author
Alfred M. (Alfred Marston) Tozzer
1877–1954
A pioneering American anthropologist and archaeologist, he helped open up modern study of the Maya through fieldwork, language research, and teaching at Harvard. His work connected careful firsthand observation with a lifelong effort to understand Mesoamerican history and culture.
1 Audiobook
Animal Figures in the Maya Codices
by Alfred M. (Alfred Marston) Tozzer, Glover M. (Glover Morrill) Allen
About the author
Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1877, Alfred Marston Tozzer studied at Harvard University, earning his A.B. in 1900, A.M. in 1901, and Ph.D. in 1904. Early in his career he did fieldwork on Native American languages in California and among the Navajo, before turning strongly toward Mesoamerica and especially the Maya.
Tozzer became one of the leading American scholars of Maya culture, archaeology, and linguistics. He carried out research in Mexico and Central America, including important work among the Lacandon Maya, and later taught at Harvard for decades, where he became the university's first professor of anthropology. His scholarship and teaching influenced generations of researchers.
He is also remembered for bringing together large bodies of evidence about Maya life, history, and language in works that remained standard references for years. Tozzer died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1954, but his name still carries weight in anthropology and Maya studies.