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Updated: May 17, 2025
The various classes of lands which we have mentioned were, as far as their tenure is concerned, included in the 'calpulalli' or lands of the kinships. Since the kin, or 'calpulli, was the unit of governmental organization, it also was the unit of landed tenure.
"Esta casa de cabildo llaman galpon...." It is another evidence in favor of our statements, that the kinship formed the original unit of the tribe, and at the same time a hint that, as in New Mexico, originally, an entire kin inhabited a single large house. See Molina's Vocab. The custom always remained, that the "calpulli" was sovereign within its limits.
If one of these lots remained unimproved for the term of two consecutive years, it fell back to the quarter for redistribution. The same occurred if the family enjoying its possession removed from the calpulli. But it does not appear that the cultivation had always to be performed by the holders of the tract themselves.
The term for these relationships, in the Nahuatl tongue, and used among all the tribes speaking it was 'calpulli. It is also used to designate a great hall or house and we may therefore infer that, originally at least, all the members of one kinship dwelt under one common roof. But nowhere is it stated that the tribal government or authority assigned locations to any of its fractions.
"In the course of time, as the population further increased, segmentation occurred within the four original 'quarters, new 'calpulli' being formed." This building was the 'teepan' called, even by Torquemada, 'house of the community'; it was, therefore, since the council of chiefs was the highest authority in the government, the 'council house' proper.
But the other males could apply to the chief of the calpulli for a 'tlalmilli' of their own; the females went with their husbands. Single blessedness, among the Mexicans, appears to have occurred only in case of religious vows, and in which case they fell back for subsistence upon the part allotted to worship, or in case of great infirmities, for which the calpulli provided. III, Lib. IV, cap.
If, however, any calpulli weakened, through loss of numbers from any cause whatever, it might farm out its area to another similar group, deriving subsistence from the rent. III, lib. The calpulli was a democratic organization.
The fact of improvement under the name of a certain tenant was only required to insure this tenant's rights. Therefore the chiefs and their families, although they could not, from the nature of their duties, till the land themselves, still could remain entitled to their share of 'tlalmilpa' as members of the calpulli. Such tracts were cultivated by others for their use.
There lived in them all the Inhabitants of the Island brutally together, one relationship occupying a single house." III, cap. That the smaller subdivisions were those who held the soil, and not the four original groups, must be inferred from the fact that the ground was attached to the calpulli. XIV, cap. I, "Conq. de Mejico," p. 434: "Among tributaries it is a custom, etc., etc." VII, cap.
It was one of his duties to keep a reckoning of the soil of the calpulli, or 'calpulalli, together with a record of its members, and of the areas assigned to each family, and to note also whatever changes occurred in their distribution. The 'calpulalli' was divided into lots or arable beds, 'tlalmilli'.
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