Chinampa (chinamitl) (refers to an enclosure) - Farming the swamps around Teno - Long and narrow pans surrounded by stakes

and piled high with mud around the lake - Between each clusters you would have canals (has often been compared to Venice) - Each plot is anchored with water friendly trees (like willows) - Constant renewal of soil by scrapping for swamp mud - A fertilizer was human excrement - Produced 3 or 4 crops annually - Cahpin o What each chinampa starts in a little seed bed - Why did it happen (that they became masters)? o Changes in the lake itself lake always had sweet water drinking water and salty water o Dike was created to separate sweet water and salt water creating a great increase in water available to be planted - Teno was surrounded by gardens (Chinampa plots) - Most Famous area is Xochimilco (Xochtli+mili+co = flower+field+at the) Who had these Chinampa Zones??? Household Enterprise vs State Control - Rainfall ag and terraces done on household level however these irrigation system requires central planning and help o Probably could have been done on a local level that local official could control - Initial construction required an extraordinary amount of central planning - Water level was also strictly controlled by central authority b/c(? missed what he said) Aztec Diet - Low fat diet (no dairy products) - Live stock (domesticated animals) :dog, turkey, and ducks o Why not more?? no need really. No draft animals available so - Rich resources around the lake o Reeds, ducks, other plants that could be harvested, numerous fish! o Learned how to each various types of insects, and insect larva, and larva of a big salamander the axolotl (in Spanish: ajolote) high in protein o Also ate the spirulina algae and made it into a type of cake that when you prepare it it looks like bread but tastes like cheese - Veggies and fruits supplemented by wild game, fish, domesticated animals, and lake resources - Wheres their protein coming from??? - Maize was their carbohydrate and there are so many ways to eat it!

o Tortillas, Tamales, Atole, Pozole (soup with kernels), Elote (on the cob), huitlachoche (corn fungus), nistamalization o How to eat Maize its not complete by itself lacking in amino acids and stuff Process of nistamalization: soak kernels in solution (like lime and water ashes) and freezes one of the missing amino acids