190 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 



aristocracies existed is too strong to be overthrown. 

 There are even cases of queens who succeeded to the 

 chief power after the death of the royal husband. 



It is extremely doubtful whether the Aztecs ever had 

 what might be called clans. We have seen that there 

 were originally eight closely related tribes constituting 

 the Mexicani or Mexican nation. The Aztecs them- 

 selves are said to have been divided into seven groups 

 that were first reduced to four or five and then increased 

 to about twenty. It is not clear that these were 

 exogamic kinship groups. They were probably mili- 

 tary societies taking into their membership all the men 

 of the tribe. The name Calpolli, or " great house," 

 which was applied to them seems to have referred to a 

 sort of barracks or general meeting place in each ward 

 or division of the city where arms and trophies were kept 

 and the youth educated in the art of war. The title in 

 land was held by the calpolli and the right of use distrib- 

 uted among the heads of families who held possession 

 only so long as the land was worked. Each calpolli 

 seems to have had a certain autonomy in governmental 

 matters as well as a local religious organization. It is 

 curious to find in Salvador, far to the south, the word 

 calpolli applied to the platform mounds that surround 

 courts in the ancient ruins. This use of the word may 

 indicate that the " great houses" of the different soci- 

 eties were ordinarily the principal buildings of the city 

 and that they were used for civil, military, and religious 

 purposes. 



In forming judgment on the fundamentals of social 

 organization among the Aztecs we must remember that 

 no clear case of kinship clans has been reported south of 

 the area of the United States. Among the Cakchiquels, 

 a Mayan tribe of the Guatemalan highlands, two royal 

 houses are reported from which the ruling chief was al- 



