Altepetl

The altepetl (Template:IPA-nci), in pre-Columbian and Spanish conquest-era Aztec society, was the local, ethnically based political entity. It is usually translated into English as "city-state". The word is a combination of the Nahuatl words ā-tl (meaning "water") and tepē-tl (meaning "mountain").

Nahuatl scholars Lisa Sousa, Stafford Poole, and James Lockhart have stated:

A characteristic Nahua mode was to imagine the totality of the people of a region or of the world as a collection of altepetl units and to speak of them on those terms.

They prefer the Nahuatl term over any English-language approximation. They argue that in many of the documents pertaining to the Virgin of Guadalupe, the word āltepētl is often used as a translation of the Spanish Ciudad de México (Mexico City), a translation that has colored the interpretation of the texts and conceptions of Nahua society.

The concept is comparable to Maya cah and Mixtec ñuu.

Examples

• Azcapotzalco
• Chalco
• Culhuacán
• Ecatepec
• Huitzilopochco
• Ocotelolco
• Otompan
• Texcoco
• Tizatlan
• Tlatelolco
• Tlaxcala

References

García Martínez, Bernardo (2001). "Community Kingdoms: Central Mexico (Nahua)". In David Carrasco (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures: The Civilizations of Mexico and Central America. Vol. vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 238–239. ISBN 0-19-510815-9. OCLC 44019111. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)

Gibson, Charles (1983) [1964]. The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule: A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519–1810. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-0912-2. OCLC 9359010.

Lockhart, James (1996) [1992]. The Nahuas After the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2317-6. OCLC 24283718.

Noguez, Xavier (2001). "Altepetl". In David Carrasco (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures: The Civilizations of Mexico and Central America. Vol. vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 0-19-510815-9. OCLC 44019111. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)

Sousa, Lisa; Poole, Stafford; Lockhart, James, eds. (1998). The Story of Guadalupe: Luis Laso de la Vega's Huei tlamahuiçoltica of 1649. UCLA Latin American studies, vol. 84; Nahuatl studies series, no. 5. Stanford & Los Angeles, CA: Stanford University Press, UCLA Latin American Center Publications. ISBN 0-8047-3482-8. OCLC 39455844. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editor2link= ignored (|editor-link2= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |editor3link= ignored (|editor-link3= suggested) (help)

Smith, Michael (1997). The Aztecs. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-23015-7.