602 laws and legal codes: The Americas to any other good People who violated the Harmony Ethic were subjected to gossip and ostracism In more extreme cases conjurors were enlisted to make the offender seriously ill or even cause his death In all cases, though, a person not involved in the dispute was brought in to render judgment, thereby reducing face-to-face conflict Some North American groups had slightly more formal legal codes For example, the Poncas of the Midwest enforced seven fundamental laws: have a single god, not kill, not steal, be kind to others, not gossip about others, be generous to others, and revere the Sacred Pipe When a person violated one of the laws, the victim or the victim’s family usually handled enforcement The Chickasaw, part of the Mississippi culture that flourished from about 800 to 1600, dealt with legal transgressions within the clan, a common practice among many Native American tribes If a legal dispute involved members of different clans, elders from the two clans met to reach some kind of resolution Usually the emphasis was on restitution In the case of a serious crime such as murder, the victim’s family had the right to demand the life of the murderer; however, if the murderer was a person of much lower social status than that of the victim, the victim’s family had the right to claim a life of equal social status This appears to be simple revenge, but for Native Americans it was a way to restore cosmic order and put to rest the lingering spirit of the murdered person Similarly, among the Choctaw who lived in modern-day Mississippi, if a person found guilty of murder fled, the victim’s family had the right to demand a substitute for execution Among the Mesoamerican Aztec, law was much more formalized than it was in North America The Aztec word for “justice” was tlamelahuacachinaliztli, literally translated as “straight line to a point,” or “to straighten that which is twisted.” One Aztec ruler, Nezahualcoyotl of 15th-century Tetzcoco in the basin of Mexico, created a legal code with 80 statutes His successors expanded the code, which was designed in large part to maintain respect for authority, given that the Aztec state was militaristic Because the Aztec state had no legislative body, judicial authority resided in the hands of the emperor, who ruled by decree The Aztecs had a judicial system that resembled the one that would be developed in the United States centuries later Legal disputes were heard at a local court (barrio), and cases could proceed to appeals courts The lowest court was the local court, which dealt with relatively minor criminal and civil offenses Assisting the local court were neighborhood watchmen, who reported crimes to authorities but themselves had no enforcement powers Higher-level courts in the capitals of the Aztec provinces dealt with more serious criminal offenses An appeals court heard petitions from verdicts in lower courts in the case of commoners; the same court, however, was the “court of first instance” for members of the nobility Thus cases involving nobles went directly to the higher courts An important case could be referred to the emperor, who would hear the case in concert with several advisers Special courts existed for commercial matters, domestic affairs, the military, artisans, and other groups A special court in the emperor’s palace dealt with crimes committed by foreign dignitaries; one such crime was adultery, punishable by death throughout Aztec-controlled lands In an Aztec court parties had to take an oath to the god Huitzilopochtli They did so by touching first the ground and then their lips to symbolize that lying offended the gods and was punishable by death A unique feature of Aztec law was the law of the marketplace, which regulated the activities of the merchant guilds Merchants were, in effect, a state within a state, worshipping their own gods, marrying within their caste, and inheriting their positions The Aztec had a complex economic system consisting of a web of marketplaces To ensure that merchants behaved legally and ethically, the merchant guilds themselves regulated the marketplaces, judged legal cases having to with the marketplaces, and even issued death sentences Several regulations applied to market behavior For example, it was against the law for merchants to trade on their way to the marketplace; they could sell their goods only at designated places Inspectors mingled with the crowd to ensure that goods were being sold at the proper prices (based not on currency but on units of exchange determined by the value of cloth and cacao beans) These inspectors also ensured that scales and measuring devices were accurate A nearby court rendered immediate judgment on thieves or people selling stolen goods Any vendor guilty of violating the laws could be fined Those guilty of serious violations were beaten to death in the middle of the marketplace Judges were specially trained and held in high repute Most were members of the nobility, but some were members of the priestly class The latter were feared persons, for they often walked the streets after a night of ritual bloodletting, during which they painted their bodies black The state set aside special lands from which judges drew their income It was believed that this method of payment made judges less susceptible to corruption Any judge found guilty of corruption was put to death Judges ruled swiftly, and Aztec justice was harsh In South America, the greatest empire was that of the Inca, who originated in Peru in the 13th century and quickly rose to power Unfortunately, little is known about the Inca legal system, for no written records survive What information historians have is fragmentary and incomplete It is known no prisons existed Although the Inca overall were