Mexica/anasazi

Mexica/Anasazi
Introduction
        From the perspective of indigenous women we often wonder where and why is racism originated. Including that we also ask ourselves, why are there several forms of discrimination and oppression against indigenous women? Is it because of their race and color, or is it because they have a native accent?  One can probably argue many reasons of why they arerelentlessly distinguished.  Regardless of many motives and explanations, Native women and men are considered a target of negative impact in nowadays society because of their clothing, names, economic class, color, ethnic and cultural background since they are racially inferior.
Mexica
        They say the name `Aztec 'comes from a mythical place, possibly located north of what today is Mexico calledAztlán, later called themselves Mexica (Meyer, 54). They established ideologies and adopted other intellectual influences from other ethnic group to build a powerful empire which took 200 years to engineer the empire (Engineering an Empire). The Aztec-Mexica was forced to occupy the swampy area of the lake. They were surrounded by powerful enemies who demanded tribute, and the only dry land wereoccupied by the islands of Lake Texcoco, surrounded by marshes. Netzahualcoyotl was the original leader of Texcoco, and cut out the King’s heart then sprinkled his blood over Lake Texcoco (Engineering an Empire). By increasing rapidly in population, the Aztecs established superior military and civilian organizations. In 1325 they founded the city of Tenochtitlan, a city that was surrounded by lakeswith a population of 500,000-1,000,000 people. Roads and bridges were made to connect the city with the mainland, aqueducts were built and canals were dug throughout the city to transport goods and people. Religious buildings, gigantic stepped pyramids were built with an astonishing perfection that engineers at the present time can’t figure out how they ended up building such gigantic pyramidswith few to no errors made. In addition, these creations were stood as tributes to the Aztec gods (Engineering an Empire).
        The city keeps growing as a result of its location because it was surrounded by lakes and it was enlarged over time with chinampas (artificial islands, built in the lake with reeds and mud). They were a respected society with great achievements and advances than othergroups that they even had a market located in the center of Tlatelolco which attracted about 60,000 people a day. The Aztec-Mexica established military alliances with other groups, making an empire that stretched from central Mexico to the current border with Guatemala. Aztec society was divided into three classes: slaves, commoners and nobles, while the children of the poor could be sold asslaves, used to be for a specified period. Others in the noble category included high priests, prominent military officers, and influential government leaders such as judges and tax collectors ( Meyer, 58). Slaves could buy their freedom and those who managed to escape from their masters and get to the royal palace without being caught immediately obtained freedom.
        In the Aztec religionnumerous gods ruled everyday life. Among them Huitzilopochtli (god of the Sun), Coyolxahuqui (the goddess of the moon, according to Aztec mythology, was killed by her brother the sun god), Tlaloc (rain god) and Quetzalcoatl (inventor of writing and calendar associated with the planet Venus and the resurrection). The human sacrifices were an integral part of their religion. The greatest sacrifice for theMexica was human life and they recognized blood as precious water (Lecture 3, Butler). For the warriors, the highest honor was to fall in battle or to volunteer for sacrifice in important ceremonies. Women dying in childbirth shared the honor of the warriors. The meaning of the offering of human blood was fed to the solar deities to ensure the continuity of their appearance every day and with...