso America?


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[Steel Tiger]

A significant amount of information about some aspects of the fighting techniques of the Eagles and Jaguars has survived. Unfortunately they are the techniques used in mass combat and they are rather dull. They gives some insights and, when combined with some other evidence, paint an interesting picture.

In battle the macuahuitl (the wooden sword thing) was used in a very deliberate manner. The off-side leg was forward and the weapon chambered above the shoulder. The strike was made with a step forward. It would have been a powerful stroke, but it must be remembered that capturing an enemy was as important, perhaps more, as killing him.

Let's look at some other evidence. Mexican armour was made of thick cotton, up to an inch of thickness. It was clearly considered sufficient to give some protection from blows, but it was only worn on the torso. Those magnificent warsuits you see so often were decoration and worn over the armour.

The obsidian edges of the macuahuitl were indeed very sharp (I have given myself a nasty cut with a 500 year old obsidian blade fragment) but they were brittle. To avoid constantly breaking the edge blades precision in striking would have been a necessity.

There is some evidence that left-handed fighters were prized amongst the Azteca. This might be because their patron deity, Huitzilopochtli, was left-handed or because left handed attacks were difficult to deal with. I like to think it is something of both these reasons. But this suggests that there was some recognition of individual prowess in the Aztec army.

Combine the left-hand thing with the merit system, which favoured performance of individual actions, and you begin to see a system that must have developed complex and regimented combat systems.

The Azteca had two schools for training warriors, the Telpochcalli and the Calmecac. The first was for training ordinary citizens in the war arts so they could serve in the army. The second school was ostensibly for training priests, but as priests had to participate in combat as well they ended up with the best warriors as teachers. As a result the nobility sent their children to the Calmecac for war training. This further suggests something interesting and valuable was being taught.

Finally the Eagles and Jaguars were often called upon to ritual combat sacrifices. One of these has been documented. A captured general from Tlaxcala was to be sacrificed in this fashion, but armed with a ceremonial shield and a stick with cotton buds, representing a macuahuitl, defeated the initial warriors sent against him. Eagle warriors were then summoned and they were defeated, left-handed warriors were sent in and defeated. Finally, they sent in a Cuachic (the best of the best of the best) and the general was defeated. This suggests exceptional individual combat skill.

Martial schools, four great military societies (Eagles, Jaguars, Otomi, and Cuachic), and empire designed to keep some enemies close at hand for regular warfare, this was a society built by warriors for warriors. Unfortunately, the Spanish considered them children of the Devil and burned almost everything they wrote, in the process destroying much about the martial traditions and history of the empire.


If you are interested in the Aztec military and martial traditions try the works of Ross Hassig, Warfare and Mesoamerican Society and Aztec Warfare. They give a pretty good insight into what we know of the martial trditions of the Aztecs.

 

[geezer]

Thanks so much for this excellent reply. Interestingly, I heard an account of the warrior hero from Tlaxcala mentioned in your post some twenty-five years ago, and that story was what started this whole discussion.

 

[Steel Tiger]

Thanks so much for this excellent reply. Interestingly, I heard an account of the warrior hero from Tlaxcala mentioned in your post some twenty-five years ago, and that story was what started this whole discussion.

The sad thing is that the Tlaxcala story was probably not unique, but with the self-righteous priests burning possibly 75% of the Aztec written material we will never really know.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Steel Tiger that was a very interesting and informative post!

 

[Steel Tiger]

Steel Tiger that was a very interesting and informative post!

Thanks for that. Mesoamerica has offered me an opportunity to combine two things I really enjoy - archaeology (history) and martial arts. It really is a fascinating part of the world.