Pre-Columbian Mexica child discipline was verbally framed yet physically corrective.
Evidence
The scholarly interpretation is nuanced. The Codex Mendoza depicts a pre-Columbian Mexica society that did use physical correction of children — but within a framework that was primarily verbal-instructional (the Huehuetlatolli) and that reserved physical correction for specific stages and specific infractions. The pre-Columbian Mexica framework was neither non-corporal (like the Buddhist Vinaya of Episode 54) nor severely corporal (like the Domostroi of Episode 44). It occupied a bounded middle ground — physical correction existed but was framed within, and subordinate to, the verbal-instructional Huehuetlatolli framework. — , The Rod and the Child, 4849
Categorization
- XREF: Reinforces the book’s recurring thesis: pre-modern pedagogies cluster into bounded middle grounds, echoing Chrysostom (Ep 44) and al-Ghazālī (Ep 47). — connects to: Age-set cohorts, not biological parents, performed routine discipline in pre-colonial Bantu societies — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 4256