Aztec and Inca Societies

1. The Moctezuma’s laws present the Aztecs as having social and moral values touching on discrimination and segregation among the classes of the people. For example, it is only the king and prime minister allowed wearing sandals within the palace. The king is the only one to wear mantles of cotton as well as labrets and ear plugs. It is offensive for commoners to wear ear plugs. Such laws denote tactics of instilling fear to the ordinary persons so that there is a huge gap between the ordinary individuals and the rulers both physically and emotionally.
2. The Aztec could get the description of a community which is living in ignorance. There is tolerance of exploitation and awkward religions of sacrificing fellow human beings. There is the lack of the right guidance in activities such as trade where there is a naïve association of such activities with religion.
The distinct social groups in the document include the leaders, the middle class who would be appointed to punish wrongdoers, and the have-nots who would include the widows and the poverty stricken. The distinction of the class is the ability to give out instructions and the work each could perform. The opportunity for social mobility was hard work and loyalty to the rulers, especially in killing, taking prisoners and destroying armies. People might fall into slavery through evils such as stealing of items like pieces of clothes or ears of corn. Such a person would get sold as a slave for the equivalent amount of the goods he stole.

A gambler who lost all is possessions on the dice, or any other game would become a slave.
3. Human sacrifice related to the war in that; those who got sacrificed were the prisoners of war. The market activities took place near the temples hence; there was a connection to the human sacrifice as it happened in the temple. The religious beliefs came into relation to the human sacrifice in that; the priests were used to make the sacrifice to the gods in the temple. There were strong beliefs that gods were happy with the sacrifice and also the manner of the presentation.
4. Duran got impressed by the operation of markets within the Aztec empire due to the mode of operation. The markets were pleasurable, inviting and appealing. The impression also came from the realization that there was the prohibition of selling of goods outside the marketplace for fear of punishment from the god of the market.
5. The similarities between the Aztec and the Incas include the centralized leadership whereby there is the organization of the political alignment. There is also engagement in economic activities such as trade and farming. The differences are immense in the execution of the leadership. The Aztecs have a dictatorship kind of leadership whereby; the ruler gives orders which ought to get obedience without questioning. On the Incas side, there is the participation of the ordinary people in the legislation of laws and there is no the high level of autocracy.
The Aztec society engages in slave trade when a person does wrong. The Incas participate in helping the poor and needy in the society. For instance, the food surpluses get handing over to the poor and the widows. There is no engagement in human sacrifices in the Incas society as opposed to the Aztec Community which takes pleasure in offering quite a large number of people, particularly the prisoners of war, as a sacrifice to gods in the temple.