author
Alfred M. (Alfred Marston) Tozzer
1877–1954
A pioneering Harvard anthropologist, he helped shape early Maya studies through fieldwork, linguistics, and archaeology in Mexico and Central America. His work ranged from recording living communities to producing major studies of Chichén Itzá and Maya 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 and went on to spend most of his career there. He became an important figure in American anthropology and is widely associated with the growth of Mesoamerican and especially Maya studies.
His research combined ethnology, linguistics, and archaeology. Early in his career he carried out fieldwork among Maya communities in Mexico and Central America, and later produced influential scholarship on Maya culture, language, and the site of Chichén Itzá. Reference works and Harvard sources describe him as a pioneering scholar whose publications helped establish lasting foundations for the field.
Tozzer died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1954. His long connection with Harvard and the Peabody Museum remained a large part of his legacy, and his name continued to be associated with anthropological scholarship after his death.