Tamemes: Carriers of the Aztec Empire and of New Spain
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Tamemes: Carriers of the Aztec Empire and of New Spain
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The Aztec Empire, at its peak before the conquest by the Spaniards in 1521, encompassed millions of people and a sizeable portion of central Mexico. With such a wide expanse of land and diverse composition of ethnic groups and societies, connectedness proved difficult, yet not impossible. Indeed, thanks to the maintenance of intra- and interregional transportation networks of tamemes - native carriers who transported goods - and the presence of a bustling market system, the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica were able to sustain a sense of community and integration in the face of the Spanish conquest and succeeding hegemony. One primary form of connectedness manifested in the transportation network. The Spaniards, eager to mine the riches of gold and silver in the New World, benefited from their ownership of horses from the Old World to aid in transporting their spoils and resources. However, despite the presence of these animals, there was nonetheless a reliance on tamemes, who had been at work long before the Spaniards arrived in 1521. These carriers retained their importance after the conquest and continued to travel within the empire to transport goods. Tamemes were of significance prior to the arrival of the Spaniards because the Americas lacked the large, domesticated animals capable of transporting goods in bulk that the Old World enjoyed – namely horses, donkeys, and cattle – until colonizers brought the animals over throughout the conquest. As colonization progressed, Mexican peoples would gradually come to adopt the use of these animals [Reference image from Decimas here]. Until then, however, tamemes were critical to transportation and the marketplace, transporting such goods as maize, obsidian, tropical feathers, cacao, pottery, and many more within Mesoamerica. Interestingly, many of these figures, bearing a petlacalli (a woven cane container), pile of sticks, or other objects are visible on the roads of the [Uppsala] map. Thanks to the long treks made by tamemes, the bustling exchange of goods via the marketplace was made possible. Women, who played a significant role in the sustenance and care of the family especially visited the marketplace, one of which could be found in anywhere from the smallest village to the capital city of Tenochtitlan. Commoners in both rural and urban areas, then, utilized their local markets and thus contributed to a network of friendship, gossip, and news dissemination made feasible by native carriers in the first place.
||| Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel. Handbook to Life in the Aztec World. New York: Facts on File, 2006. | Altman, Ida. "Spanish Society in Mexico City After the Conquest." The Hispanic American Historical Review 71, no. 3 (1991): 413-445. | Bray, Warwick and Eva Wilson. Everyday Life of the Aztecs. New York: Dorset Press, 1968. | Powers, Karen Vieira. Women in the Crucible of Conquest: The Gendered Genesis of Spanish American Society, 1500-1600. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005. | Rosales y Yepes, Josef Antonio. Décimas Y Sentencias Morales: Manuscrito Iluminado. Mexico: 1790. Special Collections, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX. | Smith, Michael E. "Life in the Provinces of the Aztec Empire." Scientific American 277, no. 3 (1997): 76-83.
Décimas y sentencias morales : manuscrito iluminado