ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the Aztec palace people and their roles. Aztec political organization operated through a settlement system of cities and smaller communities. The administrative-residential palace meaning has overwhelmed the term's broader usage in referring to Aztec noble establishments, including pleasure palaces and retreats. Lords were well aware that there were too many of their kind to be supported by the commoners, so Aztec nobles, men and women, mastered various artisanal and managerial skills in order to earn a living. Aztec courtly life also had much in common with that of the Maya, as is clear from comparison of the long accounts of Aztec royal life provided by Colonial-period chroniclers with the increasingly fine-grained Maya dynastic histories that are available. The Aztec palace and court served the seemingly contradictory functions of embodying the sanctified and restricted place and operatives of power while also representing an emblematic every-house and every-family, an idealized version of well-ordered home life at all levels.
