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Fig. 17.
Acamapichtli ("Reed-fist"). (Tovar 93; courtesy of the John Carter
Brown Library, Brown University) |
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nificant military and political purposes, which cannot be seen by examining a single occurrence at a single time. Rather, flower wars must be examined in context and through time, because their practice changed substantially. |
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The early xochiyaoyotl wars with Chalco were not mortal. For the first eight years of this intermittent combat, neither side tried to kill the soldiers of the other.
7 Rather, the xochiyaoyotl was a demonstration of martial prowess designed to determine dominance, so trying to kill one's opponents was not a primary goal. Thus, flower wars were not fought with all peoples. Weak opponents were simply conquered by force or frightened into submission, and wars with opponents too strong to be conquered were avoided if possible, frequently by preemptory submission. Between these extremes were potential adversaries who might be conquered, but only with difficulty, and these formed the xochiyaoyotl opponents. |
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Not all war between evenly matched opponents was avoided, nor |
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