Anastasia Abbruscato Cultural Sketches The Aztec

1/28/2010

In many cultures it is fairly common for the parents to pick out their son/daughters husband/wife. It is also very common that most couples do not marry outside their ethnicity or social class. The Aztecs do this too. However they have some very unusual codes for marriages to go with the more common beliefs. One weird belief is cross cousin marriage. That is like someone marrying their mothers brothers son or more simply knows as their cousin. I heard in other cultures in royalty they would keep marriages within the family to keep the blood line pure. I dont this is the case here. One could suppose that marrying your cousin could be very convenient. They already know their cousin, they are already in the family, and if they dont know their cousin or cousins family, they certainly will after they are married to him/her. Another thing about Aztec marriage I find most peculiar is that the feast parents throw for the teachers of the son/daughter who is to be married. The book says they discharge the student from their care. I guess that means no more school for the son/ daughter after they are to be married off. I know it is probably a better investment to have all the schooling done with before someone

gets married, but this seems a bit ridiculous. Does this mean amount of education someone gets is as long as their parents keep them single? Thats pretty crazy. I try to stay single for quite a while if I had lived this way.